Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” shows a futuristic world that has achieved equality, but in doing so, shows that equality is not all that it is made up to be, and that differences should be appreciated. In the story, America has achieved complete equality in everything from intelligence, to looks, to strength, but to do so, the government has to handicap those who show above average minds, looks, or strength. The theme of “Harrison Bergeron” is that everyone’s differences make people
How much is too much? Is gaining absolute equality worth sacrificing individuality and freedom? In Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, total equality is introduced to a futuristic society in 2081. Vonnegut warns us that there is a heavy price to pay when we constantly search for new ways to equalize and could quite possibly end up like those mindless clones in Harrison Bergeron’s society. According to them, the one obstacle that is in their way to achieve happiness is difference – inequality. However
Aristotle, the wise, Greek, philosopher once said, “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” In Kurt Vonnegut’s, “Harrison Bergeron”, the government attempts to create equality between all individuals, and unfortunately, propitiously succeeds. The equality laws state that every mankind must be identical to each other in terms of appearance and knowledge. Intelligent beings are handicapped with a monitor in their ear which emits caustic sounds every twenty seconds or so
of changes that leads to massive upheaval. In Kurt Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House, his short stories depict fictional utopian worlds that revolve around the progression of societies into dystopias. The eccentric plots untangle many misconceptions about utopias and reveal the disturbing, imperfect aspects of ‘perfect’ worlds. As genuine and valuable as equality seems, it can be more perverse and destructive. The short story, Harrison Bergeron accurately displays this misconception through
While Swift only played with an idea of a place of a dim and grim future for the human race, in Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury the reader gets to see what a dystopia truly is. Set in a world where books are illegal and firemen’s only job is to light fire instead of putting it out, Fahrenheit 451 showcases what is society without the intellect of books and the influence of technology. Established, 1790, to burn English-influenced books in the Colonies. […] Rule 1. Answer the alarm swiftly. 2. Start the
People fight for equality for all individuals, each person treated the exact same. The problem with this fighting stance is that the equality they want accomplished is not actually equality. Equality means that each person is given equal opportunity to do what they desire. This opportunity does not guarantee that people will pursue those desires, but the opportunity stays available for them. When people want exact same treatment for each individual, they are actually fighting for sameness rather