Equality, in a sense, is something that may be ideal as a word. When taken as the definition, equality is something that somebody wants, but others would rather rule those who are equal. There are those that want to be the same as others but no matter what happens, equality isn’t something that can be achieved. Sometimes a life of parity is something that is better off being unsaid, and “Harrison Bergeron” is a good example of that. “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is about a world where everything is perfect and everyone is equal. Harrison, the “perfect” being that was forced to be detained because of how perfect he was, rebelled against this society but ultimately died in the end, since fairness apparently conquers all. “Harrison
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This is all due “to the 211th, 212th, 213th Amendments [in the] Constitution,” which granted handicaps to those with higher physical or mental aspects [Vonnegut, 1961]. Civil rights are no longer in place in “Harrison Bergeron” because of this; people accept oppression as long as they get to keep their equality. According to George in “Harrison Bergeron,” he’d rather keep carrying the lead birdshot balls and earpiece, because he’d rather not go “back to the dark ages…, [when] everybody [was] competing against [each other],” showing that the people in the year 2081, would rather live being oppressed, than living free to use all their abilities [Vonnegut, 1961]. Also, normal, in this story, is incompetent, ignorant, and subnormal, which best describes Hazel’s case, as she is considered normal with no handicaps of her own. She may be sweet at heart, but it doesn’t waver from the reader noticing that she can’t remember things she had seen only moments before and she takes everything in a literal context, such as at the end. When George tells her, “[she] can say that again,” Hazel takes that literally and says, “gee – I could tell that one was a doozy,” once more, proving that she had no ability to tell when someone says something that has a sarcastic undertone [Vonnegut, 1961]. If studying the word usage, those who are handicapped have no tone; …show more content…
The radio that produces a constant burst of noise to prevent everyone from thinking too much is a form of media as it is produced from a source that controls the output. Media controls one from thinking too much and for average humans, such as Hazel, the television accomplishes just that, as she couldn’t think back to the time that happened not only a minute before. When her son, Harrison had died, she had cried, but when asked about it, she replied with, “I forget…, something real sad [happened] on television,” [Vonnegut, 1961]. With this, the lack of concentration had come to be known as short attention span and many critics thought television was the cause for attention deficit disorder and because Hazel has to do nothing when she watches television, it cuts her off from real life and attention to detail [Khawaja, 2011]. Vonnegut suggests that television is important in Hazel’s society because it is a means of controlling information and he proves this by showing what happens when Harrison takes over the television studio and giving himself the name of emperor. The reaction from Hazel is numbing as she reacts as if she didn’t see her son taken from her and she doesn’t remember what had happened on the screen. George, on the other hand, due to his advanced brain functions, had to have a loud noise erupt in his ear in order to cancel out the events that had
This is all due “to the 211th, 212th, 213th Amendments [in the] Constitution,” which granted handicaps to those with higher physical or mental aspects [Vonnegut, 1961]. Civil rights are no longer in place in “Harrison Bergeron” because of this; people accept oppression as long as they get to keep their equality. According to George in “Harrison Bergeron,” he’d rather keep carrying the lead birdshot balls and earpiece, because he’d rather not go “back to the dark ages…, [when] everybody [was] competing against [each other],” showing that the people in the year 2081, would rather live being oppressed, than living free to use all their abilities [Vonnegut, 1961]. Also, normal, in this story, is incompetent, ignorant, and subnormal, which best describes Hazel’s case, as she is considered normal with no handicaps of her own. She may be sweet at heart, but it doesn’t waver from the reader noticing that she can’t remember things she had seen only moments before and she takes everything in a literal context, such as at the end. When George tells her, “[she] can say that again,” Hazel takes that literally and says, “gee – I could tell that one was a doozy,” once more, proving that she had no ability to tell when someone says something that has a sarcastic undertone [Vonnegut, 1961]. If studying the word usage, those who are handicapped have no tone; …show more content…
The radio that produces a constant burst of noise to prevent everyone from thinking too much is a form of media as it is produced from a source that controls the output. Media controls one from thinking too much and for average humans, such as Hazel, the television accomplishes just that, as she couldn’t think back to the time that happened not only a minute before. When her son, Harrison had died, she had cried, but when asked about it, she replied with, “I forget…, something real sad [happened] on television,” [Vonnegut, 1961]. With this, the lack of concentration had come to be known as short attention span and many critics thought television was the cause for attention deficit disorder and because Hazel has to do nothing when she watches television, it cuts her off from real life and attention to detail [Khawaja, 2011]. Vonnegut suggests that television is important in Hazel’s society because it is a means of controlling information and he proves this by showing what happens when Harrison takes over the television studio and giving himself the name of emperor. The reaction from Hazel is numbing as she reacts as if she didn’t see her son taken from her and she doesn’t remember what had happened on the screen. George, on the other hand, due to his advanced brain functions, had to have a loud noise erupt in his ear in order to cancel out the events that had