Harrison Bergeron And Raymond's Run

Alexander Solzhenitsyn once said, “good literature substitutes for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through.” This quote means that when one reads a piece of literature one is experiencing something that one might not have experienced before. I agree with this statement. Two works of literature that support this statement are “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “Raymond’s Run” by Toni Cade Bambara.

In “Harrison Bergeron”, the author shows us that the people wear handicaps to make them equal to everybody else. Set in the future, the story reveals that the protagonist, Harrison, breaks out of his handicaps and dances with the dotted ballerina. He exposes that he and other people should not have to wear those ugly and heavy handicaps to be equal. This part of the story relates to the critical lense because presently, we do not have to wear handicaps to be equal. In our society, nobody is equal because of a handicap. In this story, the author uses the literary element of man versus society conflict

to show us that the citizens did not agree on wearing the handicaps, but they could not and did not say anything about it. Therefore, it is clearly evidenced in “Harrison Bergeron” that when Vonnegut writes, he is letting us experience something we have not.
Toni Cade Bambara’s “Raymond’s Run” also shows us that a good piece of literature gives us the opportunity to experience something we have not experienced before.

Set in New York, the story reveals that, Squeaky, is different from many people because she has a brother that “is not quite right” and many people do not experience that. Not everybody has a brother, much less a brother with a disability. This part of the story relates to the critical lense because Bambara lets us interpret what Squeaky has to do to take care of her brother, and how she does not let people make fun of him. In this part of the story, the author uses the literary element of falling action to demonstrate that even though Squeaky’s brother has a disability, he still wins the race and she is happy for him and would love to coach him. As a result, it is clearly evidenced in “Raymond’s Run” that good piece of literature gives us the opportunity to experience something we have

not.
As Alexander Solzhenitsyn once said, “good literature substitutes for an experience which we have not ourselves lived through.” In “Harrison Bergeron”, Vonnegut wrote about an experience the citizens in the story experienced that we have not. In “Raymond’s Run”, Squeaky has a brother with a disability so she gains a responsibility to take care of him that most people do not have. From these two works of literature, readers can learn that when one reads, the author gives you the chance to experience something you have not.