Dystopian societies and execution

themoormaiden asked you:

Hi! I’m in the middle of planning/researching for a dystopian novel (I know, what a surprise, right?) and I’m struggling to decide on the society’s method of execution. I was considering using the firing squad because it’s so impersonal and brutal, however I think hanging is more eerie and the gallows are more of a ‘symbol’ of death. Do you have any advice? (Sorry this question is so vague, and so gloomy)

The thing about dystopian-type governments is that, traditionally, they rule either by absolute control and/or fear. So, it depends a lot upon exactly what type of government you have.

What sort of system is your government based upon? What does it resemble most, historically speaking? How did similar governments rule over their people?

Death on its own can be a frightening concept, but what happens between the sentencing and death can be a whole lot scarier. Here are some examples I can think of that are mostly spoiler-free:

• In the controlled societies I’ve read, governments strive to “keep peace”, which means offenders tend to simply vanish (and/or exiled), such as in “Matched” (if my memory serves). And in the case of “Matched”, the people are controlled by a set of pills that everyone has on their person at all times. Different pills do different things.
• Then there’s semi-controlled societies like in “Divergent”, where teens are placed in different factions based on their personality types, and those who don’t fit the personality types end up being factionless, or basically homeless. I’m pretty sure each faction dealt with their offenders differently.
• In absolutely chaotic governments, there’s torture, public humiliation, threats against family and friends, or the types of things that “make an example” to the rest of society. Think of “The Hunger Games” and how an entire district was eliminated as a threat to the other districts, and the whole “Hunger Games” was a ritual to keep people from rising up at all (and, you know, there were also the Avoxes).
• There’s also religious chaotic governments (or societies in this case) such as in “The Forest of Hands and Teeth”, where everyone is expected to conform to the rules, or risk being thrown outside the wall where zombies wander, which was pretty much not even a death sentence.

So, think about how your government needs to control the people of your particular world and what lengths they’ll go to. How did that government even come into power? What did they do? Why did people decide to obey them? What did they have to gain? What do they have to lose?

I hope this helps! Good luck!

Additional responses:

Anonymous asked you:

For the execution post, another example is in the Shadow Children series. People were tortured depending on the crime. Treason got you beaten then killed, but if you offered then information they wanted, you could get out of it. But, if your crime is of lesser importance, you wouldn’t be tortured or killed. But everyone thought they’d be killed for even minor crimes since the government told them that.