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By The Waters Of Babylon Kurt Vonnegut Analysis

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“Harrison Bergeron” vs. “By The Waters Of Babylon” Will the future of Earth be bright or could it turn dark? In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “By The Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét, two ominous futures are portrayed along with their dangers. In “Harrison Bergeron” everyone is equal and has to wear handicaps to ensure equality. In “By The Waters of Babylon”, future New York is in ruins after a bombing based off man’s technology. The stories “Harrison Bergeron” and “By the Waters of Babylon” compare and contrast based on the future and the warnings of the future based off the technology used. The Future of these worlds was very grim and depressing. The world in “Harrison Bergeron” is based on equality. The government at this time is vigilant that everyone needs to wear government handicaps so that “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” and everyone is as identical as possible (Vonnegut 1). This creates the citizens to cower from this oppression and to rebel to neutralize their power. In the world of …show more content…

In “Harrison Bergeron” the use of the technology is involved with the government controlled handicaps. These make all individuals uniform, which is ruining their government and their people as no one is happy and shows them consternation, “Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April, for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime.” (2). The results of the handicaps are rebellions of the people. Similarly, in “By the Waters of Babylon” in another future, “the ground there burns forever,” because of the nuclear explosion based off man's own technological error (581). These technologies warn us of what could be made of our remote future. Their futures are similar in the way that they are both foreshadowing the death of our

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