Thoughts about the future
Summaries
The Pedestrian:
The Pedestrian is a story set in the future, more specifically in 2053. The main character, Leonard Mead is taking a walk in the evening. It’s dark, chilling and silent. The world is boring and lifeless. On his walk in the streets there are absolutely nobody in the streets but him. The only sign of other people are the flickering light from the TVs in the houses. On his way home, a police car stops him. The light from the car blinds him, but he hears the voice of a police officer. The voice asks him to state his business, alone in the streets in the evening. He tries to explain that he’s just walking and has done so every night for years. But the police don’t seem to understand and decides to arrest him. That’s when he realizes that it isn’t an actual policeman; it’s an automated voice. The police car is going to take him to a Psychiatric institution.
Harrison Bergeron:
In Harrison Bergeron we are introduced to a world where everybody is equal. If it’s necessary, you get applied what’s called handicaps. It means that if you’re fit or strong you get heavy blocks attached to your body and it’s very illegal to remove them. Smart people wear earplugs that make a noise at frequent intervals, which prevent them to do any smart thinking. The story is about George and Hazel Bergeron who is watching television. George is very handicapped with both blocks and earplugs. But Hazel is very average and don’t need any handicaps. They are watching a bunch of handicapped ballet dancers dance, when suddenly the transmission is interrupted by a newscast. A dangerous person named Harrison Bergeron has escaped. The ballet show is resumed, but is quickly interrupted by no other than Harrison Bergeron entering the stage. He has massive handicaps and full headphones. He is protesting against the way the world works with the handicaps, on live TV. He removes his handicaps, and asks the ballet dancers to remove their handicaps and dance with him. One of them has enough courage to do it, and she removes her own handicaps. Harrison asks the band to play the best they can. Him and the ballet dancer dance ballet together. But only for a short time, because suddenly the police enter the room, and shoot both the ballet dancer and Harrison. It ends with George reflecting on what he just watched, but can’t interpret it before his earplug screams, and make him lose his thought.
2BR02B:
2BR02B is another story set in the future. The human population have grown to somewhat of maximum, because all diseases have been cured, including age. Which means that you can’t have a baby, unless someone agrees to give his or her life. A man name Edward K. Wehling jr. has a wife who’s going to have triplets. He has found one volunteer, his own grandfather. He is waiting in the place where people get ‘terminated’. A painter has painted the room to look like a beautiful and formal garden. A woman has volunteered and is going to be painted onto the wall. While she is getting painted, the leader of the institution steps into the room. His name is Dr. Hitz. They start talking and at some point they start talking about a man who is going to get triplets, but needs more volunteers. Dr. Hitz asks Wehling to step forward. Dr. Hitz starts discussing population control. Wehling is a desperate man and the discussion ends with Wehling shooting Dr. Hitz, the woman who volunteered and at last he shoots himself. Which makes room for all three babies, and his grandfather won’t need to volunteer. The painter is so affected by the scene that he chooses to volunteer himself.
Similarities:
An obvious thing that they all have in common is their setting in the future. But they aren’t particular sci-fi with flying cars or things controlled by thoughts. At first glance they all look like the world today, but they each present a society issue from today, just taken to the extremes. The Pedestrian presents a society where the police have been automated. Seems like a good idea to reduce criminality, unfortunately the police don’t have any human judgement. Harrison Bergeron presents a society where everyone is equal, the dream socialist society. 2BR02B presents a society where human population have grown to a maximum, and people don’t die of age, which prevents new people to be born. All these issues aren’t unreal. They have all been discussed today. But they all show the solution of many of today’s issues in a bad way. You could say that they all show a scaremongering of the future. Even though the society actually might work, they are all presented in bad way. They show the bad side of the solutions to today’s problems.
A big thing that they all have in common is that ‘the bad guy’ is the government. The reason to the characters misery is the government having too much power. The novels support a liberal society. Even though you don’t hear anything about how politics works, in the future presented in the novels, it doesn’t seems like there is much democracy. In Harrison Bergeron I guess any people smart enough to see the wrongs in the society have been handicapped so much, that they won’t do anything. And in The Pedestrian people don’t seem to care that they live an absolutely boring life, only few people like the main character see the wrongs in the Society. In 2BR02B the only logical answer to why the society is as it is, are that there aren’t any other solutions but to stop birth to new children to prevent overpopulating the planet.
To me they all have in common that they are extremely interesting, because they really show that there isn’t a perfect world. They bring today’s issues to discussion, and shows that the most logical solution might not be the best. They show that we might not want eternal life or infinite police.