Comparing Dystopia In Harrison Bergeron And The Sound Of Thunder

Subject: English 204i

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THE THEME OF DYSTOPIA IN BOTH HARRISON BERGERON AND THE SOUND OF THUNDER.

Harrison Bergeron and The Sound of Thunder are two short stories in which the authors use a theme of dystopia in creating a futuristic setting. Dystopia is an imaginary community or society that is undesirable and frightening, a community where everyone is scared and lacks freedom. Is there really a world like this? Does this kind of society exist in this modern day?

Harrison Bergeron is a story about what happens in an attempt to create equality. Equality, media influence, fear and technology are themes used in both stories to change and create devastation in the future. The

short story is a dystopian science fiction written by Vonnegut Kurt, it offers a critique on people’s claim that we should be equal and it has been embraced by the dangers of enforcing equality by virtue of levelling. In this story, the principle of egalitarianism which holds that people should be equal in every possible way by forcing the beautiful to wear ugly masks, making the strong wear sash weight and bags of bird shots, making them wear handicapped radios in their ears to reduce their level of intelligence was in effect. If the goal of equality is taken to a logical conclusion, decisions would be made that people must be forced to be equal to each other in appearance, behaviours and achievements. It is interpreted as a blistering critique of authoritarian governments.
The known fact that everyone is different and unique in their own ways cannot be changed, and so, individuals should not be limited in their uniqueness and diversity. Intellectual productivity and individual diversity were lost, and there was a possibility that no one would ever be free again after Harrison got shot. The end result of the quest of equality is disastrous but it was more or less achieved at the expense of freedom and achievement of the people.
Technology was another theme used in Harrison Bergeron to act as a sedative for the mass. “There was tears on Hazel’s cheeks, but she’d forgotten for a moment what they were about” (Vonnegut, 216), Hazel’s cheeks were wet with tears but because she was distracted by the ballerinas. She forgot why she was crying. The use of televisions was a means of terrorizing the citizens, showing them what might happen to them if they fail to obey the law. Harrison brought strength and beauty by removing his and the empress weight and masks where as his parents are so compromised that they could hardly put two logical sentences together. The unflinching language used by Vonnegut to narrate the murder of the emperor and his empress mirrors the cold and inhuman nature of the dead. Electronic devices were also used to deprive people of their memories and stop them from making use their brains for thinking. “He began to think glimmeringly about his abnormal son who was now in jail, about Harrison, but a twenty-one-gun salute in his head stopped that” (Vonnegut, 217). This electronic device stops anyone from using his or her brain with the sound of an automobile collision. The use of technology deprives individual from using their full potential and thus creating a wall between them and their future.
The Sound Of Thunder, written by Ray Bradbury is also a science fiction story depicting how time travel makes a mess of the future by going back in time and how the tiniest of mistakes can affect a large group of people.

The time machine represented the technology driven society in which concern was shown by the author. The slightest change in the initial conditions of a chaotic system can accumulate into a colossal effect. There was going to be chaos and destruction if an animal was killed. There was fear and undesirable conditions, there was fear that at the stamp of a foot or the death of any animal, important people and personality might never be born and the new world will be brought back to its foundation. There was fear of death and that time may never be changed. “This fool nearly killed us, but it isn’t that so much, no, it’s his shoes! Look at them! He ran off the path, that ruins us”. (Bradbury, 142). When Eckels stepped from the path and crushes a butterfly, As little as the death of a butterfly, things changed. There was a difference between what he saw before he left and what he saw when he got back. The room decoration changed and the air had a different smell. The presidential position of the United States was occupied by Deutscher instead of Keith. The sign on the entrance changed too, because of his tiny

misstep.
A sound of thunder is a revolutionary piece of science fiction. It introduced concepts that there were a decade ahead of time while in Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut indirectly encourages the appreciation of differences in humans because if uniqueness and diversity is not appreciated, the world would be led to the actual equality and a world without freedom. Peace, competition, hierarchical class and dreams. Vonnegut suggests that equality is not an idea worth striving for. It is a mistaken goal that is dangerous in both the outcome and the execution.
The insistence on total equality seeps into the citizens, who begin to hide their special and unique attribute. In Harrison Bergeron, human decided to bring themselves down to the point of been equal to each other because of the fear of what might happen to them if they fail to obey the law but in The Sound Of Thunder, people chose to go back in time which ended up creating devastation and undesirable conditions for themselves.
Dystopia in both stories gives us a picture of what we as humans should put in place to make our society a better and desirable place to live in without the fear of been made to be equal to one another or the fear of our future becoming a mess because of what was done in the past.

WORK CITED
Ray, Bradbury. 1953. “A Sound Of Thunder”. X.J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia
LITERATURE; An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Compact Edition. Pearson.

Vonnegut, Kurt. 1961. “Harrison Bergeron”. X.J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia
LITERATURE: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Compact Edition.