It’s 2081, new laws, new society. Everyone was equal. Imagine living in the world where “Harrison Bergeron” takes place. Nobody could be greater than anybody in anything, making what people believed to be equality. In “Harrison Bergeron”the society was truly equal to each other. For everybody knew they had the same amount skill, handicaps ensured prevention from inequality, and on the other hand people knew others had a higher skill or rank, which is an incorrect statement. The society was truly equal to each other for everybody knew they had the same amount of skill. For example, “the year was 2081 and everybody was equal.’’ This evidence explains how due to the laws, everyone is equal in every way. The fact that people believed they were …show more content…
To support my answer is the killer of Harrison. “Handicap general, a woman named Diana Moon.” Others may say that since Diana had a higher rank than most, everyone was unequal. This isn’t true for ranks or power had nothing to do with talent. Like I discussed before, anyone could do anything (in this case any job) because they were all equal. So anyone could have become the handicap general, making Diana still equal to everyone else. Another example would be the ballerina. “She must have been beautiful because of the mask she wore was hideous,” Some may think that others could tell who was better than who, making everyone “unequal”. Though due to handicaps people couldn’t think about how beautiful or strong someone was. Sure, George was the one who thought the ballerina was originally beautiful but the handicaps made people unable to fully process these thoughts, and others couldn’t even create thoughts without handicaps. All these reasons as to why the society is still equal leads to my final thoughts. In “Harrison Bergeron” the society was truly equal. Everyone knew they had the same amount of skill, handicaps ensured prevention from inequality, and people knew others had a higher skill or rank which has proven to be false. Now, don’t you think society should be like this?
Single Paragraph Essay “ Harrison Bergeron ” “ Harrison Bergeron ,” written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. focuses on equality — physically andmentally — strongly controlled by the government in the year 2081; the beautiful are forced tolook ugly, the physically skilled are required to wear weights. With these handicaps makingeveryone so equal, the world became very different, odd, and average. But the government hasno right or reason to push the whole world to be “…equal every which way.” (203) To suppress someone’s natural looks or physical talents is not only wrong to natural human rights, but it is also illegal, and for very good reason: everyone is different.
What does it mean to be equal? What level is considered to be the level equality that humans should be ok with and who decides this? Well in the short story “Harrison Bergeron” there is plenty examples of what levels of knowledge and talent are considered to be equal and the level of equality is determined by the Handicapper General. First lets undestand the deffination of the word equal. According to the Webster dictionary the meaning of equal is free from extremes as in a) tranquil in mind or mood b) not showing variation in appearance, structure, or proportion.
This is because everyone is equal in regard of wealth, strength, beauty, and intelligence, however, the people are only equal because of handicaps given to them by the handicap general. Lastly, in Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins’
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 Importance of Absolute Equality in “Harrison Bergeron” For hundreds of years, humanity has struggled to define equality, as well implement the concept properly into society. Slaves; prisoners of war; and even in today’s society, we still see people of color treated as lesser than their Caucasian counterparts. Interestingly enough, color is never introduced as a problem in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron”. While most people nowadays would agree that the word “equality” refers to equal opportunity, Vonnegut forces this word to the extremes, and warps its meaning into something much more controlling, to the point where it harms society more than inequality ever did.
They were not only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.”
In the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. relies on the use of irony to indicate where our country will stand once we have gained total equality amongst each other. The theme in “Harrison Bergeron” is that the government cannot enforce equality within the people. The author creates a fictional visualization of the future in the year 2081, where the government controls the people and tortures them in order to maintain “equal opportunity” in their world to prove why it is impossible to achieve absolute equality in the world. Vonnegut dives into a whole other level of uniformity in Harrison Bergeron by focusing on eliminating advantages in appearance, intelligence, strength, and other unique abilities rather than focusing on
Harrison Bergeron Essay Claim: Being equal isn’t always fair. Intro: What if someone had to wear a handicap? Or what if someone had to be treated exactly like everyone else?
In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, he explores this equality idea in a in 2081 setting where every man, woman, and child are on the same level of intelligence. Although in Kurt Vonnegut’s story the government is appearing to want equality, in all reality they really just want power and control. To begin the Harrison Bergeron story, George and Hazel Bergeron’s son Harrison is taken away to be put in prison. Following this, they live in a society where “nobody was smarter than anybody else”(Vonnegut 1387), everyone is forced to wear head capps and follow the governments every rule.
If the entire world was the same, including the ballerinas, they wouldn’t be compelled to wear handicap bags. Handicap are bags that are full of lead balls that weigh as much as your equality. As stated by the author of “Harrison Bergeron”, “Go on and rest the bag for a little while,”she stated. “I don’t care if you’re not equal to me for a while.” This statement demonstrates that everyone was not always equal.
In “Harrison Bergeron” people aren’t truly equal. In this short story, they took equality to the next level. Most people think that equality is everyone being treated with the same amount of respect. Appearance has nothing to do with equality in today’s society. Although looking the same and having the same level of intelligence may decrease jealousy, people shouldn’t force others to change because of this.
The story, Harrison Bergeron really shows the importance of diversity and for every individual to have a right to be unique. The government trying to make every thing completely fair is actually unfair to people who can 't get any excitement in a world like this. Limiting peoples thinking will also strongly slow any advances in technology, maybe even to a stop, so they might never solve some of the very important problems they face. Same with strength, if someones is in danger to an animal or a malfunctioning machine they will need to be able to escape. So really a world thats completely fair is impossible to create.
However, people do not have to conform to the standards set by society. In Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, society forced people to be alike, in every way possible. No one person better than another. However, it shows that handicapping those who have excelled in an area of life or have greater ability than another is an injustice.
The science fiction works of “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut and “The Pedestrian”, by Ray Bradbury are sarcastic portrayals of futuristic societies that are controlled by authoritative governments that have completely made their communities equal. Each of these stories take a look at the prospect of promoting sameness and conformity among all people, and questions the effects of the forced elimination of citizens’ individuality in order to maintain equality. In “The Pedestrian” Mr. Leonard Mead faces extreme consequences for his nightly stroll in the city. In the year 2053, Mead’s society has become completely taken over by televisions and the media.
Equality is a great idea that we should strive for and achieve; however, being made equal physically and mentally by the government could be very unfair. People should still have characteristics that make us different. One can be diverse but still equal to his neighbor. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s use of point of view, conflict, and imagery in his short story “Harrison Bergeron,” illustrates how difficult living in a world where everyone is the same would be.