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Dystopian Society In Harrison Bergeron And The Lottery

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The famed author C.S. Lewis once said,”Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” This is a statement that many can agree or disagree on. To some, it means that a ruling power or government could enforce rules and regulations on its citizens that are thought of as helping them, but instead making everything worse and are hindering them from making the society better. A counter argument could be that the oppression is helping the society become better. Some examples of this type of dystopian society are Harrison Bergeron and The Lottery. In both, they are forced by law or tradition to carry out a certain type of life, and do certain things that were originally thought to help, but in reality actually hurt them. In The Lottery, everyone in the small village is required to participate in a lottery, and draw slips of paper to determine the winner. The unlucky winner wins something not so lucky--they either …show more content…

In this story, everyone is made equal by the “Handicapper-General”, by having handicaps placed on them to make everyone the same. Everyone is perfectly equal and no one is better than anyone else, or any stronger, smarter, or even more athletic than any other person. That’s a good thing, right? No. This would keep people from reaching their full potential, possibly to help the whole of the population. Yes, it is good to for the government to have control, but the power the government has in the story Harrison Bergeron is way too much. In present day, the government has set boundaries, does not overstep them. If it were to overstep them, there would be outcries against it, but by that point it would be too late to fight back. One should be able to control their own destiny, and be allowed to reach their full potential and all of the good it might

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