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Free Will In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

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In the story entitled “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut, he writes that year of 2081, everyone would be truly equal.I disagree with this vision because handicaps, power, and free will paint an unequal society in “Harrison Bergeron”. Some people have handicaps, which are supposed to “equalize” their abilities to the others in society.However, the idea of handicaps is not actually equalizing because different people with different handicaps and abilities are unable to feel or understand each other’s circumstances, struggles, and experiences.For example, George has handicaps, but Hazel doesn’t.It is obvious, that it is not equal.Some people may think that if George took off his handicaps, he wouldn’t be the same as Hazel.Therefore, …show more content…

The people don’t have free will to choose what they want to choose. Harrison Bergeron, son of Hazel and George was called a criminal, but why is someone fighting for his and everyone’s freedom called a criminal. In this text says “ She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.” This means they got killed for fighting for their freedom. But if Harrison and the ballerina were dead why aren’t the musicians dead; why isn’t everyone dead. Isn't that called equal? Harrison Bergeron looked like he had the most handicaps. It states “ The rest of Harrison’s appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever born heavier handicaps.” This means that Harrison is the one who has the heaviest and the most handicaps. Why doesn't everyone have the same handicaps Harrison has, isn’t that called equal. Also, Vonnegut states that the ballerinas had handicaps. He wrote, “They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were made, so that no one, seeing a free graceful gesture or a pretty face..” This means that they had handicaps but Hazel doesn’t. That is not equal. If Hazel doesn’t have handicaps, why can’t everyone?Therefore, the ballerina was not equal with Hazel. Therefore, everyone didn’t have free

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