Can you imagine a human being equal? No! A human can never be the same because we all have different perspectives and therefore each individual has his or her own personalities which makes him or her unique. We are bound to so many physical differences as humans. Being equal or unequal as humans can be viewed in various factors, whether in terms of, wealth, authority, intelligence, etc. A person with a brain dysfunction can’t function similarly than a person with an average brain. Someone is tall while another person is short. Some can afford college while some can’t. No one in this world is equal due to everyone being different. So, therefore, life cannot be equal. Perhaps, we happen to be in a society of different culture and race. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the author writes about equality amongst humans. Vonnegut admits that previously all human weren’t equal. He states “the year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way” (Vonnegut, paragraph 1). This shows that the people weren’t just equal before God and the law but rather they …show more content…
As individuals, we all have our strength and weakness, right! In that way, it makes life so unequal. Notwithstanding, in this society, we love to claim everyone is equal, not knowing we confuse equality with rights. We should all have the same rights and not equality! Stripping that way to make life equal is a crime. Talking about abilities is the possession of the means or skill to do something. We as an individual are gifted with various special skills and talents, such as singing, dancing, coaching, teaching, and many others. Don’t you think our differences actually make this world a beautiful place! So we should never try making life equal, but rather focus on enjoying our differences and embracing all types of individual capabilities. Therefore, life shouldn’t be made
Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” In this passage Vonnegut shows how irrational such principals can be and how impossible to achieve absolute equality unless by handicapping the brightest citizens and bringing their abilities down to level of the “average “people. The story mimics the way Americans perceived communism and Soviet Union at that point of history where schools introduced courses to students such as Communism Vs. Americanism in order to wage the propaganda war, this paranoid climate was the result of many factors, one of them is the establishment of a communist government in Cuba by the rebellious Fidel Castro with the support of the USSR .the idea of having a government based on such principles just nine miles away from the US left Americans in a state of panic
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.
“The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal”1 is a statement that in the mouth of the American writer should sound at least victorious. However, Kurt Vonnegut in the opening line of his dystopian short story Harrison Bergeron creates a highly ironical declaration, which he later ridicules by the following story. The author who gained his fame by writing the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, describes the world supposedly equal and free, but entirely bound by the laws that command the lives of people. That describes also fairly well the second short story 2 B R 0 2 B, which title refers to the famous phrase “to be or not to be”2 from William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, as mentioned in the text, “the trick telephone number that people who didn 't
This government made everyone became handicapped so that everyone is the same and equal and no one is better than the others. Vonnegut’s view on equality is very judgemental and selective. Society these days, pressures
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 story, Harrison Bergeron really shows the importance of diversity and for every individual to have a right to be unique. The government trying to make every thing completely fair is actually unfair to people who can 't get any excitement in a world like this. Limiting peoples thinking will also strongly slow any advances in technology, maybe even to a stop, so they might never solve some of the very important problems they face. Same with strength, if someones is in danger to an animal or a malfunctioning machine they will need to be able to escape. So really a world thats completely fair is impossible to create.
They were not only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.”
Government Control Everyone has felt smarter or maybe not so smart, due to others intelligence once in their lifetime. In a world full of different people this can happen often. However, what if there were a world where everyone was equal? No person was smarter than the other, and everyone had the same level of intelligence. In the movie, Harrison Bergeron, he is a very gifted boy who is against a “government” that makes the entire society equal by handicapping the more gifted, down to the level of the less fortunate or incapable.(Bruce “Harrison”)
Equality means everyone has equalrights, not that nobody is better than anyone else
In the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. relies on the use of irony to indicate where our country will stand once we have gained total equality amongst each other. The theme in “Harrison Bergeron” is that the government cannot enforce equality within the people. The author creates a fictional visualization of the future in the year 2081, where the government controls the people and tortures them in order to maintain “equal opportunity” in their world to prove why it is impossible to achieve absolute equality in the world. Vonnegut dives into a whole other level of uniformity in Harrison Bergeron by focusing on eliminating advantages in appearance, intelligence, strength, and other unique abilities rather than focusing on
The people of the United States fight and strive for an absolute “equal” society, but is it what’s really wanted? “Harrison Bergeron,” a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut, uses satire to describe the deficiency in our idea of a truly “equal” society. Throughout the story, Vonnegut describes the torture and discomfort the government administers among the people, and though they were “equal,” they were not balanced. Vonnegut uses characterization and word choice to warn his readers of the potential drawbacks of a truly “equal” society. He warns normalcy would become the base of thought, and people would become incapable of emotion.
In “Harrison Bergeron” people aren’t truly equal. In this short story, they took equality to the next level. Most people think that equality is everyone being treated with the same amount of respect. Appearance has nothing to do with equality in today’s society. Although looking the same and having the same level of intelligence may decrease jealousy, people shouldn’t force others to change because of this.
With people pushing for equality, Vonnegut shows us a world that society is working toward. Through this “prediction” of the future, the author uses Diana Moon Glampers and Harrison Bergeron as examples to show the tragedies of the two measures- are they too equal or too unjust. Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, resembles the idea of fairness in this society. She is in charge of changing the capability of bright and intelligent people to being completely normal.
However, I disagree with this, and I believe all the people are created equal because God created us and gave us same value no matter you are smarter or advantage than
The story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is about a couple, Hazel and George Bergeron, in the distant future when all people must be equal. This equality is reached in the form of handicaps. Weights are placed on the strong and athletic people in society, masks are forced upon the beautiful, and loud noises are constantly blasted into the ears of the intelligent to prevent them from thinking. While most equality is often thought of as good, the story shows a much darker side, using the government’s forceful equalization of the people. “Harrison Bergeron” uses multiple perspectives to highlight the costs of equality paralleled in today’s society.