Harrison Bergeron Compared To Fahrenheit 451

“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.

“Harrison Bergeron, “a short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., takes place in a totalitarian society where everyone is equal through handicaps forced on them by the government. Harrison, the main character, attempts to save the broken society, but ultimately fails to change anything. Vonnegut uses Harrison as a Christ figure in his novel ironically, to make a statement about our own society today and how we are blind to many political things happening around us. These ideas can be explored through analyzing Thomas Foster’s novel How to Read Literature like a Professor.

The story “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt VOnnegut Jr. explores the idea of a perfect society. A life where you are completely oppressed to be like everyone else. A young boy known as Harrison Bergeron seeks to have change in society and for everyone to be free.

Picture a society, far in the future, where everyone, by government control, must be on the same level. Would this be Hell or a utopia? This is the subject of Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”. In this society, the gifted, strong, and beautiful are required to wear multiple handicaps of earphones, heavy weights, and hideous masks. In turn, these constraints leave the world equal, or arguably devoid of, from brains to brawn to beauty. With the constant push for equality among all people, Vonnegut reveals a world that society is diligently working toward. “Harrison Bergeron” is written as a form of satire with heavy irony, to demonstrate the clear difference between equity and equality in society. “Harrison Bergeron” is

In 2081 everyone was treated equally due to laws 211th, 212th, and 213th. Can you imagine a world where nobody could be smarter or stronger than anyone else? In “Harrison Bergeron” the law said that everyone was supposed to be equal in every way but everyone was not truly equal. Everyone in “ Harrison Bergeron” were being treated equally because they are being treated differently, they have leaders that are treating them poorly, and all of these problems could be because of laws 211th, 212th, and 213th.

When Bruce Pittman directed Harrison Bergeron in 1995, most things changed from what was originally written by Kurt Vonnegut. In the film adaptation of this short story, the director had more or less the same idea the author had. Vonnegut presents a scary view of human society in the United States of the future, in which American citizens are all uniform. This then leads to their loss of individuality, and as a result, the deformity of humanness. Both the movie and the short story share these themes; they also have a multitude of other similarities, but have just as many differences. The theme might be the same in both, yet in the story, Harrison is portrayed as a seven foot tall, athletic, fourteen year old with a godlike complex, and the

Harrison Bergeron is a story written by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut’s story is a warning to the world about the quest of equality, which is spreading all round in many nations with America on the lead. The story shows the reader how the equality issue can have negative impacts on people’s individuality, and the society. The story revolves around the protagonist, Harrison Bergeron who is an archetypical symbol that represents defiance, and individuality. He is used to represent the people who will stand up, and protest against cruel laws imposed by the state on equality, and encourage others to protest with him. Through the characterization of Harrison, George and Hazel, Vonnegut shows how the equality idea can go to the extreme. The

In Fahrenheit 451 the rebels consisted of Clarisse, Montag, Faber, and Granger, which challenged their current life and wanted an adjustment to happen. The change the rebels wanted in the book was to read books. These Characters were are all radiant, smart, and wanted to create down to earth ideas that nobody had ever thought of. One common theme the book and film had was wisdom and knowledge are acquired through experience and erudition. This theme applies as Pleasantville changed to color. The people in Pleasantville learned that adjustments engenders different perspectives like Skip finding the colored rose. In Fahrenheit 451 they learned that books show how to care and love for each other, for example when Montag read a poem to Mrs. Phelps and she started to cry because it made her feel sympathy for her dead husband she had never felt before. Both the film and novel take place in a very strict time period. In Fahrenheit 451 books are illegal, mental reflections are banned, and also reading books. In Pleasantville, color is prohibited and any other thoughts other than the script is prohibited as well as they go through the same routine everyday. Another common theme both the film and book have is

Fahrenheit 451 relates to Plato’s "Allegory of the Cave" in the sense that there was a false truth of the world. The people in the story didn't know the "real world". For example, in Fahrenheit 451, people believed that firemen always set fire to homes, not put them out. In "Allegory of the Cave" the prisoners are "forced to keep their head immobile", much like the people in Fahrenheit 451 are forced to burn all books. These two things are similar because they both hide the truth.

Have you ever been told you can’t do something because you are too qualified? In Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” this is what America has turned into in 2081. Vonnegut uses characters in his story to show the effects of a truly “equal” society with what happens when they want everyone equal and what happens to some of their health. Some of the characters he uses are Harrison, George, and the ballerinas.

In today’s world, equality is quite a hot topic being thrown about. With the help of Kurt Vonnegut and Chandler Tuttle with kind of have an idea of what really equality could look like. The question I think they are trying to pose is do we really want equality? Both stories are quite similar but have a few differences which affects the way the perceive different stories. The story is mainly about a time in the future where all people would be equal to both God and Law. Some people like Harrison, will dislike being made equal to others because they believe, they are being denied a chance to achieve their full potential.

Although George says he wants to do it, he cannot do it for “a few days” as last month he locked the nursery for “a few days” and the children threw a huge tantrum. George Hadley also adds in that the children “live for the nursery” which just goes to show how technology has affected this family's relationship. If the children are only living for the nursery, then that symbolizes that the nursery has basically replaced their parents, as the nursery is what entertains them, and what helps them now instead of their parents. Thus leading to a disconnect between the children and the parents, thus making their relationship lose all meaning.. Both Fahrenheit 451 and “The Veldt” symbolize the negative impact technology has on family and relationships by making them want to live in a fantasy and have no human connection, and be disconnected from their family.

The book F451, written by Ray Bradbury, is about a dystopian society where knowledge, as well as books, are not as they are in our society. Instead, the is destroyed. On the other hand, the story Harrison Bergeron, written by Kurt Vonnegut, is a society where everyone is equal, in every way. The books Fahrenheit 451 and Harrison Bergeron are both showing how the over controlling government can block out your own thinking. This theme was a warning for our society in the future.

When you look at it, the perfect society is what Russia was looking to achieve

To first discover what makes these novels similar, they must first be analyzed to see their plot. Fahrenheit 451 is the story of a fireman named Guy Montag. Montag is no ordinary civilian, he is a fireman, the law enforcement that burns down house and arrests people if they have been proven to be hiding books. The story goes that Montag has a wife who has very little purpose in life. Her only desire is to be with her “family”, the actors on television who make programs where the viewer feels they are involved in the show. Eventually, Montag meets a young girl named Clarisse who talks with him when they walk together on the sidewalk, says to him “You’re not like the others” (Page 21), and who has been deemed by society as “peculiar” as she expresses herself in many artful ways. Montag talks with Clarisse until, one day, Clarisse is hit by a car,