...perfect society. A utopia is a place where everybody is equal. No one is better looking than anyone else. Nobody is stronger than anybody else. Normally a perfect society becomes an imperfect, or dystopian society. In the story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, the handicap general claims to have a perfect society. In the book it says ”...Everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way.” (Vonnegut 1). This portrays a utopian society because nobody had to worry about being better than anybody else. The world was finally a “perfect” place. “The television program was suddenly interrupted for a news bulletin. It wasn’t clear at first as to what the bulletin was about was about, since the announcer, like all announcers, had a serious speech impediment. For half a minute, and in a state of high excitement, the announcer tried to say ladies and gentlemen.” (Vonnegut 2). In the story, they tried to create a utopia by handicapping people to make everyone equal. Also, because of the handicap...
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...“Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1922, and ten years later The Great Depression began. In this time, Vonnegut had to adapt to living in impoverished conditions because of his father’s lack of financial means. The Great Depression was a crucial period in his childhood development; Vonnegut’s literary pieces are a reflection of what he observed the world to be through his own life experiences. The majority of his works are science fiction used to “[help] lend form to the presentation of this world view without imposing a falsifying causality upon it (Reed),” as Peter Reed mentioned in an autobiography about Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut believed that science fiction offers a perception into an everyday society, rather than escaping it. The extraordinary events he experienced throughout his life served as motivation and influenced him to write stories about the world; as a result, Vonnegut showed an immense appreciation about life in his literary pieces. Kurt Vonnegut continued to pursue his goal of demonstrating to the world how wonderful life is through creations in the graphic arts. In 1950, Vonnegut published his first short story, “Report on the Barnhouse Effect” followed by “The Sirens of Titan” (1959), “Cat’s Cradle” (1963), “Slaughterhouse-Five” (1969), and “Breakfast of Champions” (1973). The society in which Kurt Vonnegut was a part of highly valued the ideal of equality; the short story “Harrison Bergeron” was written to foreshadow the...
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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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...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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...science fiction is also seen in short stories."Old Glory" is a dystopian short story about a future United States. Unlike in The Hunger Games, the narrator does not feel like the setting is dystopian. In the future United States, people cannot say anything they want. If they speak out, they are killed. "Harrison Bergeron" is also dystopian and is a society where everyone must be equal. While reading the story, readers find out that equality in fact is not always right if used...
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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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...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 in a society (Mowery). Each story portrays a totalitarian government that proposes an irrational solution to genuine problems. Vonnegut uses dystopian fiction and his aversion to science, technology, and television to expose what he feels are foolish ideas and weaknesses in our society. This paper will analyze each story, contrasting how each...
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...from the Greek: οὐ ("not") and topos ("place") and means "no-place", and...in standard usage, the word's meaning has narrowed and now usually describes a non-existent society that is intended to be viewed as considerably better than contemporary society." Dystopia, on the other hand, is the direct opposite of utopia, and is used to describe a utopian society after things have gone diminished. The future based short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is based on a 'utopian society' where the world is living up to the idea of America’s fourteenth amendment in which everyone is created equal. The gifted, strong, intelligent, and beautiful are forced to wear handicaps of either earphones, heavy weights, or hideous...
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...the 1940s through the 1960s, the world lived in a time of war. In September 1939 World War II broke out , and was followed by the Cold War of 1947 that lasted up until 1991. The historic wars of these times influenced literature and the writers of the time, as they shaped their novels and books around these events. Writers such as George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut created novels of dystopian societies to alert nations that communism was not as great as it sounded. British writer George Orwell wrote the novel 1984 published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. in 1949. 1984 is a political novel written with the purpose of warning readers in the West of the dangers of totalitarian government. In 1949, the Cold War had not yet escalated, and many Americans supported communism as possible political systems for the west. Therefore, Orwell wrote his novel in order to expose the cruelty and oppression of communist countries. In his dystopian nation, Orwell gave a sneak peak of what a country could become if the people gave all the power to the government. In 1984, Orwell portrays the perfect totalitarian society in which the government monitors and controls every aspect of human life to the extent that having a disloyal thought is against the law. They do so with the use of technology such as tele screens and microphones across the city which allowed the government to monitor all the citizens almost all of the times. In order to keep the citizens of London loyal and obedient to the government...
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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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...Harrison Bergeron Analysis Harrison Bergeron is a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut. The story is a about the society in America in 2081, a man called George and his wife, Hazel, and the way the society is controlling people, so they can fit into what the government call “average”, and thereby achieve the goal of being ‘equal’. In today’s society everybody strikes to be the best, better looking and smarter than anybody else, and therefore the thought about living in a society where everyone is equal might sound tempting, if you find the race of being the best tiring. A lot of the things that most young people are struggling with right now might disappear. No more jealousy and at best no more war. There is often created a dystopian world, when humans are trying to make it a utopian one. The story about Harrison Bergeron concerns this issue. Everybody is equal, which might sound like a utopian world but in fact is a dystopian society to be living in. “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the Law. They were equal in every which way. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else” The meaning of the word ‘equal’ has been taking to a whole new level and it is supposed to be making the society a better place, but in fact the thing it is doing, is controlling the citizens and taking away their freedom of thought, intellectual ability and their individual beauty and strength. An...
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...Compare and Contrast HB+A Aristotle once said “Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons”(‘World of Quotes”) In Harrison Bergeron by kurt Vonnegut and Anthem by Ayn Rand there are two men who are forced by their government to try to be equal. Wearing heavy weights, and a huge nose to make him look ugly, while Equality 7-2521 is made to work in the home of Street Sweepers. Even though he is smart, he is also prohibited from using the word “I”. So they are both prevented from being individuals. Although Anthem and Harrison Bergeron are both a dystopian society their treatment of family and technology differs. If human thought is suppressed, then society is collapses on itself, “The heads of our brothers bowed, The eyes of are brothers are dull and never do they look one another in the eyes. The shoulders of our brothers are hunched and muscles are drawn, as if their bodies were shrinking and wished to shrink out of sight. And a word steals into our mind as we look upon our brothers, as the word is fear” (Rands 46) This quote illustrate that society is already collapsing on itself. The men are lifeless because the council will not allow them to think for themselves. The societies as well are not able to think for themselves for if they do, the council will punish them. Being...
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...short story “Harrison Bergeron” is about a dystopian society in the year 2084. The short story revolves around the lives of George Bergeron, his wife Hazel Bergeron, and their rebellious son, Harrison Bergeron. There are many literary lenses that one can use to interpret this short story, one in particular is the psychoanalytic lens. By reading a story through a psychoanalytic lens, a person uses the work of Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychology to interpret the text they are reading. Through the psychoanalytic lens, the reader is able to compare the characters of Harrison Bergeron to parts of a person’s personality, for example, Harrison Bergeron can be compared to the Id, George can be compared to the ego, and the Handicapper general can be compared to the Superego. The Id runs on the pleasure principle whose goal is to increase pleasure and decrease pain, like the Id, Harrison’s goal is to break free of the handicaps that he is forced to wear in order to increase the quality of his life. The Id is the basic storehouse for human’s basic needs and drives. Harrison contains such an incredibly strong drive that it causes him to make irrational decisions. One can say that Harrison even suffers from cathexis because of his obsession with rebellion. Similar to the Id, Harrison does not learn from its mistakes. When Harrison...
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...All Men are Created Equally Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., author of "Harrison Bergeron" perhaps takes America's First Amendment that all men are created equally a little to seriously. His futuristic short story gives the reader a glimpse of what a truly equal society would be like. In Vonnegut's society various constraints are used to handicap and equalize the citizens; earphones that emit piercing noises to distract the thoughts of the gifted, heavy weights to weaken the strong, and hideous masks to hide ones natural beauty. Vonnegut's dystopian world exposes the dangers and disadvantages of a society with complete equality of all citizens portrayed by imagery, satire and a not so happy ending. In the beginning of the story the reader is given a glimpse of a truly equal society. Vonnegut emphasis his view of extreme equality and the role the government plays in enforcing it. The year was...
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... 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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