Harrison Bergeron And 2081 Comparison Essay

Compare Contrast Essay You’re smart and athletic and are a danger to society. You are too superior for the rest of your community. You must be just as intelligent and just as athletic as the rest of your community. You must be equal.

Harrison Bergeron is a short story and film, 2081, that tells about a man who lives in a world where everyone is equal. Due to the 211, 212, and 213 amendment, everyone stong wears weights, everyone who is smart wears an earpiece, and everyone beautiful wears a mask. The film and story are similar and different in many ways. There are different descriptions of characters and different dialogue. The are similar in ways such as the image of Harrison and the death of Harrison.

In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., it is the year 2081 and the society was finally considered equal. However, not everyone found this new environment fair or equal in any way. Stronger and more intelligent citizens were to use handicaps to weaken their talents and abilities. Everyone coped with the pain except for the strongest, most handsome, and intelligent man in town, Harrison Bergeron who had “carried three hundred pounds” (Vonnegut 4). Three hundred pounds is a lot of weight compared to any other person at the time.

“Harrison Bergeron” is a unique story, in the sense that it takes place in 2081 in a dystopian society where everyone is equal. No one could be smarter, better-looking, or more athletic than anyone else. They are made equal with mental handicap radios for those who are intelligent, hideous masks for those who are beautiful, and heavy weights for those who are strong. The main character of this story, Harrison Bergeron, has a conflict with the American society in 2081. The internal conflict in Harrison’s mind is that the mental and physical handicaps affect the people’s thoughts.

“Harrison Bergeron,” written by Kurt Vonnegut at the time of the Cold War, is a short story that takes place in a future world of the year 2081 where the Handicapper General and the law force the beautiful to wear masks, the intelligent to wear earpieces that disrupt their thoughts, and the athletic to wear heavy physical restraints, so that everyone may be equal in the categories of beauty, intelligence, and athleticism; a world where the people “[are] equal in every which way.” (Vonnegut 1) What the many readers of “Harrison Bergeron” seem to misinterpret is that the entire story is an allegory to the political systems of Socialism/Communism and that Vonnegut utilizes symbols in the story that either expose the glaring flaws of left-wing politics or advance the supposedly far-superior ideology of American capitalism. In actuality, Vonnegut’s use of symbols in “Harrison Bergeron,” and the entire story itself is a satire of the common American’s ignorant misunderstandings of left-wing politics at the time of the Cold War. Vonnegut once said at a college commencement speech, “I suggest that you work for a socialist form of government … It isn 't moonbeams to talk of modest plenty for all.

Harrison is the son of Hazel and George in the Icarus tale; Harrison Bergeron. They live in a Dystopian Society where handicaps are forced on them against their will in attempt to limit their abilities, resulting in what their government believes is deserved equality. Harrison then rebels against the government, and gets shot as his punishment. The message we are fed from this Icarus tale is that if we handicap people, or attempt to diminish diversity, then it’s impossible to have a successful society. The first reason why diminishing diversity would result in an unsuccessful society is because people wouldn’t be able to express who they are, resulting in citizens rebelling against higher power.

Harrison Bergeron, a story written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, shows a society where everyone is the same, no one is- or allowed to be, better than anyone else. The story takes place in a futuristic society during 2081. The main two people in this story are Hazel and George Bergeron. George, along with most people, has sacks filled with birdshot, and a handicap radio.

“Freedom lies in being bold.” -Robert Frost. The short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is about equality and inequality. Showing, that it doesn't matter how equal something is, that people will always find a way to be different and to be themselves at any consequence.

In the story “Harrison Bergeron”, Harrison is a threat to society and the government. In the year 2081, the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the constitution kept everyone equal. The government handicapped all citizens to keep everyone as equal as possible. Harrison is a threat to this society because of the actions he has had.

Compare Contrast Essay Equality means “the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities”(Merriam Webster). This can be a good thing in many ways, however having too much equality is a bad thing. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut and 2081 are similar because Harrison is shot and killed in the story and the movie, however they are different by in the movie Harrison plants a bomb where in the story there is no bomb.