Criticism And Irony In Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

I will be giving information about how the movie shows the viewers how life would be like if everybody was equal. Just like in the movie 2081. I believe that Kurt Vonnegut was trying to say that even if you create a government just to keep everybody equal. people are still who they are and they will still be different and nothing can change them,

It is the year 2081 in an era where equality rules over everybody. That is, everyone except a young man named Harrison Bergeron who believes that the equality is overlooked and is actually negative in society. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, the main character Harrison defies the cultural norm and breaks free from the supposed equality. Vonnegut makes a point to show that he goes to great lengths to show that sometimes we have to take risks to achieve freedom. The fact that Harrison is confident, aggressive, and rebellious proves the fact that freedom sometimes can only be found through risks that can put everything at stake.

When one considers characterization, symbolism and figurative language, it is clear that Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. uses satire in the story. He is satirizing the collective notion that all people must be equal. “Harrison Bergeron” offers vigorous political and social criticisms of both American in general and the America of the 1960s since it is written during that time. Vonnegut suggests that the ideals of egalitarianism, which holds that people should be equal in every way, are dangerous if taken too

Instead of allowing people to realize their potential, the government forces them to sit back and meet an average or minimal expectation. If someone is smarter than the average person, the government constantly interrupts their thought process instead of allowing them to think straight and possibly help society. If someone and more beautiful than the average person, the government forces them to wear an ugly mask to hide their features. If someone is stronger than the average person, the government makes them wear extreme amounts of weights, or at least enough to bring them down to the average. The second piece of evidence the story provides is the fact that it says nothing about the Handicapper General or any of her agents wearing handicaps.

In the text of “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut the government has wrongly interpreted equality and made it into a ghastly, horrible thing. This is awful because they are nearly torturing their citizens to ensure equality. George is a citizen of the society and the father of Harrison Bergeron. He is required to wear an ear radio, to keep him from using his above average intelligence. This radio like many other handicaps that ensure equality has horrible effects.

The short story “Harrison Bergeron” composed by Kurt Vonnegut can be interpreted as an satirical allegory in the government's unethical empowerment over their citizens for the pursuit of equality. The three main characters; George Bergeron, Hazel Bergeron, and their son Harrison Bergeron are all distinct representations of different individualities in current civilization. George can be perceived as having slightly higher intellectual abilities than most, hence mandatorily obligated to be attached a handicapped, noise-producing earpiece at all times in order to prevent any significant thoughts in his mind. On the other hand, Hazel is a representation of the average-minded individuals in society, and therefore is not required to wear any government-enforced

“Flowers for Algernon” Argumentative Essay Charlie should not have been subject to the experimental surgery in Daniel Keyes’s “Flowers for Algernon.” The operation had many cruel side effects to an isolated social reject with a below-average IQ. Because of his impaired cognitive abilities, Charlie had to face substantial, tangible societal conflicts. Not only did he have disaccord with society, he was used as an experiment; Charlie was a test subject first and a sentient human second.

Personal Freedom vs Intellectual Holocaust In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag’s desire for personal freedom constantly conflicts with the ongoing intellectual holocaust. During this era, society discourages the opportunity to think independently because they live under the impression that “not everyone [is] born free and equal, as the constitution says, but made equal” (Bradbury 146) Many technological advancements evolve to occupy everyone and society enforces many rules to ensure that everyone lives equally. However, Montag meets Clarisse, who exposes him to her extroverted lifestyle and encouraged him to question his lifestyle.

Children are perceived in today's society to be naive, some people agree and some do not but in the novel by William Golding, Lord of the Flies, he expresses his opinion on the topic through many examples. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he uses child protagonists to demonstrate that mankind is naturally evil through Roger holding himself back from throwing rocks at people, Jack’s obsession to be a group leader on the island, and also Simon’s death that occurred at night. One of the ways Golding demonstrates this is through Roger holding himself back from throwing rocks at people only because of his fear of punishment from the old world. Jack’s obsession to be a group leader on the island is revealed by showing that without anyone in charge

To begin with the reason why Harrison Bergeron world is Dystopia. Smart people like George a character in the story that have to wear a little mental handicap radio in his ear because his intelligence is above normal and the government want to keep people like him from taking unfair advantage of their brain. People also had to wear a mental handicap around them. One of the quotes that Kurt Vonnegut mention in the story is that “All people equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the constitution (Kurt 1). If they tried to take off the mental handicap on them they would punish.

Harrison is under handicapped and incredibly intelligent, he has many capabilities. All in all, the government is in complete control over the society because all of the categories are controlled by the government. The three categories are handicap, non-handicap, and the government. In the story “Harrison Bergeron” the society is built around at his system called handicap, if someone is handicapped it means that they are a big threat to the society.

(Vonnegut 1). This quote shows they would suppress their smartest people to an average level of thinking. This society does not want someone to grow in any way and realize how bad life is. Similarly a sufficient amount of the same points can be made in Anthem, they are just accomplished differently.

The handicaps are given to the people in the short story to symbolize fear. The author states, “ every 20 seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair Advantage of their brains” (1). The government does not want people like George and Harrison to overthrow the government. Throughout the story, Kurt Vonnegut portrays the handicaps as well, but actually there to scare people from overpowering the government. The handicaps symbolize fear if they display any of their powers such as speed, looks, and thinking they will be severely punished.

2- By removing its causes and controlling its effects are the two main ways, they could also by destroying the liberty and by giving every citizen the same opinion passions and interests. Obviously the last two would not work because liberty is essential to have in a government. Also all people do not have the same opinions and passions and interests, in a free nation we are entitled to have our own ideas and passions and such. The only effective way would be to control effects and to try and remove the causes.

Different from the concept of playing game and brutally killing people, Vonnegut explored a different way to show it totalitarian power by making everyone handicapped. People who are too smart, too pretty, or too talented are required to wear a weightier handicapped or a hideous mask to cover up their face. Due to insecurity from the actual handicapped people for not being normal, Vonnegut create a society where they can fit in and where those who are not handicapped can learn to embrace others who aren’t. Those are the positive qualities of the society but the negativity lie beneath the government. The government secretly control these people by installing devices and gears onto people to slow them down and to romantically match them with people who are not naturally gifted.