Essay Sample on Sophie, 1990: Hidden Warnings for Our Society

The science fiction genre is often used to encourage caution by providing insight about potential issues that society may encounter in the future. In the short story “Sophie, 1990” by Marian Engel, a dystopian setting is used to highlight the cruel living conditions of Sophie’s life, warning that there may be significant detrimental effects created from excessive control by the government. By examining the hardships that Sophie experiences, such as the destruction of the environment surrounding her, totalitarian governments creating paternalistic regulations, and a lack of social awareness, social comments about a possible future are revealed.  To begin, Engel implies that the government, if unmonitored, will cause irreversible environmental damage drastically affecting the lives of citizens. In the short story, the environmental damage caused by The Accident and The Freeze made the environment around Sophie’s apartment useless; she had to use a sunstrainer to absorb Vitamin C without the implicitly mentioned harmful effects of sun exposure, and she experiences firsthand the diseases infants are suffering from. Engel is using the tragedies in Sophie’s life created by the neglection of the environment to provide an insight into how essential the environment is in our lives: “[t]hey’d had to put [Bo] off during the freeze when so many babies died it would have been cruel to have him; but this wasn’t a good time for them either. … His poor little light going out before it was properly turned on” (Engel). The author is inciting fear into the reader by showcasing that environmental accidents have caused child mortality rates to rapidly increase. Utilizing the perspective of a saddened and regretful mother, making the reader feel empathetic, Engel highlights the calamity of the situation and demonstrates how dire the state of their society truly is, due to continued environmental neglect. Such a large issue will prevent their society from progressing; since infants are dying before they can fully develop, there will not be a new generation to succeed the generation that caused the climate issues. This symbolizes how in our world, we must stop the climate crisis as for the next generation, the damage will already be irreversible. By influencing the reader’s feelings, strong emphasis is placed on the environment’s substantial uses in our daily lives; motivating the reader to acknowledge this and actively oppose its current destruction. Furthermore, Engel suggests that a totalitarian government would exercise strict control by imposing paternalistic restrictions. Throughout “Sophie, 1990”, the government is shown to be actively micromanaging Sophie’s life; her entertainment, mobility, and meals are entirely arranged by the government. This has detrimental effects on Sophie’s health; she details her love for Bo, and follows it immediately by stating that her desire for a job is so strong that she would abandon him, revealing just how exhausted she is of her stagnant routine. Engel uses this intense desperation to make the reader truly understand what Sophie is willing to sacrifice to deviate from her tiresome and structured life: “I wish this [government] would let me go out to work again. Bo wouldn’t know the difference between me and a housekeeper, if I got a nice one” (Engel). For the reader, giving up a child for employment is an extremely concerning thought. However, Sophie lacks the freedom to indulge in the activities she truly enjoys, and the author uses her desperation to highlight her weak mental fortitude. As such an extreme desire for a job is unconventional, Sophie’s persistence to simply do anything rather than follow the government’s assignment to her demonstrates how miserable Sophie’s life is to the reader. Also, Engel immerses the reader in the story by using a common emotion, boredom, but elevates it to an extreme that is exclusive to Sophie’s life. Immersion, combined with empathy, allows the reader to entirely grasp the effects caused by the government’s tight control, and provides a valuable insight into the consequences of restriction. These paternalistic restrictions, assumed to be in the best interest of society when it truly is not, is directly caused by a lack of care for the citizens, and therefore, warns the reader to stay wary of when a country’s government becomes limiting. Finally, Engel implies that severe isolation and a lack of social awareness will allow major societal issues to remain inconspicuous. In the story, Sophie and her unknown roommate both retain the ability to speak only by talking to themselves; Sophie talks to her infant child, and her roommate must talk to birds. Engel uses the lack of communication between people in their society to illustrate how the government avoids blame for their significant mistakes: “[a]t first she blamed Bo’s disease on her smoking; but Gordie … was the one who broke through the computer code at the medicinal bank and announced it: there were thousands of Bos” (Engel). Despite thousands of infants suffering the same fate as Bo, Sophie had been wrongfully blaming herself for the illness of Bo simply because she was unable to communicate with other parents about the health of their babies. By preventing communication by banning social gatherings and public events, Sophie and every other citizen were left completely unaware of the health crisis affecting infants that was happening. This collective lack of social awareness allows the government to avoid taking blame for any errors and to maintain their strict control over their city. To add to that, the entertainment books and films provided to Sophie are mere propaganda to distract citizens from the reality of their surroundings. It symbolizes how the media shown to the reader, in our world, is rarely ever the truth and distracts us from dire situations happening around us. Engel is telling the reader that the government is not trustworthy; and a lack of social awareness will allow the government to take advantage of citizens’ trust. Being socially responsible and having the ability to hold the government accountable for errors is necessary for a successful democratic society. In conclusion, the short story “Sophie, 1990” uses a dystopian setting to highlight issues created by unrestricted government control. Looking beyond the surface of the text, it is clear that Sophie’s life is a tragic, but possible future that our world could lead to if the wrong steps are taken. However, acknowledging the possibility of such issues is the first step to healing; and “Sophie, 1990” provides excellent insight into what could be if society was ignorant.