Can ‘perfect’ worlds go downhill and affect individuals in a negative way? Lord and Miller’s The Lego Movie, and Vonnegut’s, “Harrison Bergeron,” unmask the conflict between the ideal of perfection as well as equality of their utopian societies and the realities of people living in their societies by showing Utopias becoming dystopias in the following ways: In The Lego Movie, Lord Business aims at perfection which leads to lack of individuality; in “Harrison Bergeron,” equality that is valued within their society leads to lack of beauty; and in both, The Lego Movie, and “Harrison Bergeron,” the pursuit of these ideals leads to negative consequences for those who do not follow rules and rebellion. To start off, in The Lego Movie, the …show more content…
In the story, H-G men apply handicaps such as masks, as well as bulky bags on certain individuals who were ‘above average.’ Everyone within this society has to deal with performing just like others and walking past other hideous people. Individuals who were handicapped were held back from their intelligence, creativity, and most importantly from their beauty, making everyone, no smarter, stronger, quicker, unable to see a free and graceful gesture, or be able to see a beautiful face. “‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ said the ballerina, reading the bulletin. She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred pound men.” (Vonnegut, p.103/par. 39). In the story, a ballerina, burdened with weights as well as a mask, had to perform on stage, stripped off from her gorgeous face and graceful dancing skills, making her look like an embarrassment. Though, it was obvious that she was better than all the other dancers, which clearly shows that a society that values equality leads to lack of beauty. Eventually, in both The Lego Movie and “Harrison Bergeron,” the strong pursuit of perfection and fairness could lead to harsh consequences and uprisings. The Lego Movie and “Harrison Bergeron,” both value something
Jinato Hu once said, “Diversity in the world is a basic characteristic of human society, and also the key condition for a lively and dynamic world as we see today.” In dystopias individuality is not accustomed to, and as a result society turns ruthless. In many dystopian communities one figurehead or concept is worshipped. Technology, happiness, or the idea of equality being praised expresses that humanity downgrades.
Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” Kurt Vonnegut portrays Aristotle’s philosophy brilliantly in his short story “Harrison Bergeron.” The story depicts the American government in the future mandating physical handicaps in an attempt to make everyone equal. Vonnegut describes a world where no one is allowed to excel in the areas of intelligence, athletics, or beauty. Yet, the inequalities among the people shine even brighter. Vonnegut uses satire to explore the question of whether true equality can ever really exist.
The balance of utopia, power, and the good life has been challenged throughout history and been shown in different stories, such as The Truman Show and Animal Farm. This balance is tough to achieve, and this is shown numerous times throughout both The Truman Show and Animal farm. Power, which is the ability to act in a particular way, is shown to be easily corrupted, utopia, which is a perfect society, is proved to be near impossible to achieve, and the good life, which is the life someone would want to live, is shown by different people at different times.
Firstly, the societies in The Lottery and Harrison Bergeron are illusions of perfect utopian worlds; the authors establish settings that are perceived as faultless by the reader. In Harrison Bergeron Vonnegut sets the scene by presenting the reader with a perfect world, where everyone is equal, a world without rivalry, a world of complete harmony and peace. This creates an impression of a perfect utopian world where ‘nobody [is] smarter’, ‘nobody is better looking’, and ‘nobody is stronger… than anybody else’. Vonnegut’s use of repetition emphasis the idea of a utopian setting which causes competing ideas to become subordinated; this encourages the reader to become relaxed to the idea of equality. By setting the scene as utopian Vonnegut increases the impact on the ...
Bergeron';, it was done by limiting everyones abilities until everyone is equal in all ways. Each author used class systems, nature, and society to portray their negative utopia.
What would happen if an utopia wasn’t all that perfect on the inside? Judging by just the appearance of something may lead to a situation of regret and confusion.” The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson address the theme of religious and traditional symbolism.” The Lottery” demonstrates how something that seems so perfect on the outside isn’t all that great on the inside.
Through their use of allusion, symbolism and representation they portray many of societies flaws and imperfections. Such an imperfection includes the illustration of how totalitarian governments abuse the power they have acquired for their own gain, harming the people they are sworn to serve and protect. Through this abusive self-gaining government, we all are liable to become victims of consumer culture caused by the blind obedience to advertising and propaganda, being unable to form or voice an opinion of our own. But this lack of opinion can be at fault because of our own apathy, the ignorance and slothfulness that is contributed to the role we play in our society and the importance of that roles ability to motivate and inspire change. Whether you’ve read or viewed the novels or feature films I’ve discussed I have no hesitation in saying any text or film you have seen has been used in some way, shape or form to convey the criticisms of our ‘perfect’
To begin, a mechanism of discriminatory and violent systems is appearance. Appearance is the way that someone or something looks, meaning not everyone looks or acts the same by performance. In Roxane Gay’s novel, she points out that she wants acceptance for her body shape, and yet wanting to change it. Although she tried
Life is a very valuable asset, but when lived on someone else’s terms its nothing but a compromise. The seemingly perfect image of Utopia which combines happiness and honesty with purity, very often leads in forming a dystopian environment. The shrewd discrepancy of Utopia is presented in both the novel ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry and the film ‘The Truman Show’ directed by Peter Weir. Both stories depict a perfect community, perfect people, perfect life, perfect world, and a perfect lie. These perfect worlds may appear to shield its inhabitants from evil and on the other hand appear to give individuals no rights of their own. By comparing and contrasting the novel ‘The Giver’ and the film ‘The Truman Show’, it can be derived that both the main characters become anti-utopian to expose the seedy underbelly of their Utopian environment which constructs a delusional image of reality, seizes the pleasures in their lives and portrays a loss of freedom.
Kurt Vonnegut’s dystopian fiction, or a type of fiction in which the society’s attempt to create a perfect world goes very wrong, “Harrison Bergeron” was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1961. This story is about Harrison Bergeron, who is forced to diminish his abilities because they are more enhanced than everyone else’s. This short story is an allusion of a perfect society and it is maintained through totalitarian. The author expresses his theme of the dysfunctional government of utopia through his effective use of simile, irony, and symbolism. Kurt Vonnegut was one of the most influential American writers and novelists, and his writings have left a deep influence on the American Literature of the 20th century. Vonnegut is also famous for his humanist beliefs and was the honoree of the American Humanist Association. “Harrison Bergeron” is about a fictional time in the future where everyone is forced to wear handicapping devices to ensure that everyone is equal. So can true equality ever be achieved through strict governmental control?
Most often, a form of competition arises as human beings naturally search for a sense of accomplishment that can only be brought about from having triumphed over the opposition. Alongside this motivation to succeed is a set of skills and effort intended to contribute to reaching one’s personal goals. Throughout modern society, we strive off of determining our most qualified individuals for our best universities, careers, and lifestyles, therefore, allowing them to prosper with the numerous opportunities they are presented with. Competition in the short story “Harrison Bergeron” was discouraged, and was often seen as a deterrent to those in society who weren 't as capable as those who had more developed mental and physical attributes. As highlighted throughout the text, Diana Moon Glampers, the United States Handicapper General, had created amendments to “equalize” society by enforcing limitations on individuals who were further advanced so to reduce what could be comprehended mentally alongside what could be accomplished physically. The baseline levels of both one’s appearance and mental capacity that were established had been reflected upon the minimal achievements of the lesser skilled citizens as a whole. As a result, all the American Government was capable of achieving was an increasing desire by its more proficient citizens to allow a more proportional
One similarity between the short story “Harrison Bergeron” and the film 2081 film maker to keep was when Harrison broke free from his handicaps. This scene symbolizes Harrison showing the people that it is possible to become free from things that are holding you back or that you can overcome any challenge that you are faced with. In the story it says “Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper…” In both the film, and the short story, it seems as if Harrison was able to break free from his handicaps fairly easily. This is interesting because it shows that the author and the film maker thought this was one of the major prevailing themes.
The most important theme that we can easily notice in the story is the lack of freedom, which is extremely significant to the American ideals, and Harrison demonstrates it as his escapes from jail, remove his handicaps, and influence others around him. In order to have a completely equal society in Harrison Bergeron’s world, people cannot choose what they want to take part in or what they are good at because if a person is above average in anything, even appearance, they are handicapped. These brain and body devices are implanted in an effort to make everyone equal. However, instead of raising everyone up to the better level, the government chooses instead to lower people to the lowest common level of human thought and action, which means that people with beautiful faces wear masks. Also, people with above average intelligence wear a device that gives a soul-shattering piercing noise directly into the ear to destroy any train of thought. Larger and stronger people have bags of buckshot padlocked a...
In both Harrison Bergeron and today’s society, people struggle with equality. As shown in Harrison Bergeron the pushing of equality causes consequences. Equality is being pushed onto everyone by having handicaps to make them sure that no one person is better than another. Equality can also cause any type of hurt, both physical and mental. Physical hurt is what occurs with George. George is
For years, authors and philosophers have satirized the “perfect” society to incite change. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley describes a so-called utopian society in which everyone is happy. This society is a “controlled environment where technology has essentially [expunged] suffering” (“Brave New World”). A member of this society never needs to be inconvenienced by emotion, “And if anything should go wrong, there's soma” (Huxley 220). Citizens spend their lives sleeping with as many people as they please, taking soma to dull any unpleasant thoughts that arise, and happily working in the jobs they were conditioned to want. They are genetically altered and conditioned to be averse to socially destructive things, like nature and families. They are trained to enjoy things that are socially beneficial: “'That is the secret of happiness and virtue – liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny'” (Huxley 16). Citizens operate more like machinery, and less like humans. Humanity is defined as “the quality of being human” (“Humanity”). To some, humanity refers to the aspects that define a human: love, compassion and emotions. Huxley satirizes humanity by dehumanizing the citizens in the Brave New World society.