Harrison Bergeron By Kurt Vonnegut And Girl By Jamaica Kincaid

“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. tells the story of a futuristic America where people who are given handicaps if they are better than other people in order to give complete equality to everyone. The main message of “Harrison Bergeron” is that everyone doesn’t have to be the same for them to be happy. In fact, when everyone is equal they are sadder because they don’t know what real life is like, and they are able to be controlled. Harrison and Phillippa demonstrate that being unique brings happiness as they take off their headbands and learn how wonderful life can be when they can express who they are.

The collectivist society in which Equality 7-2521 lives is similar to the Nazi and Communist states of the twentieth century. It is controlled like the society in “The Giver.” The rulers of this society do not permit any individual to think freely. They must think they are nothing. “We are nothing. Mankind is all. By the grace of our brothers are we allowed our lives. We exist through, by and for our brothers who are the state. Amen.”(21).

•Information, independent thought, and freedom are restricted in this society. Equality must think about “the will of all men together” and how they are all supposed to be “one in all and all in one”. No one may think of or for themselves and everyone decision is made by the grace of every brother.

The short story ‘Harrison Bergeron’, Written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and the novel ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry both share a theme of forced equality and uniformity. Both stories take place in dystopian worlds. Woven throughout both of the stories are, authority is forcing egalitarianism onto citizens because they want an indefectible civilization. In the short story Harrison Bergeron, the world is ruled by Handicap General were in The Giver the world is ruled by the Elders, so that the community would be equal. But in both stories the protagonist goes against the community to break the peace and gain freedom and demonstrates how the authority always doesn’t know the best.

​Harrison Bergeron and Fahrenheit 451 both relate to the need that the government controls everything with strict ruling and suppresses freedom by titling it as equality. Main character Harrison, from the short story “Harrison Bergeron” and Guy Montag from the novel “Fahrenheit 451” both experience the socially enforced equality portrayed by the government. Not one individual was smarter than anybody else, this is expressed in the quote from the story, “Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” (1) Bergeron. This quote proves that equality was key in the eye of the government.

    Equality, a very curious main character, wants the experience of feeling valued not only within himself but also from others. The feeling of accomplishment and knowledge is what he is deprived of in his collectivist world and what many seek to feel. Individuality distinguishes one from others which is why each and every one is unique and why Equality feels he is different. This difference is due

Have you ever pondered over the equality of everyone? Well, if you believe that equality is important, you may want to think again. In the dystopian short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut, the author, uses satire to convey his message. Satie is something meant to make fun of or show the weakness of human nature or a particular person. Vonnegut’s message is that not everyone must be equal in every way.The character, Harrison Bergeron, wants to make everyone understand that being equal comes with a consequence, the decline of freedom and individuality, but he got shot so metaphorically the idea of freedom and individuality died with him.

Once a society elects the government they classify as “ideal,” the government that establishes authority will have the ability to set harsh restrictions against the citizens who supported them without any knowledge on their plans. To demonstrate how sinful he has been, Equality describes the kind of life people conform

The classroom was full of children, and they were all the same except for their age and gender. They didn’t have a choice for anything that they did, it was the government that was forcing them to be what they were. They weren’t allowed to know anything more than what they were taught. There was one little girl who was a touch different. She was starting to realize that life could be different than what she had always known. She had decided to make a change for herself and not be the same anymore. Just like this little girl, Equality 7-2521 was longing for a change. He realized that there was another way of living, and that was what he wanted. Equality went about doing everything differently from what he had learned from the beginning. He took a stand and ended up being a different person overall, he wasn’t going to let anyone else control him anymore. The characterization and setting techniques employed in Ayn Rand’s dystopian novel Anthem and Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” illustrate the theme of how those who are under authority do not change who they are on the inside just because they are controlled, resulting in rebellion and dishonesty toward those who are in charge.

Many societies strive to make every person as equal as possible to the next, believing that this makes everything fair for everyone. In all truth though, society cannot function in this way; no matter what, there will always be someone or some group that has more power than everyone else. Equality should only concern the important issues, such as equal rights for all races and each gender. Both the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell and the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. are the quintessence of inequality and prove this point; all equal societies do not work. There are many similarities the book Animal Farm shares with the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, one

“What is equality?” one might ask. We all have different views on specific topics and can describe what something truly means to one’s self like in the 3 text, “I have a dream,” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr (published; 8/28/1963, genre; narrative and argumentative), “If we must die,” by Claude Mckay (published; 1919, genre; narrative and lyric), & “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (published; October 1961, genre; satirical & dystopian science-fiction short story). In all 3 texts the authors are giving their touch on equality. Equality can convey being treated the same when a colored and a white man/woman are next to each other as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr says. You can also see equality as Mckay who thinks it’s being on the same level of strength and worth as a white man being in the shoes of a colored man. Or equality can be being exactly the same in every way as anyone around you in every exact way in Vonnegut’s eyes. All these 3 authors have a particular view on how to answer “What is equality?” and we can compare their ideas.

Freedom is one of the many great qualities of life, but when it is taken away, life could turn out to be anything but great. Freedom to think, repent, and refuse should be incorporated in ones daily routine, but under an authoritarian dystopian society, these freedoms are only dreamt of. When society draws such attitudes and lifestyles upon its citizens, one adapts and accepts these requests, but not without a compromise. In Shirley Jackson’s masterpiece ‘The Lottery’ and Kurt Vonnegut’s exceptional story ‘Harrison Bergeron’, human life is so often sacrificed and withdrawn that is becomes a norm in society. Forcing people to agree with someone else’s ideology of harmony and success cannot be achieved without discarding the non-believers.

According to the fact that everyone is different in many ways, it isn't possible for everyone to be equal. According to the story "Harrison Bergeron" all humans can never truly be equal. We see in the beginning of the story the reader learns that the gifted are handicapped, but the ability to reason hasn’t been taken away. Hazel tells George that she thinks he looks tired. She says, “All of a sudden

True equality is not defined as treating everyone the same, but rather attending equally to everyone’s different needs; unfortunately, this utopic form of thinking is not accessible to all. In the novel Feed written by M.T. Anderson, and Lexicon by Max Barry, “only Marxism, as an account of the rational unfolding of a basically irrational capitalist system, [can] make sense of [the] current chaos [of a] class struggle” (Ollman). Specifically, the use of technology, propaganda, and language are all exploited by the bourgeoisie, in order to control the proletariat. Thus, it is evident that ignorance regarding the omnipresent power which authorities possess over others creates a submissive population.

The novels, Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, include many different elements of the psychoanalytical theory. According to Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalytic theory explains the reasoning behind personality disorders through one’s conscious and unconscious mind (Psychoanalytic Criticism). This theory also states the idea that things that happen to people during childhood can contribute to the way one later functions as an adult (Psychoanalytic Criticism). Both novels include characters that can contribute towards the psychoanalytical theory through the roles that the characters play in each novel. Both of the parents of the murdered child in each story contrast on how they act in the situation. The fathers