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Since the beginning of time, morality has been a central component of human society. We strive to create the best moral standards possible. Laws have been enacted, treaties signed, and unions formed in order for people to live as morally as possible. But imagine a dystopian society in which the basic morals we consider necessary did not exist, and with the most fundamentally basic human rights standards vanished. The two short stories Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson exemplify two societies with completely different moral codes.
The compelling short story Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut, is set in a future dystopian society. The plot follows an “average family” in the year 2081 after the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the constitution were added. These three laws establish the principle of equality; everyone must be equal in every aspect of life. To ensure this, the government utilizes “handicaps”, small machines or even body weights, to make certain no one person is better than anyone else. The center of the story, married couple Hazel and George, both have handicaps given to them by the Handicap General. As they are watching television one day, their incarcerated son appears on screen claiming to want to overthrow the government. Known as Harrison Bergeron, he was long ago locked up because of his in- humanlike strength and inability to be tamed by handicaps. But while broadcasted live, he proceeds to rip off his handicaps and dance around until he is shot and killed by Diana Moon, the Handicap General. The story ends with Hazel’s “average” intelligence forcing her to forget what she just witnessed, as her and George’s day goes on as normal. Completely unsettling, this story rem...

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...ntal handicaps, such as George’s. Every thirty seconds his thought are interrupted by random sounds coming from the earpiece he is required to wear. I believe that although the government should play a major role in people’s lives, there are certain boundaries that should not be crossed. Invading personal and private information is a crime for everyone else, so why should the government be allowed to violate its own citizens? Completely different from Harrison Bergeron, The Lottery displays a completely different set of morals. In the short story one person is killed each year if their name is drawn from the random lottery. These morals display the act of taking aggression out on someone just to release anger and keep a tradition going. This is a system built upon moral corruption and wrongdoings. Eventually people will realize this is wrong and stop this tradition.

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