Justice In Harrison Bergeron

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The Concept of Justice The concept, or idea of justice upholds a different meaning to each and every individual. In its most broad context, the word justice simply refers to the genuine respect and fair treatment of human kind. Even the simple mention of this word leads to the plethora of differing viewpoints and perspectives of what the word, “justice” actually means. Despite the differing ideas, concepts, and opinions on the idealistic meaning of justice, these individual ideas form together to portray the idea and concern for the fair and just treatment of every individual. “Harrison Bergeron”, “The Minister’s Black Veil”, and “Thank You, Ma’am” are three short pieces of literature that seemingly contrast. Despite the fact that…show more content…
This story is set in a dystopian society in the United States during the year of 2081. “Harrison Bergeron” provides readers with an example of the possible outcome of living in a society that is built upon the concept of complete equality. Due to Amendments of the Constitution, every individual in this piece of fiction is treated equally. This means that not one individual possesses higher intelligence, is considered to be more attractive, or is physically and mentally stronger than anyone else. The government established in “Harrison Bergeron”, forces those who are not equal to wear “handicaps” so that they can be made equal to everyone else. These “handicaps” include masks for those who are considered to be too attractive, headsets that lead more intelligent people to be distracted and therefore are not able to concentrate on their thoughts, and heavy weights to slow down those who are too fast or too strong. The protagonist of the story, fourteen year old Harrison Bergeron, is taken away from his parents by the government. The story describes Harrison as being a 7 foot tall genius that is incredibly brave, strong, and intelligent, obviously not equal in the society depicted in the story. Towards the end of the story, Harrison is convinced that he is able to overthrow the current government. In an attempt to achieve this goal, Harrison is tragically, and rather…show more content…
This story was published in 1837 and appeared in “Twice-Told Tales.” This story is set in the 1800’s, and begins in front of a church meeting-house. The protagonist of the story, Mr. Hooper, arrives wearing a semi-transparent black veil that covers his face. This creates tension in the community, and leads the townspeople to question Mr. Hooper’s veil and its significance. As the story goes on, we witness the very poor treatment of Mr. Hooper due to the mystery of his black veil. Because of this, readers may also identify points in the story where Mr. Hooper experiences denial, anger, bargaining, and depression. There were numerous windows of opportunity for justice to be shown throughout this story, but to no avail. In the end of “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Mr. Hooper refuses to remove his black veil as he perishes. In Mr. Hooper’s final words, he explains that we all wear black veils, and is buried with the black veil covering his
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    Independence tells us that men are born with the right to live their life as they so choose, with all the freedoms of speech, religion, and choice, and to be able to explore these freedoms in the search of being happy. These themes are all explored in “Harrison Bergeron”, a story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In the society Vonnegut creates, all men are totally and completely equal in that everyone is given handicaps to bring them down to the base means. Truly, our society would find this not only incredibly boring with

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