The State Of Equality In Harrison Bergeron, By Lois Lowry

Equality is a tricky thing. It seems nice, but have you ever considered a life in total equality? Everyone is exactly the same, all liking the same things, wearing the same things, doing the same things… it could be a total nightmare. As Samuel Johnson once said, “It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.” Without new ideas, life would quickly get boring, and dull. If everyone were equal, people wouldn’t be any better than sheep. When one sheep does something, all the others follow. If one sheep jumps off a bridge, all the others will do the same. That is what the world will turn into if everyone is equal. No one with the power to think on their own.

In The Giver, a boy lives in a community that is completely equal (except for genders). He is accepted into a very powerful job and learns things that help him realize that equality might not be the best thing for everyone. Another book where this is the case is a book called “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut. Here, people are forced to wear weights and masks, so that all people are equal. But, someone powerful and strong is able to escape prison after he takes off his weights, and takes them off once more, and says that he is the emperor, not the government. After he says this, the government comes and kills Harrison, returning people to their previous state of depression, and misery. The quote from Samuel Johnson represents The GIver and Harrison Bergeron because, in both books, equality can lead to no one having an exciting, or life worth

In the book The GIver, the scene takes place in a world where the whole world is equal. Jonas, a young boy, starts to realize that equality might not actually be a good thing. He realizes this because he got picked for the most important job of them all in his community. The Community (the people who are in charge of Jonas’s community) actually prevents people from having real feelings, which Jonas experiences through his job, from seeing color, from hearing music etc. Jonas realizes that this is not how life is supposed to be and starts to dislike the idea of equality. “Jonas, you and I are the only one who have feelings”, (Lowry 154). This relates to the quote from Samuel Johnson because, in the book, no one is able to feel feelings, since everyone is equal (except for Joans), leading everybody to be in a state of somewhat sad, somewhat happy, and somewhat all of the other feelings there are. But no one is truly happy. This is just as what Samuel Johnson said would happen in a state general equality. Another reason The Giver relates to the quote from Samuel Johnson as, in the book, Jonas, before he gets picked for his job, is a clueless as anyone else, that music, color, and other things in life exist. After he starts to learn that these things exist, it acts like a weight is lifted off his shoulders: he becomes actually happy, sad, and angry, as he finally starts to feel real emotions. He then realizes that