Utopia Book One

In book one of Thomas More's Utopia, we are introduced to three main characters: Thomas More, Peter Gilles, and Raphael. More and Gilles are friends that seem to be interested in political affairs and we meet them at a time when they are unpleased with the current monarchies not only in their home country England, but in the rest of Europe as well. Peter approaches Thomas one day with exciting news that there is an interesting man in town that he must meet. When Thomas first sees the man, he mistakes him for a sailor, but Raphael is much more than that. After introducing themselves, Thomas and Raphael discussing the travels of Raphael. Through the dialogue between the two, we discover that Raphael is not an ordinary man, but an explorer with great wisdom and philosophy. Thomas becomes consumed by Raphael's stories and thoughts and believes that his wisdom is needed in the higher government so that kings and officials will make better decisions. Raphael responds to More's idea with the reasoning that kings and officials would never listen and put into effect Raphael's thoughts and advice on how a country should be run. After explaining in depth what advice he would give a king, More tells Raphael that he must water down his thoughts and fit his ideas to the ways of a king. Raphael tells him that doing so would be nonsense and make him not only a liar, but a fool as well. Thomas believes that Raphael's Communist views would never be accepted by society nor would they be effective. Raphael responds with stories of many places that he has traveled around the world where some of his political thoughts are actually used efficiently. Book one ends with an argument between the two and an agreement that after lunch, Raphael will sit down and tell his account of a land where he lived for 5 years, and everything there was perfect. This land is Utopia.

I was very interested in the book. I thought that both More and Raphael had intriguing political views. Raphael really built up communism to seem like a good way of government. I can't wait to see what Utopia is really like, not only politically, but the way it looks, how the people are, and if it really is perfect. I really like that Raphael is a man that is true to his beliefs and that he will not make his opinions less radical in order for it to be accepted by others.