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Compare And Contrast Anthem And Harrison Bergeron

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“The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal” (Aristotle). “Harrison Bergeron” is a short story written by the famous author, Kurt Vonnegut. This book was based off of the symbol of equality and published in 1961. “Harrison Bergeron” was written about a boy named Harrison, who tried to overpower the government. Harrison was not for the government’s ways of “equality” and wanted to live by his own set of rules. Written by Ayn Rand and published in August of 2008, Anthem, is about a boy named Equality 7-2521. Equality is an extremely curious character wanted nothing less than to be recognized. Equality lived in a world where everything a person did was picked for them by the government. Rand based her book of her …show more content…

Whether a story ends in a sad ending like “Harrison Bergeron,” or a happy ending like Anthem, each must complete the thought of the story itself. Harrison Bergeron was shot and killed by the government after his rebellion. He was willing to die for what he believed in for that split second of freedom that he had (Vonnegut, n. pag.). Unlike Harrison, Equality was not one to total rebel. As said before, Equality walked away and built a whole new community. Equality started a family with his beloved, The Golden One and lived happily ever after (Rand, n.pag.). These two characters saw the issues in the equality of the government. When a society is ruled in a communistic fashion, like “Harrison Bergeron” and Anthem, pleasing everyone is nearly impossible. These dystopian worlds attempting to live in a community where equality is the focus, have failed. They have failed using their manipulation over the entire society and had rebellion. A government cannot set a table of beliefs and roll with it if the community does not agree, they will be overthrown. Many people today would love for the world to be as equal as possible, but too much equality can cause complete destruction to a

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