Both The Veldt and Harrison Bergeron explore people disabled and family drifting apart because of excessive dependence on an outside influence. Yet, while in The Veldt, technology plays a major role in replacing parents in children’s lives, in Harrison Bergeron, government policy and brainwash is the leading factor. Harrison Bergeron emphasizes how people and families are literally disabled physically and emotionally by the government policy and propaganda about absolute equality. Vonnegut sets the story in a society that uncritically submits an oversimplified concept of absolute equality. In this society, people are reduced to useless morons who cannot think for themselves by extreme measures like “mental handicap radio”. Because average
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The short story centers around a smart home and a high-tech nursery that fulfilled every need of the inhabitants. Similar to the parents in Harrison Bergeron, George and Lydia are nonchalant and distant to their children. Being a busy man, George paid no attention to the lion roars from the nursery in the onset. In addition, the children are often set to bed being swept up by the air tubes like lifeless “brown leaves” rather than being tucked into bed by their parents like in a traditional loving family. As a result of the neglect of the parents, the house, just like the government in Harrison Bergeron, begins to replace the parents and the children look towards the nursery for help rather than their parents. The house further aggravates the problem by making its inhabitants incapable of basic choses, replacing them in traditional family roles, and rendering them useless and out of place. Lydia expresses her concern and lack of sense of belonging to George, “The house is wife and mother now, and nurse for the children…You’re beginning to feel unnecessary too”. As the house outperforms human in each domestic task, the family members no longer need to communicate with each other nor lean on each other for emotional and physical support. Instead, the family members depend on the house, who now replaces natural …show more content…
The authors encourage us to think for ourselves and to take on our social and familial
The short story centers around a smart home and a high-tech nursery that fulfilled every need of the inhabitants. Similar to the parents in Harrison Bergeron, George and Lydia are nonchalant and distant to their children. Being a busy man, George paid no attention to the lion roars from the nursery in the onset. In addition, the children are often set to bed being swept up by the air tubes like lifeless “brown leaves” rather than being tucked into bed by their parents like in a traditional loving family. As a result of the neglect of the parents, the house, just like the government in Harrison Bergeron, begins to replace the parents and the children look towards the nursery for help rather than their parents. The house further aggravates the problem by making its inhabitants incapable of basic choses, replacing them in traditional family roles, and rendering them useless and out of place. Lydia expresses her concern and lack of sense of belonging to George, “The house is wife and mother now, and nurse for the children…You’re beginning to feel unnecessary too”. As the house outperforms human in each domestic task, the family members no longer need to communicate with each other nor lean on each other for emotional and physical support. Instead, the family members depend on the house, who now replaces natural …show more content…
The authors encourage us to think for ourselves and to take on our social and familial