...The Comparison-Contrast Essay Daouda Soumahoro September 13, 2011 American Intercontinental University Abstract James Baldwin and Kurt Vonnegut Jr were two eminent writers that marked American fiction literature after world war two. James Baldwin is the author of Sonny’s Blues published in early 1950 in New City. The story is narrated by unknown man who pertain his attempted to come to the damage with his long disaffected Brother Sonny, Jazz musician. In this work Baldwin absorbed many of his own experiences to search the issuances of racial conflict, individuality and the complexity of human needs. Similar to Sonny, Harrison Bergeron, written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr is a fourteen year boy who rebels against his tyrannical government. Vonnegut used a satirical humoristic commentary of society and its leaders as James used the lightness and darkness symbols to describe his suffering characters. The question is how the author literacy styles differ or similar to one another in term of themes? The Comparison-Contrast Essay Sonny’s Blues written by James is a story that addresses with very expression of the society and is done so through symbolism and imagery. Baldwin’s story is carefully written using lightness and darkness as typifies through out the entire story, he focuses of “Sonny’s Blues” on the character of sonny who eventually and endlessly fighting to find what makes him happy. Finally Sonny finds two breaks loose, one of them disastrous drug abuse and musician ...
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...peace on Earth. To be happy and live a good life. In "Harrison Bergeron," by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., everyone is equal. Nobody is better than anybody else in anything. Nobody can be smart, skinny, or strong Vonnegut Jr. Uses similes, repetition, imagery, and hyperboles to show the equality between the characters. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Uses similes to show the equality between all the characters. Vonnegut describes the sound in George's head "like bandits from a burglar alarm." Every time George thinks something intelligent, a beep-like noise goes off in his head. This sound is described as loud and annoying. It's as if someone is breaking into you head. An effect this makes on readers is hearing the buzzer in George's head and relating to it. Another simile Vonnegut Jr. Uses is "swaying like a willow." This compares the ballerina that is dancing to a willow tree swaying in the air. This shows the dancer dancing gracefully and beautifully. Readers can picture this in...
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...A Reflection on Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Introduction Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s short story, Harrison Bergeron, is about control. The setting is based in future America, where everyone is forced to be equal. Harrison, the main character, breaks the law as the country watches on TV. The story begins by mentioning Amendments 211 through 213, making the reader aware of limitations that could potentially be placed on their freedom. In this story of perception, government agents are the deciding factor of a person’s fate and they ensure that laws are enforced. Beautiful people must wear hideous masks to make them equal to the ugly, the brilliant wear ear devices that alter their thought process and make recollection near impossible and the strong wear weighted bags to make them equal to those who are weak (Vonnegut, 1961). Forced equality is questioned by the handicapped and the outcome is a controlled society. Harrison is used to represent the people who will protest against such laws and encourage others to support his cause. The central idea is that the government could never make a perfect world by enforcing total equality but they can place limitations on people. Discussion Vonnegut uses a satirical and humorous tone while presenting a serious topic to critique America in the 1960’s, both politically and socially. The political system in the story is egalitarianism; this is the belief that all people should be treated equally in every...
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...I would love to be as handsome as Brad Pitt, and I know that many people would die to have Bill Gate’s intellect. To live in a society where everything is perfect, is a tantalizing dream that we always hope to achieve. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. explored the concept of making strength, beauty, and intelligence an equal affair; therefore, he scrapped all thoughts of individualism, which is another perception that Americans greatly prize. By using irony in Harrison Bergeron, the notion of a utopia that uses sensory details to maintain control is undermined, along with the foreshadow of fatality from depersonalizing an individual. Irony plays a critical role in the development of Harrison Bergeron because it allows the reader to understand the conditions of the year 2081. The opening paragraph, etched with sarcastic tones, shoves the reader into an egalitarian United States where a narrator interjects comical insights to the situation without blatantly stating personal feelings. Then Hazel Bergeron provides a sardonic wit concerning their lives, and ironically she is not given any handicaps. On the other hand, her husband has forty-seven pounds of birdshot strapped to his neck, and he yields his obedience entirely to the government. The Bergerons’ son, Harrison, has the record number of hindrances since the movement toward equality; therefore, he is the strongest, smartest, and fastest in the United States. When he escapes prison and sheds his handicaps, in his first moment of...
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...Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Formalism The formalist movement heralded by the Russian Formalist movement and supported by the American New Criticism signaled the beginning of a new era in literary criticism (Rivkin and Ryan 1). Prior to the movement, literature was studied in a manner that was concerned with everything but the language used. However, the formalist movement chose to deviate from the norm. Formalism is concerned with the language used in literature only; the form of the literary piece (Rivkin and Ryan 1). For the formalists, literature is not perceived as a window to the world, but rather as something with specifically literary characteristics. Formalists did not agree with the conventional perceptions that were used to mark a piece of literature as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ (Purdue University). Formalism asserts that each work of literature has particular intrinsic features in the text and specifically looks at these literary qualities in the text. Prior to the formalist movement, literature has studied a means of gaining understanding about the world. Literature was studied in its historical context, philosophical and social implications of literature were considered in the study of literature. However, formalism abandons all these notions and looks at literature independent of the historical and social context but as an independent body of work. The main point of formalism is to put each work in its unique place, free from attachment or comparison to its...
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...Equality Equality is something doesn’t come easy. It can have different meanings to different people. In “Harrison Bergeron” (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.), “I Have a Dream” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), and “If We Must Die” (Claude McKay) equality is the missing piece of the puzzle. These three writing pieces show different ways that equality can affect and change a person’s life. It shows that without equality big disasters in society may happen. To start off, in “I Have a Dream” Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a heartwarming speech that convinced many people across the United States to fight for equal rights. Some of the rights that African American people were fighting for where for example the right for freedom and justice. Although they were fighting for equal rights they were also fighting for a change in people’s hearts towards African American people. This is stated in speech when Martin Luther King Jr. states “…where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Martin Luther King Jr. is trying to tell us that even...
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...The short story “Harrison Bergeron,” by author Kurt Vonnegut Jr., typifies the characteristics commonly associated with dystopian literature. In the short story, there is an illusion of a “perfect” (Read.Write.Think 1) society in a utopian world when in actual fact that is not so. In the beginning of the short story, the society is thought to be “…finally equal. Before God and the law.”(Vonnegut Jr. 1). This is not clearly shown, as society is brainwashed to think that everyone is equal when in reality, they are kept in physical and psychological restraints while information, freedom and independent thought are strictly forbidden from society. The main protagonist Harrison is shot and killed for trying to help others realize the “negative aspects”...
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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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...ceiling above you. But then, the Handicapper General rushes in and ruins your fun by shooting and killing you and your empress. This is what happens to Harrison Bergeron. He wanted freedom, but he had to pay the price of death. In this story, “Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.” Harrison’s parents are watching television and they see Harrison trying to overturn the government. The Handicapper General rushes in and kills him because he wanted to let everyone free. This story shows that freedom is what people want but sometimes it takes risks to get freedom. One of the biggest themes in Harrison Bergeron is the idea of freedom. On page 3, Hanzel is trying to convince George to take some of the lead balls out of his handicap bag because how tired he always is. “If you could just take a few out when you came home from work…” This shows us that George makes it seem that he is already free, even though he has all the handicaps. He makes it seem like we are...
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...In the real world, people should do a better job of not taking things for granted, since some are less fortunate. In “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the characters have to be the same as each other, with no differences. The people don’t realize that this is happening and when they do begin to grow suspicious, the government washes the idea away. Vonnegut focused deeply on dialogue to set up the problem, provide background information and build suspense. In the beginning, the author uses dialogue to set up the problem when he writes, “That was a real pretty dance, that dance they just did,’ said Hazel. ‘Huh?’ said George. ‘That dance-it was nice,’ said Hazel.” This quote is part of the story “Harrison Bergeron” and the character George is forced to wear a handicap by the government's concerns that the people will outsmart them or have more talents. This helps to set up the problem, by showing how not knowing what just happened could be a problem and hard to deal with. This dialogue is repetitive in this story, revealing the problem all throughout. The problem in this example being, that that George can’t remember what he was just talking about since the government makes them forget what happened. This is why I think that the dialogue reveals the...
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...The short story, Harrison Bergeron, was written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In the story, we see many uses of different literary devices that help us understand the world they are living in. Similes introduce us to the loud, distracting sounds that go off in George’s head every time he is about to take advantage of his brain. The handicaps that certain people are chosen to wear symbolize their strength, intelligence, and beauty. Vonnegut uses allusions to reference a Greek god and the Constitution. I chose this story because I was fascinated by this world where everyone was “equal” and by Harrison’s fearlessness in challenging the laws and his desire to be free. In Harrison Bergeron, many similes are used to describe the sounds that block George from thinking too much. When Hazel, George’s wife, asked what the transmitter had sounded like, he responded, “sounded like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer.” At times when George remembers his son, Harrison, sounds “like a twenty-one-gun salute in his head,” will interrupt his train of thought. These sounds are used so nobody is smarter than anybody else. Some people in this story can’t even use their real voice because it would be unfair. When a ballerina spoke, “Her voice was a warm, luminous, timeless melody,” but she was immediately forced to apologize and use a voice that was uncompetitive. Vonnegut used a metaphor to compare the beauty in the ballerina’s voice to a melody. In Harrison Bergeron, many people who...
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...To understand a story a person must first realize the theme behind the story. The theme can be defined as the overall purpose or reason. A theme describes a central idea, thought or point of discussion that the author wishes or intends to communicate to the audience. Such a point of discussion can be presented in a literary work, song or a movie. Therefore, the theme is the message that is presented as the moral lesson in a story. Many stories were written to convey a message to their readers whether it is for entertainment purposes or educational enlightenment. (dspsweb). Themes can be used to provide the main idea or motif of a piece of work. Kate Chopin's "The Storm", Ernest Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s "Harrison Bergeron" were all reviewed for the purpose of theme. Understanding the theme behind each of these pieces is important when analyzing the author's true purpose for their piece. Kate Chopin's “The Storm" was a piece designed to show how the events in life can have profuse effects on tomorrow but if all is well when "the storm" passes, then tomorrow may continue just as today did. “So the storm passed and everyone was happy”. (Kennedy and Gioia 100). The storms that Kate spoke of served both superficial and realistic natures. The storms faced by people each and every day can be viewed through Chopin’s perspective of troubled weather. The two characters continued to confess their suppressed desires for each other and how the marriage...
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...Science fiction is a genre that most people don't approve of. Not because it requires crude humor or other horrible things to be in it (which it doesn’t), but because of what it tells us. Science fiction books have been rejected by many people because those people believe that it makes us want to rebel, and tells us something about our society that we might be better off not knowing. Two science fiction stories, the book Fahrenheit 451 and the short story "Harrison Bergeron", beg to differ. Both stories display clear proof that knowledge is power in both, the setting created by the authors of the books, and the world we live in. Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, showed that knowledge is power throughout his book in many different...
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...“Harrison Bergeron” a short story by Kurt Vonnegut is about the year 2081 when everyone is “equal” under the U.S law because they are handicapped to be the same. Harrison, the protagonist, rebels by escaping from jail for justice and is killed. An individual cannot change society because people fear change, changing a group’s perspective is too difficult, and appearance restricts people’s thinking of change. Fear is one of the most powerful emotions that controls people, whether an he/she knows the morality of their actions. In “Harrison Bergeron”, fear continuously set certain beliefs in the citizens’ minds controlling their actions and life. In a scene where Harrison takes over, fear is set in the citizen’s mind from the government. “Ballerinas technicians, musicians, and announcers cowered on their knees before him, expecting to die.” (Vonnegut Jr. 04) This quote shows everyone in the society that they fear Harrison without understanding his actions. The ballerinas, musicians, and announcers were willing to die having no knowledge of the good Harrison could provide. Due to the fear set in their society, very few citizens chose to even...
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...The stories “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin are stories that ponder society in being a perfect environment. The View of an ideal society is different, but flawed in. In each story there is a veto on seeing beyond or beneath the sketchy appearance of everyday events. Though these to stories show a difference, they share a similar characteristic of a dystopian society. In Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut begins the story of by giving a misunderstanding of the real meaning of equality, by having the idea that nobody can be better than anybody else. The narrator tells us “they were equal in every which way. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker...
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