In both 2081 and Harrison Bergeron, symbolism can be found nearly everywhere. However, one particular form was more present than many others. In the short story and the movie, viewers can clearly observe the Acts of Vampires symbolism (How to Read Literature Like a Professor - pg 15). To begin, there was a man-made monster present in both interpretations of Harrison Bergeron's story.
Now onto how Vonnegut,Jr uses the concept of ‘government in total control’ and the way he develops his characters. Harrison Bergeron is a short story that sets place in the future just like The Hunger Games but instead of humans being used as killing machine to kill others to win a game in this world we are all equal. You're probably thinking that this may not seem that bad but in reality this is horrific. The government is this books uses it power to put handicaps on other to make everyone the same. If you had any hint of beauty,there goes a bag over your face to mask it.
Harrison Bergeron and 2081 completely diverge in Harrison Bergeron’s characterization. Though the initial design for Harrison stays the same, the way the character is presented differ tremendously. In the short story, Harrison Bergeron is a seven-foot tall, fourteen year old, who upon his entry into the story, says, “‘I am the Emperor!’ cried Harrison. ‘Do you hear? I am the Emperor!
By George thinking about his son, we as the reader can infer how talented Harrison was and how hard the workers tried to stop him from being himself. This shows how true equality denies people their personalities by showing us how a person so spectacular could be chained up and denied the right to be and express himself. In the recreation of Harrison Bergeron as a
Knowledge is power, ignorance is surrender. Both stories serve as prime examples of the power that knowledge holds and consequently how depriving its citizens can be a weapon to counter uprising, because one who is unaware of any misconduct can not combat it. While both authors use two different approaches they achieve similar goals. In 1984 Orwell demonstrates how the government, in his dystopian society, attempts to eradicate not only individuality, but also intelligent thought process through the elimination of complex words as well as synonyms and antonyms. In “Harrison Bergeron” Vonnegut achieves the same effect by different means , mental handicap devices.
When Harrison was 14 years old he was taken from his family by the government and thrown into jail. The government knew Harrison was a threat so they “had”, too. Then Harrison escaped jail, tore off his handicaps, and went on stage where the ballerinas were performing on live tv. He gave a speech to the audience about how the government was controlling them and how great someone could be without them. After a short period of time he grabbed a ballerina, tore off her handicaps, and showed everyone how great they could be without handicaps.
In his short story Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut uses an astounding amount of powerful imagery and diction to create the perfect scenes of the dystopian reality he creates. Throughout his use of imagery, Vonnegut creates scenes palpably imagined by readers. He uses underlying humor to lighten scenes of the morbid and macabre nature of the future where being different can be a death sentence. The future that is created in totality by Vonnegut is a dire scene created to be filled with a pastiche of people strung with handicaps to make them to be exactly the same as the “perfectly average citizen.” Vonnegut’s tone throughout is both dreary towards the bizarre and twisted dystopia that makes everyone equal, but is also somewhat insulting to those who do not bear handicaps due to being lacking both mentally and physically.
“Harrison Bergeron,” written by Kurt Vonnegut at the time of the Cold War, is a short story that takes place in a future world of the year 2081 where the Handicapper General and the law force the beautiful to wear masks, the intelligent to wear earpieces that disrupt their thoughts, and the athletic to wear heavy physical restraints, so that everyone may be equal in the categories of beauty, intelligence, and athleticism; a world where the people “[are] equal in every which way.” (Vonnegut 1) What the many readers of “Harrison Bergeron” seem to misinterpret is that the entire story is an allegory to the political systems of Socialism/Communism and that Vonnegut utilizes symbols in the story that either expose the glaring flaws of left-wing politics or advance the supposedly far-superior ideology of American capitalism. In actuality, Vonnegut’s use of symbols in “Harrison Bergeron,” and the entire story itself is a satire of the common American’s ignorant misunderstandings of left-wing politics at the time of the Cold War. Vonnegut once said at a college commencement speech, “I suggest that you work for a socialist form of government … It isn 't moonbeams to talk of modest plenty for all.
Harrison Bergeron and 2081 differ in the portrayal of Harrison Bergeron's character. For example in the book Harrison Bergeron on line 52 he cried, " 'Do you hear? I am the Emperor! Everybody must do what I say at once!’ He stamped his foot and the studio shook"(Springboard 137).
One common afternoon in the year of 2081, when everyone was equal, Hazel and George Bergeron were in their lovely living room watching television. Suddenly, a news reporter with a severe speech impediment came on. After trying many times to say, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” he handed it off to a ballerina who read, “Harrison Bergeron, age 14, has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.” However, in this short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut uses irony, shift and mood, and allusion to illustrated haw society would be if everyone was under the law of equality.
Harrison Bergeron was a book written in 1961 that portrayed an abnormal child defying the dystopian government; in 2009 a movie was made, based off of it called 2081 that changed the character both physically and morally. The differences in how Harrison Bergeron, the main character, appears in each story changes how the audience perceives his morality. These changes are easily highlighted in Harrison’s age, dialogue, and appearance. The tone of the story is also changed, resulting in similar changes to what the audience interprets. As both stories continue these differences become more and more apparent and by the end, there is a clear split in what the audience ‘takes away’.
Comparing and contrasting 2081 to Harrison Bergeron Admit it, one time you were bored or sat down with nothing to do and couldn’t help but imagine how life would be if everyone was equal, don’t even try denying it, you’ve thought of that at least once in your life, but as any good writer would do, they’d write their thoughts down and turn it into a story, that’s exactly what Kurt Vonnegut did. Just imagine living a life where no one gets compared to others in any way. We all wish for a society like that, but Kurt showed us how equality can negatively affect our society. But that’s not the our main idea in this essay, our main idea is to highlight the comparisons and contrasts between the story “Harrison Bergeron” and the movie version “2081”. To begin with, Both the story and the movie had the same introduction/ Opening; “Everybody was finally equal.
By rebelling against the government, he was sending a weak message that people can be free if they take action, but Harrison is not a strong role model to look up to if you are wanting to rebel, since he acts more like a child. On the other hand, Tuttle took it upon himself to create a hero for the enslaved people. In 2081, Harrison is a twenty year-old man whose goal is to show the people what they could become if they thought for themselves. This message is quite similar to Vonnegut’s, but Tuttle sends the message in a more emotional and powerful way that touches the viewers. While on stage, Harrison gives a speech about himself and then goes on to really reach into the minds of the audience.
Kurt Vonnegut uses characterization to describe how the characters act in this society. Vonnegut also uses style to show how he uses science fiction and dystopia in “Harrison Bergeron”. The theme demonstrated in “Harrison Bergeron” is equality is not meant to make one person better than another. Kurt Vonnegut in “Harrison Bergeron”, demonstrates that equality based on characteristics is not a good thing for society. Harrison Bergeron is a short story based on the year 2081, where everybody is equal.
The character Harrison, in the story “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, has many traits that help aide the theme of the story. Harrison was a strong, good looking, determined young individual with a goal to be different than everyone else. To begin with, Harrison is a good looking 14 year old that is 7ft tall with big goals in life. Harrison is one that was made handicapped by the Handicapper General because he is better than the others.
