<p align="center">(Thomas More’s
Utopia)</p>
 <a href="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Utopia.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1680 aligncenter" src="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Utopia-209x300.jpg" alt="" width="209" height="300" /></a>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/early_books/pix/utopia.htm">http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/special_collections/early_books/pix/utopia.htm</a></p>
Sir Thomas More was born in England in 1478. He was a Christian who depended heavily (almost solely) upon himself. He believed in religious tolerance and charity, but refused to compromise his beliefs as a Catholic. For most of his life, Thomas More was unsure of whether to stay true to the king, or to continue his path of philosophy. He was executed for treason in 1535.

In 1516, he wrote Utopia (which comes from the Greek words <em>ou</em> and <em>topos</em> (“no place”)). It was the first writings pertaining to a “perfect state” since Plato’s “Republic” (although many believe that it is criticism of European society at that time). This story was mainly focused on Europe’s government and society. In Utopia’s society, everything and everyone, except slaves, were equal; and all citizens were wholly expected to uphold social justice.

One of the main points included in Utopia is that war is a fool’s action and pointless. Thomas More states, “Nothing is more inglorious than glory attained by war” (Fiero, 19). Eventually, knowing how people work, they will always be fighting over
something with others, even with those who are supposedly their allies. Utopians value truces above pretty much everything.

Utopia is filled with satires and idealisms. Here, family hierarchies are in place. Cities are divided equally into four separate areas, with a marketplace in the center of each. At said marketplace, people bring items they create and display them for others to have. The family finds only what is essential for their survival, however, despite that they do not need to pay anything. Greed and gluttony are nonexistent in this world and there is always an abundance of everything and anything. Therefore, Utopians do not require any form of currency.

Thanks to trade with foreign countries, the Utopians own an immense selection of metals, which they use anything requiring such materials. They have no enticement to do this since they have everything they need. On top of this, the people find such things near useless items, as they do not hold much towards their survival. If a Utopian obtains an object, which we would consider a luxury (such as precious metals); they most likely found it on accident. The person will simply give the item to their children as a present. The child will be overwhelmed with joy, but will lose interest in the bauble as it gets older, eventually understanding the lack of value that it really has.

Yet another reason it was believed that Thomas More wrote Utopia, was to escape the mayhem in his own country. King Henry VIII reigned without a care as to what it did to his people. He frittered away money the country didn’t have and did so without even spending towards any kind of economic support. Many of Thomas More’s theories were based on these hard times. The wealthy socialites were engrossed in items of value and status and concerned with petty details. Meanwhile, in their desperate attempts to stay alive, the poor resorted to stealing and killing each other.

Thomas More’s ideas (specifically that of Utopia) were unheard of and not anything anyone would have believed. Even if people did agreed with him, they would not openly agree with him and his work was still seen as severe criticism, if not blasphemy, towards his country. Thomas More was highly critical of his world, especially towards many of the economic changes. Utopia might have been something of a suggestion towards solutions to Europe’s problems. He showed the differences between the chaos of his corrupt society and the equality his idealistic one.

Thomas More might have been highly inspired by Plato’s “Republic.” In this work, Plato mentions how idealism involves the separation of mind and matter. He explains that someone may become prosperous and honorable through the benefits of both the individual and the society. Plato built an idealist society where people worked harmoniously and showed how being educated made them stronger. In this, Thomas More agrees and uses in his own work.

I believe that everyone would agree that the word “Utopia” is still accurate with Thomas More’s idea of it: Paradise, Heaven, Wonderland, Nirvana, or whatever you wish to call it; somewhere utterly clean of violence or deceit. Thomas More was spot on when he wrote this novel mocking the idea that one can create a perfect world. No single person is perfect, much less is the society they live in. “Utopia” is merely a model of that which we desire. You can work towards it, but no one will ever be able to reach it.

I agree with many of the ideals in “Utopia.” It makes many good points (and not to mention it would be nice to live in a world where things such as corruption and greed did not exist). I especially agree with More’s argument that war is needless. I have never figured out how people blindly killing one another can solve any problem. This proves that even though the world has progressed, it has only done so in a technological manner. I don’t believe we are any closer to our desired Utopia; moreover, we keep pushing ourselves further from it as society becomes more
complex.

However, some things still do not make sense. Some of the traditions the Utopians practiced (such as the ease of divorce, euthanasia and both married priests and female priests) seem to be polar opposites of More's beliefs and the teachings of the Catholic Church (of which he was completely committed to). You would think that Thomas More would have fully created
them how he thought they should be (religiously speaking of course).

“Utopia” should be preserved as a one of the greatest works of its time because everything in this book has (more
or less) been well thought out and his story is elaborate. His morals and ideals paint the image of a world desired by every living creature; a world where everything is perfect and there is no reason to have things like thievery and murder.

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<span style="text-decoration: underline">Works Cited</span>:

&nbsp;
<ul>
	<li>Priest
&amp; Harold Martin. <em>More's Utopia &amp; Utopian Literature</em>. John Wiley
&amp; Sons, Inc. (US), 1975. www.<strong>alicat.austincc.edu</strong>.
Web. 1 Sep. 2011.</li>
</ul>
&lt;http://alicat.austincc.edu/search~S1?/XMore%27s+Utopia&amp;searchscope=1&amp;SORT=D/XMore%27s+Utopia&amp;searchscope=1&amp;SORT=D&amp;SUBKEY=More's+Utopia/1%2C3%2C3%2CB/frameset&amp;FF=XMore%27s+Utopia&amp;searchscope=1&amp;SORT=D&amp;1%2C1%2C&gt;

&nbsp;
<ul>
	<li>"<strong>utopia</strong>." <em>Encyclopedia
Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition</em>.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 2011. Web. 01 Sep. 2011.</li>
</ul>
&lt;http://www.britannica.com.lsproxy.austincc.edu/EBchecked/topic/620755/utopia&gt;.

&nbsp;
<ul>
	<li><em>Dictionary
of Literary Biography, Volume 136: Sixteenth-Century British Nondramatic
Writers, Second Series</em>. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by David
A. Richardson, Cleveland
State University.
Gale Research, 1994. pp. 235-254.</li>
</ul>
&lt;http://galenet.galegroup.com.lsproxy.austincc.edu/servlet/GLD/hits?r=d&amp;origSearch=true&amp;o=DataType&amp;n=10&amp;l=d&amp;c=2&amp;locID=txshracd2487&amp;secondary=false&amp;u=DLB&amp;t=KW&amp;s=4&amp;NA=More&amp;TI=Utopia&gt;

&nbsp;
<ul>
	<li>Fiero,
Gloria K. <em>The Humanistic Tradition</em>:
McGraw-Hill, 2011. Print.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
	<li>More,
Thomas <em>Utopia</em>, 1516</li>
</ul>