...What if everyone were the same? How would the government be portrayed? How would society react and/or behave? The answers remain unanswered, but Kurt Vonnegut made his inference alive in “Harrison Bergeron.” The story is a reflection of the United States in 2081, and it’s new government where everyone is physically and mentally identical, except for Harrison Bergeron. The conflict in “Harrison Bergeron” was Harrison Bergeron expressing his individuality versus accepting the rules of equality that the government has imposed. Vonnegut portrayed the government as a “big brother” to the nation. The government controlled everything by making everyone “the same.” They used media to control citizens’ minds and to frighten them from doing things--pretty much how the government does things today. However, not everyone agreed to how the government controlled things, causing a disruption in the society. Vonnegut’s message is that equality is impossible to achieve, and that it’s not worth risking your life for. The government was portrayed as the “big brother” of the United States because they controlled all actions. They did so by equalizing everyone...
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...The Irony of Freedom Is a society “equal” if people, who are born with different qualities than the normal citizen, are oppressed to conformity? Kurt Vonnegut explores this question in his short story and uses several ironic situations to illustrate how unequal this futuristic dystopian society actually is. This homogenous world is based on false premises that by molding variations in individuals can result in conformity; however, people are born with human predispositions and differences related to body size, intellect, and beauty. This inclination of diversity makes it genetically impossible to adapt to a sterile conforming society, which exemplifies the story’s main theme. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the author, Kurt Vonnegut, uses irony to illuminate the story’s theme of society versus the individual by exhibiting the limitation of people’s freedom, deciding what morality is, and the...
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...Equality, according to Dictionary.com, is the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities; this is what societies think is the most vital part to having a great society. The societies in Anthem and "Harrison Bergeron" thought the same way as well, but later realized that it only led to their demise. Both Ayn Rand's novella, Anthem, and Kurt Vonnegut's story, "Harrison Bergeron," focus on the theme of equality, and it is apparent that the theme reveals that being different is wrong, that people are naturally different but are forced to be equal, and that equality is a barrier from individuality, which both suggests that everyone is naturally different; therefore, making the reader know that they should embrace rather than fear their differences among others....
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...Kurt Vonnegut's 1961 short story Harrison Bergeron takes place in the dystopian future of 2081. The 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the United States Constitution make every American totally equal, with no differences in intelligence, attractiveness, strength, or speed. Americans live in a world where “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” These laws are enforced by a particularly Orwellian-sounding officer called the Handicapper General. Harrison Bergeron, the fourteen-year-old titular character, is taken away from his parents. Due to their average intelligence, his parents, George and Hazel, are not fully aware of the tragic events. (In 2081,...
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...English 102-12 February 27, 2013 Literary Research Paper This literary research paper is based on the book Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Works by Kurt Vonnegut. Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Works consists of 25 short stories most of which had previously appeared in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, Ladies Home Journal, Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, Collier’s Magazine, Saturday Evening Post, The New York Times, Esquire, Venture, and Cosmopolitan. The title story appeared in Playboy magazine the same year the collection was released. Eleven of the stories were reprinted from Vonnegut’s 1961 short story collection Canary in a Cat House (Vonnegut). This paper will focus on four futuristic science fiction stories from the collection. These stories, “Welcome to the Monkey House”, “Harrison Bergeron”, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”, and “Unready to Wear” all share a dystopian science fiction theme. Science and technology are supposed to make the world a better place, but instead, Vonnegut concludes they only create a new set of problems (Farrell, “Science and Technology in the Works of Kurt Vonnegut”). Television is often a target of satire in much of his fiction from the 1950’s. He describes it as desensitizing and numbing while deceiving the masses (Werlock). Vonnegut uses satire and pessimism throughout these dystopian stories. Satire is a special form of literature that seeks to uncover ridiculous ideas and customs...
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...Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” is based on equality. The story was written in 1961 but was based in the year of 2081. Equality is forced through amendments in the constitution, which states no one can be smarter than anyone else, no one can be stronger than anyone else, and no one can be better looking than anyone else. The story begins in the living room of the Bergeron’s, Hazel and George. George possesses an intelligence higher than the average person, so he is forced to have a handicap in his ear that scatters his thoughts every twenty seconds. George is also very strong, so he is forced to wear a forty-seven-pound bag of bird shot that consist of lead balls. His wife, Hazel, has an average intelligence in their society; however, in our generation she would be considered mentally slow. Diana Moon Glampers, also known as the United States Handicapper General, has placed their son Harrison Bergeron in jail for refusing to follow the equality laws. Harrison is a very strong, intellectual man and doesn’t believe in total equality. He escapes from prison, breaks into a ballet concert and manages to get on live television. Harrison rips off his restraints...
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...reasons" (Gaiman xi). Neil Gaiman says it best in the introduction to Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, whether it be to warn the public, or to encourage, examine, or imagine, writers continue to describe dystopian worlds that may not be real. Gaiman tells the readers of Fahrenheit 451 that "there are three phrases that make possible writing about the world of not-yet[…]and they are simple phrases: What if…? If only…? If this goes on…" (Gaiman xi). Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 utilizes the latter of these three phrases. Bradbury pictures that if our society continues to substitute knowledge with instant, mindless gratification, the product would be similar to that of Guy Montag's world. Likewise, "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is created around the phrase, "What if...?" Vonnegut's story was developed while thinking about how the world would be if people were handicapped based on their strengths and weaknesses. The genre of science fiction conveys an author's feelings towards our community, and typically towards our community's future. Both of these texts demonstrate a strong theme, while simultaneously allowing these themes to reveal truths about our society. Firstly, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury demonstrates a theme of how one must be aware and knowledgeable to...
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...Two Dystopias “Harrison Bergeron” (1961) by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and “The Ones who walk away from Omelas” (2001) by Ursula Leguin are both short stories set in dystopic worlds. In “Harrison Bergeron”, everyone has been made equal. In order to achieve this, anyone who is more intelligent, beautiful, and athletic than others must wear a handicap in order to meet the government’s standards of what they considered to be “average”. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” the characters live in a world where everybody is happy although living their everyday life with the knowledge of one injustice. This one injustice is that the people of Omelas are aware of a child who is living in a locked cellar with poor conditions, who is malnourished and neglected. The citizens in Harrison’s world are suffering from a life with harsh restriction and do not have the freedom to live life as they want to. The life of the citizens in both stories are unaccepted; however, the world portrayed in “Harrison Bergeron” is more intolerable. In both worlds there are people who are suffering. Most of the habitants of Omelas are living a joyous life but at the expense of one child’s misery; they are aware of the living conditions of the child, yet they choose to live their lives normally. Others who were unable to stand to live with this guilt decided to leave the city. The world described in “Harrison Bergeron”, those who were seen as higher than average has to wear a handicap. For instance, if...
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...T. J. Rankl Mr. Beach ELA Block 3 20 December 2016 Trouble in Paradise: Vonnegut’s Use of Satire in “Harrison Bergeron” What would happen to the world if the people were literally equal in every aspect of their lives? "Harrison Bergeron," composed by Kurt Vonnegut, concentrates on equity physically and mentally unequivocally controlled by the administration in the year 2081; the wonderful are constrained to look monstrous, the physically gifted are required to wear weights. With these impediments making everyone so equivalent, the world turned out to be altogether different, odd, and normal. Be that as it may, the legislature has no right or motivation to push the entire world to be "… rise to each which way." To smother somebody's normal...
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...stories are still being written in today’s societies that follow the elements of Aristotelian theory. One story written in relatively recent history is that of "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. which in many aspects, can be considered a Aristotelian tragedy. Aristotle described a tragedy as a story that consisted of a tragic hero and a plot that would generate fear and pity in its audience. In this story, fourteen-year-old Harrison Bergeron valiantly attempts to break free from an equality-based society, but is quickly denied by the authoritative force of the government. The most important element in Aristotelian tragedy is the plot of a story. Aristotle states in Poetics that a story must consist of a beginning, middle, and end (Aristotle, 7). "Harrison Bergeron" fits this description very well because the beginning, middle, and end can be clearly identified while reading the story. The story opens by giving a description of what the society people live in is like. "THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way" (1). By reading this description of what life was like, one gets the idea that people lived in a totalitarian-based society. As the story progresses, the reader is introduced to Hazel and George Bergeron, who are watching a ballet program on their television when a special news bulletin...
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...“Harrison Bergeron” and Anthem- Similarities and Differences Two societies where everyone is finally equal. Sounds like the perfect utopia, right? These two societies were created in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” and in Ayn Rand’s Anthem. “Harrison Bergeron” takes place in a very strict and controlling society, while Anthem takes place in a collective society. Both stories take place in the future, after the society we know today has fallen. These societies are similar in that they both go to great lengths to make everyone equal. However, they are different because of how they are controlled. “Harrison Bergeron” and Anthem are similar because they both strive for unrealistic equality. In the very first paragraph of “Harrison Bergeron,”...
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...Through telling the story from the parents’ perspective, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” seeks to criticize both extremes of total equality and total inequality as detrimental to the general public. At the start of the story, all people have become “equal [in] every which way” (Vonnegut). However, all this progress has not been as wonderful as people would think. Instead of recognizing each individual’s unique talents, everyone has been set to perform to the lowest common denominator. For example, George Bergeron is a gifted person, but his ear radio and handicap bags prevent him from achieving his potential all for the sake of equality. However, to the common person, being worse than someone else is not too important. George’s average...
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...Harrison Bergeron Fairness and equality is what mankind strives for in a society, and it is what mankind is going to strive over the course of an eternity. For the longest time we’ve searched for a Utopian society, and in the short story “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1961, mankind needs to look no further. Total equality, everyone is equal in Harrison Bergeron, which creates a utopian society in theory. But does total equality create a utopian society? The setting of the story shows the dull and dystopian society George and Hazel are living in. “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way…” The quote indicates the setting, a setting where equality has been forced and isn’t naturally caused equality. The dystopian society is also perfectly depicted in the following quote: “And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear.” The quote shows that the society puts limitations on individuals to create equality, which is not utopian at all. The story takes place in George and Hazel’s living room, which isn’t described in anyway, which is weird if you think about the time the story takes place. In many other Sci-fi stories the environment and locations are wildly described, but not in Harrison Bergeron. The reason for this could be the fact that, George and Hazel’s living room could be anyone’s living room. It could be my living...
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...In the book Harrison Bergeron, the year is 2081. In society everyone is equal. Nobody is better looking or smarter. Everyone is the same. Among this society are a married couple named George and Hazel Bergeron. The reader should feel sorry for George and Hazel Bergeron because of George’s handicaps, Hazel’s intelligence, and their comments about their son. Since everybody in this society has to be equal, some people are required to wear mental or physical handicaps. People who are more intelligent have to wear a mental handicap radio that sends out a loud sound every twenty seconds or so. People who are stronger than normal must wear weights around their necks and other body parts. Take George for example. As it says in Vonnegut’s story,...
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...Behind the Stove,” “The Scarlet Ibis,” and “Harrison Bergeron” all used the literary device of symbolism to augment the story with extra layers of depth, contributing to the overall theme. Firstly, “He Hid Behind the Stove” by Walter Lewis Wilson has the most prominent symbol of the work in...
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