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Warren Pryor Analysis

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Both the poem “Warren Pryor” by Alden Nowlan and the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr express a depressing tone. “Warren Pryor” is about a son who chooses a career that he dislikes in order to please his parents. “Harrison Bergeron” is about a dystopian society where excellence in any way is considered a disadvantage and inequality for others. In both texts, the protagonists all face the barrier of having their nature being stifled; however, the speaker in the poem chooses not to fight back for himself, while the majority in the short story is not even able to realize the barrier that they face. In the poem, the speaker Warren Pryor is under the pressure and high expectation of his parents that he has to choose to work …show more content…

In the poem, Warren chooses to quietly accept what has been given to him. This is made clear when “he[decides to say] nothing and [remains] hard and serious.” Warren doesn’t choose to have a conversation with his parents about his interest because he dose not want to disappoint them. He instead chooses to swallow his misery and “[say] nothing” because he understands that his parents have sacrificed a lot to make him who he is today. Therefore, he makes the choice of not fighting back for himself. In contrast, George and Hazel in the short story cannot even identify the obstacle that they are facing with their lives. This is evident when Hazel suggests George take his bad down, he refuses by saying that when “[people] get away with it, and pretty soon [they’d be right back to the dark ages again,” and Hazel agreed. Sadly, they are so passionate about “equality”, that they are blind about that fact that they are suffering. In conclusion, both “”Warren Pryor” and “Harrison Bergeron” illustrate the danger of overly controlling humanity. Both texts discuss the barrier of stifling humanity, however, in the poem the narrator decides to suffer under his parents’ expectation, where in the short story the speakers are blind about the barrier that they are

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