Do the titles Divergent, The Giver, and The Hunger Games sound familiar? It’s no surprise if they do because these books are some of the most popular utopian turned dystopian books to date. The utopian/dystopian genre reached its greatest peak around 2013! But... why? Why is the general audience in love with the type of theme shown in Harrison Bergeron, another utopian/dystopian story written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1961? Society’s belief of the government is a possible reason. For instance, in Harrison Bergeron the government is controlling and treats citizens like a statistic they can change with a snap of a finger. People today feel trapped within the government’s laws and they can relate to the citizens in dystopian stories. Also, these books
Throughout Harrison Bergeron, A.I and The Veldt different fictional societies with potential; dangers to society is revealed. An individual in a dystopian society can easily be controlled or manipulated by a higher power or government. In Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut everyone loses his individuality for the ‘benefit’ of society. “ They were equal in every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else.
In a lot of stories, the setting is a fairly decent world. However, this is not the case in other stories. Many stories are set in cruel and unforgiving societies, where certain people, or even the average citizen, are treated with injustice. This is what is seen as a dystopia, an imaginary setting where many people are unhappy, due to being treated unfairly. In certain dystopian settings, the state of the society is caused by a corrupt government controlling the laws of the community.
The society in “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, attempted to make a utopian society, but resulted in a dystopian society. This society wanted everyone to be equal. No one would be better, faster, or even smarter. They tried to achieve this by handicapping everyone in the community. This eventually created a dystopian society because they had been handicapped.
With injustice and cruelty running rampant in the world, it is unsurprising that people become determined to make things better for tomorrow. The cliché saying that the ends justify the means is often quoted by those aware of the moral greyness of their actions. Commendable yet unreasonable, leaders whose sole purpose in life is to fix what they see as “wrong” with the world fall prey to thinking there is only ally or enemy. In the long run, they harm those they try to liberate.
Dystopian fiction has been around for a long time and interesting enough, it was an offshoot of utopian fiction which started growing in popularity in the 1900’s until today. The spikes in popularity seem to have started from the lead up to the World War II and the cold war decades ago. There are several numbers of popular dystopian novels that contribute to the popularity of this genre especially Brave New World (1932) written by Aldous Huxley that indicates the acceptance of the readers towards this dystopian fiction novel in America and followed by other novels. In the late 90’s, The Giver has become a phenomenal success ever since it was published with millions of copies sold in America alone and has been in the top list of everyone favourites
One common afternoon in the year of 2081, when everyone was equal, Hazel and George Bergeron were in their lovely living room watching television. Suddenly, a news reporter with a severe speech impediment came on. After trying many times to say, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” he handed it off to a ballerina who read, “Harrison Bergeron, age 14, has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.” However, in this short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut uses irony, shift and mood, and allusion to illustrated haw society would be if everyone was under the law of equality.
The government had a lot of regulations on the people in this society and because of that they lost their freedom to think for themselves and could only think what the government would allow them to think. They justified this because it made it so that no one would be better than any other person. They valued equality over individuality. In Fahrenheit 451 the government restricts the ownership and reading of books.
Imagine living in a dystopian society? In the story "Harrison Bergeron" by K.V., Jr is about a 14 year-old boy who lives in a society where nobody is allowed to reach their full potential. Harrison Bergeron is a hero. For example, "Harrison smashed his headphones and spectacles against the wall," from page 114. He wants to be a normal person again where he can be free with out handicaps and have everyone be able to live in a utopian society.
Dystopia is a popular genre in which authors write about a fictional society that is perceived to be perfect and ideal by the vast majority of the people in it. Authors must intrigue the reader, and this is difficult because they have to somehow illustrate a future that is vaguely similar to ours. However, it has to be completely fictional, which makes it tough to formulate realistic storylines. Nevertheless, these authors use literary elements to counter these difficulties and produce realistic characters and you can see this when Ray Bradbury, Ayn Rand, and James Dashner use symbolism in their respected novels, Fahrenheit 451, Anthem, and The Maze Runner. This literary technique gives Dystopian Literature the uniqueness and adds the key elements to make the story flow.
Why Harrison Bergeron is a Piece of Dystopian Literature? “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut, is a prime example of dystopian literature. The story’s plot follows several typical tropes and thematic elements present in dystopian literature. One of the most prominent examples is within the story's characters. As many dystopias do, there are many archetypes present that make it obviously a dystopia.
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.
The short story “Harrison Bergeron”, was first published in October 1961 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Some other works Kurt Vonnegut has written are, “Player Piano”, “The Sirens of Titan”, “Mother Night”, and “Cats Cradle” are just a few of the novels Vonnegut has written. Kurt Vonnegut has drawn on facts and incidents in his own life in his writings. Kurt’s short stories range from visions of future societies, that are extensions of modern societies. Many of his writings are ones that are science fiction.
Edythe Donham Mrs. Ludtke English 10 11 May 2023 The Similarities Throughout the Dystopian Genre As dystopian novels are still on the rise in popularity, one might ask why and what are the similarities between all of these novels, that tie them together. Firstly, there is a large variety of dystopian literature put into 4 different categories as of 2023, Orwellian, Huxleyan, Kafkaesque, and Phildickian. Dystopian literature can be traced back to as early as the late 1700s but did not take a climb in popularity until the 1990s.
As a generally more depressing topic, it is commonly asked: Why would people prefer Dystopia over Utopia? Well the answer is, they are brutally honest. Dystopian literature is often seen as a forewarning to an already-present issue. (Bloom 82) As humans, there is a bit of morbid curiosity present in everyone. As someone who is not directly experiencing something, it is interesting to watch someone else have a hard time, even if it is not explicitly “entertaining,” it can be hard to look away.
Utopian and Dystopian societies are so popular in literature, today and back then, because it has potential to have some of the most adventurous and dangerous plot lines in stories. The Giver, which won the “John Newbery Award,” is a great story based on a utopian society, in which the main character goes on dangerous and intriguing adventures, pulling in the reader into the book With such an interesting topic for readers, why wouldn’t more authors write stories like these? Another good reason Utopian and Dystopian stories are popular is because they can serve as political innuendoes, mostly about our government. These stories, based on utopian and dystopian societies, where people are forced to live the same way are typically innuendoes about