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Harrison Bergeron: A Collectivist Society

501 Words3 Pages

The Escape
What would you do if you were born into a collectivist society? The main character in “Harrison Bergeron “is Harrison Bergeron. Harrison was taken from his parents due to plotting to overthrow the government. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” some people wear mental and physical handicaps that make everyone equally smart. Harrison escaped from jail at the age of 14. In the book Anthem the main character is Equality. When talking Equality and the society use the word “we” instead of “I”. Equality gets into some trouble and goes to jail but escapes into the uncharted forest. “Harrison Bergeron” and Anthem have many things in common, they both have to deal with collectivism and escaping from all of the collectivism. “Harrison Bergeron” and Anthem have a collectivism society. A collectivism society is basically a communism society which is when the government or dictator controls everything. In Anthem they have a motto using “we”. In …show more content…

Harrison Bergeron died happy and free. “In an explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang! Not only were the laws of the land….. Diana Moon Glampers, the handicap General… she fired twice and the Emperor and Empress were dead before they hit the floor (Vonnegut 5). Harrison and the Empress died a happy and free. They died with joy and grace. All of the laws didn’t apply to them while they were in the air. “Harrison Bergeron went through a lot of harsh collectivism but the main character in Anthem also did. Equality over comes collectivism by escaping from jail into the uncharted forest. “Trees taller than we ever seen before stood over us in a great silence. Then we knew. We were in the uncharted forest (Rand 75). Equality escaped collectivism by going into the uncharted forest. No man wanted to go into the forest because they were scared of what it brought. Equality ran into the forest to run from the government and to be free from

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