Human Nature In Harrison Bergeron And The Pedest

How technology affects our human nature

Science fiction stories are built with different elements that make them have the same concept on human nature. Whether is a rule to make people as equal as possible or just as simple as a common piece of technology people use on the daily basis both conclude one concept. In “Harrison Bergeron” and “The Pedestrian”, Ray Bradbury and Kurt vonnegut tries to show the readers that technology can affect our human nature and how we live.

Weird characters and events are the base of Science fiction stories. Both “Harrison Bergeron” and “The Pedestrian” have these events and characteristics that form the story. Harrison in “Harrison Bergeron” is a good example of weird characters. “He was exactly 7 feet tall”

In “Harrison Bergeron” they have technology called handicaps that they put on people to equal out their strengths, intelligence, skill and looks. “Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” (page 21) “George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required to wear it at all times.” (page 21) This shows how Harrison and George are different and the complete opposite of equal. In “The Pedestrian” the technology in the story is televisions. Every person is glued to their TV’s all the time. “And on his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows.” (paragraph 2) “ 'Hello, in there, ' he whispered to every house on every side as he moved. 'What 's up tonight on Channel 4, Channel 7, Channel 9?” (paragraph 7) Every person but Leonard uses a television during the night and keeps glued to it. Both stories show these elements of science or technology that affects events and characters in the