Harrison Bergeron And The Metaphor, By Kurt

Literary devices are used throughout literature to help readers have a better understanding. Metaphors, for example, help readers to have a better visual to different aspects. In Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron,” metaphors are evident throughout the short story. The metaphors that are used throughout the short story help readers to have a better understanding of the message in “Harrison Bergeron.”

Equality is a great idea that we should strive for and achieve; however, being made equal physically and mentally by the government could be very unfair. People should still have characteristics that make us different. One can be diverse but still equal to his neighbor. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s use of point of view, conflict, and imagery in his short story “Harrison Bergeron,” illustrates how difficult living in a world where everyone is the same would be.

In the Freedom Writers Diary, the authors focus on the topic of the reality of what they have to deal with in their everyday world. Their teacher Mrs. Gruwell inspired them throughout their high school years by teaching them that it is possible for each and every one of them to change. They write with an uplifting and hopeful outlook on the world even if it not realistic in their present circumstances. In their writing, they establish an effective use of pathos by writing about their own lives and how they connect to others and us by using the selection of detail, metaphors, and allusions. Through these devices, we come to the idea that even though teenager’s in today’s world are faced with many hardships, they do not have to succumb to them.

How would you feel if you could not be yourself? In the short story 'Harrison Bergeron' by Kurt Vonnegut they have a society where people can not be themselves. The government forces them to put handicaps on themselves to make everyone equal. We shouldn't strive for the society in ‘Harrison Bergeron’; this society is crippling to all people. it does not allow people to be unique and reach their full potential to help society.

The theme of the essay “Self Reliance” written by Emerson is for beings to not focus on those of others or subside his/her values to fit in with our society, for true geniuses comes from within and are made with their own heart and mind. His idea of self-reliance differs from that of the norm in that he doesn’t encourage those to mix into selfish ways but to be open and proud of their own individuality for that is the true key to life itself. Emerson’s idea is similar to the common use in that he encourages those to not depend on others to define his/her identity.

In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, everyone is finally equal in every which way. No one person is stronger, more beautiful, smarter, taller, or is just overall better than someone else.This is all thanks to the current government, who did this using weights, ugly masks, and ear pieces that let loose noises to interrupt a person’s thoughts. One man, named Harrison Bergeron, was recently arrested only to break out a few weeks later. Harrison rushed towards a studio that was, unknowingly to him, recording a ballerina performance. He ran in, interrupting the performance, and ripped off his handicaps and began proclaiming himself as emperor. One of the ballerinas stood up and Harrison removed her handicaps. They

Imagine a world where the government takes control and nobody is unique. A world set in the future, where three amendments changed the United States and made everyone equal. People are made equal by devices that alter their thinking, appearance, and strength. Then one day, a 14-year-old called Harrison Bergeron comes along breaking his handicaps on live TV to show the beauty of regular life. Then, he is shot dead during a dance. The theme in “Harrison Bergeron” is that equality could be dangerous.

Life is overfilled with messages, like weeds in a sea in unmaintained grass. Whether it’s warning a person, or pointing out a flaw; these little lessons are there to further grow the positive parts of that person’s personality. A simple demonstration of this is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. An old, children’s book serving no meaningingful purpose is what it may seem, nevertheless, it actually is a novel that offers a unique outtake on all aspects of human life. In the book, two children Jem and Scout, who learn about equality, racism, and social class through court cases, tea parties and more. The story offers many ideals, whether to improve upon something that is exist, or throw a new concept into the the air with various techniques,

To create a strong argument, creative techniques must be employed in any piece of writing. Two common techniques are methods of development and rhetorical devices. In Elizabeth Kolbert’s writing of “The Terrible Teens”, she effectively proves her argument with the use of these techniques. Specifically, Kolbert uses examples, appeal to authority, and, inside the latter, metaphors to further support the argument. Using these strategies she successfully proves that neurology can help us understand why teens do unwise things, and that we are unsure what to do about it.

One of the greatest themes portrayed in the short story “Harrison Bergeron” is that, in society, there are always going to be people better at somethings than others. This story portrays this theme very well by proving no matter how people try to be equal, they will never be. In the story, people wear glasses to all have the same sight, people wear headphones to block out new ideas, and people wear weights to suppress their true strength. Even with all these considered, people are still different based off sex, height, will power, and money. Money was never talked about in the story, but in a society that is truly equal, there has to be a difference in pay, or no job would get done. The only motivation for most people who create new ideas is

“All for one and one for all.” Is it an oath of loyalty and teamwork, or rather one of slavery and oppression? Where utopias are the light, dystopias are the dark. The former depicts an optimistic view of what civilization could be; the latter shows a pessimistic, sometimes an all too realistic portrayal of how our values and governments can be used to oppress the masses. One common example of dystopia seen throughout literature is the collective society, this idea is that the collective group is valued more than the individual. This concept was in no doubt popularized by the rise of the Soviet Union which resulted in the “Red Scare”. That then led to widespread fear of Communism, much less socialism in general. Two prominent dystopian works of this era are “Harrison Bergeron” by iconic science fiction writer and satirist Kurt Vonnegut, and Anthem by the legendary dystopian writer Ayn Rand, who herself escaped from Soviet Russia. While both pieces display a collective society, each author's dystopia is portrayed is unparalleled to any other.

Harrison Bergeron takes place in the year 2018, a dystopian future where the 211, 212, and 213th amendments to the constitution have deemed anything outside of total equality to be a threat to political and social stability. The attempt to equalize everyone to remove competition and conflict becomes a systematic suppression of outstanding behavior and characteristics. Unfortunately, it turns out that average and equal means unattractive, mentally and physically weak, uncreative, boring, mediocre, and generally not interesting or incredible in any way. The handicapper general makes sure that everyone is given disabilities in order to level the playing field.

Metaphors are an influential piece to the literary world due to, “the process of using symbols to know reality occurs”, stated by rhetoric Sonja Foss in Metaphoric Criticism. The significance of this, implies metaphors are “central to thought and to our knowledge and expectation of reality” (Foss 188). Although others may see metaphors as a difficult expression. Metaphors provide the ability to view a specific content and relate to connect with involvement, a physical connection to view the context with clarity. As so used in Alice Walker’s literary piece, In Search Of Our Mothers’ Gardens. In Walker’s writing, her metaphoric message is expressed as a journey to understand elders cruel unjust past life, searching for a connection for her own

The teenagers here are often confused about the identities they choose. This often leads to frustration. They may even give up looking for their identities for a while. This is the period where some of the teenagers end up indulging in immoral acts. According to ("6.3 Adolescence: Developing Independence and Identity | Introduction to Psychology," 2015), the independence of thinking in this period requires the adolescents to determine their sense of right and wrong on their own. They, therefore, face a lot of identity crisis in this period ("Adolescent Identity Development,"

David Elkind describes adolescent egocentrism in two different components – imaginary audience and personal fable. These two components can be seen in an adolescent’s daily life. Furthermore, imaginary audience and personal fable explains why some teenagers do what they do.