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Essay about harrison bergeron by kurt vonnegut
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he short story, Harrison Bergeron, tells of a society where people’s talents are suppressed in order to make every “equal”.
While there are certain benefits of this strategy including an elimination of competition, as a well as a society that’s easy to control and manipulate, the disadvantages easily make this an ineffective strategy. A big disadvantage of this strategy is that the government could be overthrown. If history has taught us anything, it’s that when governments get too powerful, they’ll be put in their place (Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, etc.). Also, by dragging everyone to the same level, you create a society of idiots. If you have two unintelligent parents, there’s a low chance of their child being an intelligent person. Although
Living in a space ship would be cool, and living in a more equal world would be beneficial, but when portrayed in “Wall-E” and “Harrison Bergerson,” only pain and suffering can come of it. The two societies compare because they are set off in the distant future; filled with advance technology of robots and intricate machinery involved in day to day lives. Both of these tales have the same back bone of their different types of dystopia: break down.
Kurt Vonnegut, a modern American writer, composed stories about fictional situations that occurred in futuristic versions of today’s world. His stories included violence, both upon oneself and one another, and characters who sought out revenge. In “2BR02B” and “Harrison Bergeron”, Vonnegut conveys physical violence most likely experienced while a prisoner of World War 2, as a way to show how war brings pain and destruction.
In all aspects a utopian society is a society that is place to achieve perfection, and that is the society that both the “Uglies”, by Scott Westfield and “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut, was striving for. In both of these stories, the government had control over the people’s choices, freedoms, and their natural abilities. Yet both government strive for a perfect society, the methods they use to achieve this goal were different from each other.
Harrison Bergeron is a short story that has a deep meaning to it. To begin with, the short story Harrison Bergeron was made in 1961 and is written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. The whole short story is set in the far future of 2081. 2081 is a time where everybody is finally equal and when the government finally has full control over everyone. If you aren't equal you would have to wear handicaps to limit your extraordinary strength and smarts. As the story progresses, Harrison Bergeron is trying to send a message about society.
The world is divided up into numerous things: Countries, states, cities, communities, etc. However, when looking at the big scope of things, one can group the vast amount of people into a society. This society is where the majority lie in the scheme of things - in other words, the common people. Individuals do exist in this society, but they are scarce in a world of conformism. Society’s standards demands an individual to conform, and if the individual refuses they are pushed down by society.
The handicaps are to people as the cage is to the bird. This simile describes how Caged Bird and Harrison Bergeron are alike. Harrison Bergeron and Caged Bird are very alike in many reasons. They both reference limitations on freedom. In Caged Bird the limitation is that the bird is in the cage and cannot fly or go wherever it pleases. In Harrison Bergeron the limitations are all the handicaps. In Harrison Bergeron there are limitations to the citizens. These are called handicaps. When you are more capable at something then other people are then you receive handicaps that limit your abilities so that everyone is equal. Some handicaps are earpieces that stop you from thinking with a ringing sound, masks for those that have superior beauty, and
The future entails breakthrough technology and unknown leadership. The harsh rules of the government in, Harrison Bergeron, causes the protagonist, Harrison Bergeron, to come up with the dangerous idea to overthrow the government which leads to the violent behavior of the antagonist Diana Moon Glampers. The author, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., uses character development to show the theme of the harsh government through the eyes of the protagonist, antagonist, and the foil characters Hazel and George Bergeron in this futuristic society.
This is done by adding handicaps to advanced citizens in order to drag them down to the level of the least advanced citizens. One such citizen, Harrison Bergeron, was extremely advanced and therefore had several handicaps. Harrison, on his own, rebelled against the government; however, a government official was able to kill him and smother his insurrection. What did Harrison do wrong? What Harrison should have done is assembled a large group of people to rebel against the government. A large group is much harder for the people to ignore and the government to suppress; however, Harrison went out on his own and was in the eye of the public for no more than a couple of minutes before he and one other were “dead before they hit the floor,” as well as their rebellion (Vonnegut 913). His actions never amounted to much in the story, his own mother forgot immediately and his father did not see or hear of his death. Harrison Bergeron could have made a significant difference, but he just could not do everything needed for the change to happen; the government was just too powerful. He needed to assemble the people of the society to call out the government, but as the second author also points out, getting people to take a stand is easier said than
Harrison Bergeron is a hero to society. He is a hero because he was the only person willing to take off his handicap. Bergeron was a brave person. No one else was brave enough to try to be unique. Everyone was following what they were told to never questioning it, but Bergeron wasn't. He wants to discover new things. Yes he might have been scaring people, but they had no reason to be scared. They could have been helping and joining instead of being scared and rebelling from him.
Although the comparisons are well hidden, both today’s society and the story ‘Harrison Bergeron’ share similar qualities. They both deal with equality, which leads to problems and consequences. A second similarity is the struggle of competition and trying to prevent it from occurring, which also leads to problems. Lastly, both struggle with normality, and the fact that it’s hard to accept that different is okay now.
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?
“Harrison Bergeron” a short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., takes place in a totalitarian society where everyone is equal. A man who tries to play the savior, but ultimately fails in his endeavors to change the world. Vonnegut short story showed political views on communism, which is that total equality is not good (and that equity might be better).
Science fiction is a genre of literature that specifically discusses possibilities for Earth and Mankind, by advancing the technologies we currently have. Two examples of this genre are the short stories “Harrison Bergeron” and “Old Glory”. “Harrison Bergeron” is a story set in a future United States, where everyone is exactly equal. It tells the story of 14-year-old Harrison Bergeron, who goes on television and renounces the restrictive ways of the government, and is then shot and killed. “Old Glory” is similar, also set in a futuristic United States, where a newly enacted law, called SOS, has sent Duncan’s (The main character) great-grandfather into a frenzy. Duncan watches his grandfather renounce the new law and attempt to burn the new
There are two different styles of the story about the place where everyone is considered equal. One of those forms is a movie, titled 2018, and the other is a short story, titled Harrison Bergeron. Of course these two vastly different forms of the story are both unquestionably different, but they do have some similarities. The short story and the movie are obviously meant to serve different purposes in terms of storytelling. The text tells the story, but the movie brings that story to life, as does any movie that goes along with a book.
“‘Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out’” wrote Vonnegut (103). This statement portraits the unjust punishment for being unhandicapped, but is this punishment better or worse than death? In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” and the movie “2081” there are many differences and similarities. One similarity is that both the short story “Harrison Bergeron” and the movie “2081” has Harrison Bergeron getting shoot. In contract with Harrison getting killed is that the short story and movie differ in the aspect on how they prove that Harrison is dead.