Hume's Ideas Present In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

“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.

John. C. Maxwell, a writer, and a priest, once said “There are two kinds of pride, ‘good pride’ represents our dignity and self-respect. ‘Bad’ pride is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance” (Quotefancy). Just as there are two sides to pride there are two sides to every human trait, each trait has an advantage and a disadvantage. Being stubborn could mean working towards goals until they have been achieved, or it could mean closing one’s mind so much so they miss out on opportunities they are not looking for. John Maxwell’s paradox of traits is shown through the idea of equality in Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s “Harrison Bergeron”. In this story the society is led to believe everyone is equal because of handicaps, but

The archetype of the Hero’s Journey holds a prevalent pattern in the works of “Initiation” by Sylvia Plath, “A & P” by John Updike, and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. These works all follow the 17 stages of Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth which are separated in three stages; separation, initiation, and return. The main characters have different characterizations; however, they all follow the basic structure of the Hero’s journey archetype. There are many similarities and differences between the stages that are shown through many context clues and literary devices in each work. The Hero’s Journey archetype expressed in these literary works follow a similar and direct narrative pattern.

During the course of this World Literature class, several stories have been covered that accurately describe Joseph Campbell's mono-myth, or basic pattern found in narratives from every corner of the world. The Hero's Journey in it's entirety has seventeen stages or steps, but if boiled down can be described in three; the departure, the initiation, and the return (Monomyth Cycle). Each stage has several steps, but the cycle describes the hero starting in his initial state, encountering something to change him, and this his return as a changed person. To further explain this concept, there are a few stories covered in this class that can be used.

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

But to fully grasp an audience, with twelve to fifteen steps is a lot to explain. Joseph Campbell gisted the essential components of the mononmyth as a whole, “The standard path of the mythological hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rights of a passage: separation—initiation—return” (23). In these simple steps Campbell identified the foundation of all monomyths. In separation, the hero ventures astray from their later “prosaic” life into a region of supernatural wonder (23).Initiation, overzealous figures/forces are encountered and a decisive victory is won (23).Lastly,the now master of the narrative returns from the surreptitious journey with bestowed power

Jon Krakauer diverges from the story of McCandless’s journey, to inform the readers how all of the other adventures that occurred were similar. He wanted to show how other people were in his situation, that wanted to conquer the world with what the others had with them.

The 1961 short story by Kurt Vonnegut, “Harrison Bergeron,” details a dystopian future in which the mediocre and average are lionized, and the exceptional in society are marginalized and treated as though they are handicapped and/or criminal. The plot of “Harrison Bergeron” revolves around the plight of its title character, an adolescent boy who is 7’1” tall, extremely good looking, and has a genius-level I.Q., to boot. In the story, Harrison has been placed in jail in order to protect society from his exceptionality. In the society of 2081 America that Vonnegut depicts, the United States government has installed a fascist government that punishes people for falling above the norm in any instance. As the story progresses, the reader learns that Harrison’s mother is actually of below average intelligence, and this has rendered her into an “ideal citizen.” Harrison’s father, on the other hand, possesses above average intelligence and is subject to constant monitoring by the government, so as to ensure that he does not use his superior abilities to act outside of the norm, in any way. Ultimately, “Harrison Bergeron” is a Marxist critique of the late capitalist society of the twentieth century United States, which celebrates the “average” and the “mediocre,” while demonizing innovation.

In 1949, Joseph Campbell popularized his version of the monomyth, or the hero’s journey. In this version, there were seventeen stages which were split into three distinct categories including the Departure, the Initiation, and finally, the Return. Over the course of several years, there have been numerous versions of the hero’s journey; most of them derived from Joseph Campbell’s initial version. After watching “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, I was able to categorize the events in the movie into Christopher Vogler’s version of the hero’s journey which consists of twelve stages. The twelve stages are 1. The ordinary world, 2. The call to adventure, 3. Refusal of the call, 4. Meeting the master, 5. Crossing the threshold, 6. Tests, allies, and enemies, 7. Approaching the dragon’s den, 8. The ordeal, 9. Seizing the treasure, 10. The road back, 11. Resurrection, and finally, 12. Return with the treasure. However, modern film tends to stray from the typical hero’s journey more than the usual traditional epic poem.

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

The subject of “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is equality. The theme of this short story is that society should make an effort to value individuality and fairness, in which everyone receives what they need to prosper, instead of universal equality. The forms used to elevate this subject and theme are point of view, syntax, characterization, irony, and humor.

The topic of World War 2 veterans struggling to cope with normal life with some kind of PTSD is a great idea that goes well his writing style. Although the lack of description in some of the characters, Vonnegut simply tells the readers what the main character feels about them. Keeping it simple with majority of his characters. Vonnegut stays pretty much the same in the progress of the book as the reader has to digress some characters. He is pretty much has this form of writing down to the letter as, each character he introduces is so different, but not put into so much detail keeping every grey face, a center mystery but an added content to keep the story

The attempts by scholars to define Vonnegut’s style of writing lean toward the belief that his work may be modern, postmodern and postmodern humanist (Davis). Accordingly, following the postmodern lean, Davis describes Vonnegut’s fiction as “lies that enable a humanism of practice.” (Davis). Decidedly anti-war, Vonnegut refused to glorify his most hurtful memories of World War II. His writings took on a common thread of sharp wit and satire. Hilariously, he made fun of his world and attempted to teach a lesson regarding society’s quirks and highlight what he thought about society.

“Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut is historical and science fiction novel about a man named BIlly Pilgrim and his life, mostly focusing on the time he spent in Dresden during World War II. The book takes place all throughout the 1900’s. Slaughterhouse is written in both first and third person, it goes back and forth from New York and Germany. Billy Pilgrim the antagonist the protagonist is this story because he is fighting against himself. The major conflict in this book is Billy trying to get over his first hand experience in Dresden, with that said the mood is an emotional back story of his life.

A contrary explanation is that, Vonnegut is showing how finding the inner truth in a novel results in the breakdown of insanity that ultimately reveals the tragic nature of human essence. There is a point within the mind when things become too real to deal with, and the feelings of intense suffering and pain slowly turn to numbness. Within fiction the author brings up the abstract idea that