Pet

Is the society of Lucille a utopia, a dystopia, or a false utopia? What evidence in the story supports your choice? Do you think that Lucille becomes more utopian or less utopian by the end of the story? Why? Could humans ever really create a society like Lucille? What about human nature makes you say yes or no? If it were possible to create a society like this, would you want to live in it? Why?

Teaching Suggestion: Before students write or discuss in response, you might want to clarify for them that, for this prompt, their conclusions are less important than their evidence and their reasoning. The intent of this prompt is not to guide students to a definitive answer about whether Lucille is utopian, dystopian, or a false utopia. Rather, discussion should highlight the difficulty of deciding on a universal definition of what the “perfect” society would look like. Students can, and should, have differing opinions about what a true utopia might be. This will also influence their beliefs about whether the changes Lucille undergoes during this story move the society closer to being a utopia and about whether the society depicted in Pet is a desirable one.