Government Control In Harrison Bergeron

These stories explain thoroughly how the idea of equality is naturally impossible and how corruption will always exist. Nevertheless, when compared to "Harrison Bergeron", Anthem does a better job of controlling their society and expresses less government corruption, however both stories are not necessarily moral. In comparison to “Harrison Bergeron”, Anthem has more control over their society because of their severe punishments. In the beginning of Anthem, the main character Equality-7251 gives the readers background information of what type of environment he grew up in. Equality discusses how he was more advanced than others in school and through which he says, “we were lashed more often than all the other children”(22).

Imagine, you’re living in a perfect world and everything about life is great. That is until the government takes over and schemes together a plan to make everyone equal by adding handicaps to over excelled people. By making everyone equal, the whole entire world is in sake for a dangerous situation caused by the effects from the handicap. This is what the short story “Harrison Bergeron” is based about. Some dangerous possible situations that can happen from this includes: handicap effects on the human body, total charge from the government, no entertainment and a massive breakout.

His entire life people had looked at him and scorned him because he was different then his brothers, and he finally understood why. Equality was a man with a different appearance than his brothers, and he was looked down on for it. Equality was a man with a greater intelligence than his brothers, but he was nearly killed for it. Equality was a man that was different from his brothers in almost every way, and it lead to the discovery of something great. The ability for a man to be individual and to be able to think, speak, and act for themselves and be different is what was and always will be the greater good for all of

Two Dystopian Literatures “They were equal every which way”(vonnegut 1).”Harrison Bergeron” and Anthem are both a collectivist society, that try to make the world smooth and have more peace in their society, but instead becomes a dramatic dystopia. Although “Harrison Bergeron” and Anthem are both dystopian literature, they both differ in their families and technology. In harrison bergeron, they have families, and this is seen when the story says… “George and Hazel bergeron 14 years old son.”(Vonnegut 1).This proves that in this society, they have Families. In “Harrison Bergeron” they also have technology, it states in the passage…”George and Hazel were watching TV” (Vonnegut 2). This shows that in the Novel “Harrison bergeron” there

Equalitys’ Sense of Purpose In the book Anthem written by Ayn Rand, society is now known as “the great WE” (19). Where man may not think as one, but must think as a whole; as it is the law. Even though, there is total equality, there is no right of a free mind. Everyone is taught very little history to avoid any sort of curiosity. Throughout Equalitys’ childhood, he is looked at very closely by his teachers for having too much curiosity and asking questions of the past.

The difference is that they can have a family. In Harrison Bergeron the main characters are George the father, Hazel the mother, and Harrison the son that was taken away. The reason the government took Harrison away was because he was too smart and athletic and handsome. He was a “Danger to society.” People in the society that they live in are able to have families and live together and love eachother. The only thing, is that everyone has to be equal.

Intelligence and Defiance “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change”. (Albert Einstein) In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr talks about how everyone is equal by wearing handicaps. In the novella Anthem technological advancement is planned and the meaning of individuality is forbidden. “Harrison Bergeron” and Anthem are both pieces of dystopian literature which portray (their protagonists,theme,education) similarly. Harrison and Equality are both very intelligent young men because they enjoy being different.

For thirty days they lashed Equality until he spoke. They lashed and lashed him so much, Equality was bleeding but he still kept his secret about his invention and where he was. He counted down the days and he knew that tomorrow the World Council of Scholars are to meet in his city. Equality knows that is easy to escape from the Palace of Corrective Detention.There are no locks on the door also they have no guards about. There was never a reason to have guards at door because no men or women defined the

Malcolm Gladwell insists that IQ is not the determining factor in one’s ability to achieve success because he believes that opportunity and chance play critical roles in one’s journey to achieve success. In Outliers, Gladwell includes Christopher Langan story growing up. Langan has an IQ of one ninety-five, “The average person has an IQ of one hundred… Einstein one fifty” (Gladwell 70). Langan is considered “the smartest man in America” and sometimes “the smartest man in the world”. He is also a college dropout, due to financial difficulty and other factors.

The Clerk is a character type that is encountered several times in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Cantebury Tales. Always described as a young man attending university or at the very least knowledgeable in the fields the social and natural sciences, the clerk is a character who outwits his opponents with his superior knowledge whether it be by telling his victim that the stars foretell a second great flood like Nicholas in the Miller’s Tale, or by maneuvering a piece of furniture to bed a crook’s wife like John in the Reeve’s tale. The Clerk is written to be the smartest person in the room, if not one of them, but that was not always the case. Originally the term was used to describe someone who was a member of the ecclesiastical order and no matter how humble the position had been

There is more at work in the government than just handicaps. “The rest of Harrison’s hollowed hardware. Nobody have ever born heavier handicaps… If you see this boy do not, I repeat, do not approach him” (Vonnegut 3-4). The government doesn’t want Harrison to get loose because he can expose them, show the people the truth. Harrison is under handicapped and incredibly intelligent, he has many capabilities.

In the book anthem by Ayn Rand starts off by saying that “Its is a sin to write this.” Why does he start the character by saying these words? in the book the main character is named equality 7-2521 and in his society they have taught him differently than ours. in mentioned in pg 19 “we are one in all and all in one there are no men but only the great we , one, indivisible forever.” The people in equalities society were taught by using the word “we” not I you but ‘We and Us”.their were all in one as brothers that were equal. equality was taught the same as all his brothers he thinks that writing this paper is a sin because as said in the book pg 17 “It is a sin to think words no others think and to put them down upon a paper.” in his society

William James once said in his book “ History is a bath of blood”, “Modern man inherits all the innate pugnacity and all the love of glory of his ancestors. Showing war’s irrationality and horror is of no effect on him. The horrors make the fascination. War is the strong life; it is life in Extremis; war taxes are the only ones men never hesitate to pay, as the budgets of all nations show us.” (303) However, this does not seem true to most returning veterans. According to two short fictional stories “ Soldier’s Home” and “ A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” two protagonists’ lives after brutal wars explicitly demonstrate the idea that they are not only pathetic survivors from battles, but also victims of relentless wars through authors’ vivid depictions of each character and elaborate arrangement of settings.

In Anthem “equality” is not purely shown, but is attempted. Equality is held by shaming individuality and sometimes physical punishments. “There is evil in your bones, Equality 7-2521.” (Rand 18). Equality is being shamed for having grown taller than the other boys, something he cannot control, like intelligence. Equality talks about the struggle to be average because he knows there is more and wants to wander in it, but he has been grown to know that everyone must be exactly the same in every way to be equal.

Traits such as creativity, intelligence, and skepticism are highly valued and are noticeable in most famous scientists. For these reasons, it is logical that science is not highly valued in the totalitarian world in Anthem, since in the collectivist society, obedient and average people are rewarded, and people that stand out are punished. Equality 7-2521 knew he was smarter than his brothers, but stated “it is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them”, because the main concept of collectivism is unity, that “We are nothing. Mankind is all”, and by standing out, whether by being superior or inferior, you threaten that