Mere solidarity is not enough: Exploring dystopian reality in Edward Bond’s 'The Tin Can People'

Abstract

Solidarity is an indispensable part of the utopian and dystopian world since people gather around a common cause either to create an ideal community or to get rid of a difficult situation. Unlike utopia, in which solidarity mostly comes out voluntarily, in dystopia, it grows up compulsorily triggered by emotions such as anxiety, distrust, paranoia, and fear primarily due to a totalitarian regime or the effects of a nuclear war. However, in The Tin Can People (1984), British playwright Edward Bond propounds a new perspective to postapocalyptic dystopia by portraying a group of people who create a utopian community, a heaven in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, as a result of living in solidarity. This article aims to trace how dystopian world reveals the bitter ‘reality’ against this illusionary heaven with the arrival of a stranger and dissolves the community despite the solidarity that the survivors have been preserving for years to show that mere solidarity is not enough to save a community.