Who or what is a beholder? Why does the author say that "utopias are in the eyes of the beholder," and how does he connect this expression to the rest of the text?

The readers.

Explanation:

According to Benjamin Obler in his "In a Dreadfully Perfect World", the beholder is the reader who reads utopian and dystopian novels. The author says that "utopias are in the eyes of the beholder," because it depends on the perception of the reader in how he/she choses to interpret the idea of a novel.

He connects this expression to the rest of the text by further explaining how one particular idea or practice could mean two different things to two people. He says that the idea of equality might be ideal to some but to another person, it might not be because they to give up some portion of thier privileges.

reasoning from several particular examples to establish a general principle

the turtle carries new life, oat seeds, over to the other side of the highway and plants them there.