Harrison Bergeron

“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is a story literally exaggerated to its limit by showing, in the near future, what it means to be equal in every way by having people not being able to show any form of intelligence or creativity whatsoever. When Harrison Bergeron breaks the chains of government oppression, he dies for his failed cause. He dies because he chooses not to conform to the rest of his oppressive society. His parents, George and Hazel, who are nothing more than two bodies under the government’s mind control, can do nothing to save their son or seek justice for his death. The story is not only a reflection of the author’s concern with controlling the masses through

The setting of this book has to be set in the future and in the United States.The setting must be set in the future because now we have serious equality issues and no one is that equal, especially in America.In this story, the goal was for everyone to be equal, “Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else”. However, for people like George, who had a “way above normal intelligence”, you were required to wear a little handicap radio that sent out loud noises every 20 or so seconds, which made it hard to use his intelligence to his advantage.It has to be in America because of the new amendments. All of this equality is “due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution.”The general

Every day is spent doing the same things over and over. There is no individualism, and any form of it is quickly removed from the society through torture or execution. Because of this, there are no technological advancements in this world, and it continues to remain technologically primitive. Equality 7-2521 is one of these individual thinkers, so his life is spent in fear that he will get caught for being divergent. Everything about Equality is that of an individual, from having "a head which is too quick" (Rand 21) to "[wishing} to know about all the things which make

First of all, people with above average intelligence must wear a mental handicap radio by law. For instance, George's intelligence is way above normal, so he has a handicap radio in his ear that will make alarming noises every so often to keep him from thinking deeply. This proves that there is no equality because people like George are forced into giving up their ability to think so that the society remains “equal”. Not to mention, everyone in “Harrison Bergeron” could not work hard and strive for excellence because they are all supposed to be mediocre. I know this because in the text it states “... since the announcer, like all announcers had a serious speech impediment… the announcer tried to say, ‘Ladies and Gentleman’. He finally gave up, handed the bulletin to a ballerina to read.” The fact that they gave the jobs of announcer to a person with a

According to the fact that everyone is different in many ways, it isn't possible for everyone to be equal. According to the story "Harrison Bergeron" all humans can never truly be equal. We see in the beginning of the story the reader learns that the gifted are handicapped, but the ability to reason hasn’t been taken away. Hazel tells George that she thinks he looks tired. She says, “All of a sudden

In the science fiction short story, HB, Kurt Vonnegut, the author creates a visual image of the year 2081, which every person is equalize in every aspect by the rule of the government. Vonnegut constructs this image made to the theme of power. According to the passage, boy whose name is Harrison Bergeron, a fourteen-year-old rebel, is put to jail because the U.S government suspects he is plotting to overthrow it. The ominous narrator tells the story through Harrison’s parents, George and Hazel. In this society, the citizens are the same as anyone in the nation. “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.”(69) This statement displays the reason to the

Inequality has been a long standing issue in societies. Though many constitutions and laws are constructed from the belief that all men are created equal, the widely accepted declaration has been proven false numerous times by the arise of social injustices plaguing societies around. With issues such as racism, sexism, ableism, classism, ageism, and religious oppression constantly being the topic of conversation it is almost impossible for one to believe that indeed everyone is equal. In actuality the belief that everyone is created equal is a flawed mentality because equality is defined is where everyone is the same despite the differences such as sex and race that makes them different. Humans as mammals were not made to be nor look the same

Dystopia. The word sends chills down the spines of even the youngest of minds as it rings in their ear. Some, the optimists, have thoughts of halcyon days, the sun bright upon their naked backs as they jump into an azure sea, careless thoughts passing through their lackadaisical minds. This arises a question, how can something so serene become a desolate wasteland full of hopeless regret and pain? Upon examination of The Hunger Games, “Harrison Bergeron” and an excerpt from “A Small Place” by Suzanne Collins, Kurt Vonnegut, and Jamaica Kincaid respectively, the answer to this question becomes crystalline.

Being tethered to a phone, as opposed to simply having and using one, has become the norm and does more harm than good at times. People, especially teenagers, cannot seem to put the phones down. Some even admit to being addicted to their smart phones and experience anxiety when they are without it. According to Ellen Gibson, author of “Sleep with Your iPhone? You're Not Alone”, more than thirty-five percent of adults in the U.S. have a smart phone; two thirds of those people actually sleep with their phone due to the anxiety they feel from the thought of missing something such as a text, phone call, email, or social media posting. Gibson states “…being away from their phone will almost certainly cause separation anxiety… some people have become so dependent on being able to use their smartphones to go online anytime, anywhere, that without that access, they ‘can no longer handle their daily routine’”. To some, being addicted to a phone is like being addicted to a drug; there is a strong dependency that makes it hard to focus or concentrate on anything else. After speaking with a group of students from Cranston High School in Connecticut, Turkle says “These young people live in a state of waiting for connection. And they are willing to take risks, to put themselves on the line. Several admit that tethered to their phones, they get into accidents when walking” (236). This is an issue that will

I believe that the world in the Bergeron story is a dystopia. In the starting of the story characters George and Hazel Bergeron are watching television. Hazel is what their government calls having a average intelligence. “Everybody was finally equal”… The government says that they are all equal in their community. But not only by God and law but in every which way they are equal. No one was smarter, better looking, or more talented then one another. “All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendment in the constitution”… Their government made laws saying that everyone had to be the same and they had no choice. But the only natural thing that was the same for all in the community was that they all had allergies when the month April comes around. Which means they are all equal, just not in every way.

In his Upfront article “ Are You Addicted to Your Phone”(2018) by Joe Bubar informs individuals of all ages to consider that we as a society have been so immune to being on our phones and its become an addiction to all ages. Bubar believes that has a generation we are addicted to our phones, though he explains that we ¨ have an entire generation of guinea pigs in an experiment¨ the creators of the apps didn't take the society's well being into consideration because they only care about money. Bubar´s purpose is to open the eyes of not only young people, but also to older people to realize that in this day in age technology isn't going away anytime soon it's just going to keep on improving in order to not get addicted they need to lower their

For thousands of years human beings have dreamed of a imagined place, society or state in which everything is perfect: no conflict, greed, huger, crime and unhappiness. Sir Thomas More first used a term “Utopia” in his book Utopia (1516), describing a perfect fictional island society in the Atlantic Ocean. In contemporary society, utopian ideals often place emphasis on egalitarian principles of equality in economics, government and justice, though by no means exclusively, with the method and structure of proposed implementation varying based on ideology (Graeber, David, 2015). With the development of human and the society's progressing, people’s pursuit about “Utopia” have started from initial fantasy to repeatedly attempts of exploring and

An alluring land void of terror, war, and displeasure appears to be impossible, yet its concept fuels the dreams of many. Sought after all throughout history by men from vast lands of diverse cultures, these paradigms of perfection, or utopias, have been attempted. Bound by politics, societal and economic factors, and personal endeavors, they perish under the exact terms that sparked their creation. Sir Thomas More, a renowned Renaissance humanist, attempts to defy that stigma through his recollection of an island called Utopia. His ideas, however, are incapable of maintaining a flawless state of content between the expectations and desires of both its residents and government. In reality, More’s “perfect” Utopian society mirrors a dystopia, for its unsuccessful government invalidates the diversity and individual drive that characterizes Earth and mankind.

When people think of addictions, usually, drugs and chemical substances come to mind. A frequent trend observed in today’s age is not being able to go anywhere without one’s digital device and being addicted to that device, especially one’s cell phone. Adopting a cell phone separation anxiety, is a type of behavioral addiction that is seen more and more today. On average, people are spending about three hours on their phones each day. Alter states, “‘Behavioral addictions are really widespread now...risen with the adoption of newer more addictive social networking platforms, tablets and smartphones’” (Dreifus). As new technologies that cater to people’s wants increase, addiction to these technologies will increase as well. People become so attached to their phones that they will perhaps get distracted from their current situation. In the article “Hooked On Our Smartphones”, the author Jane E. Brody talked about how sometimes commuters or drivers put themselves in a dangerous position when they pay more attention to their phone instead of what surrounds them. The almost

At every point of history, people were dreaming about the unique and totally fair society with undeniable justice and equality of rights. However, this has always stayed only a utopia. In other words, this idea has always been unachievable and stayed an ideal to which people would have to aspire. Nevertheless, many writers, including Plato with his Republic as well as Thomas More with his Utopia have made attempts to create and describe the society about which many people have been dreaming for hundreds of years.