What if society finally decided to make everyone equal, and not just with people’s right? What if the government forced the extraordinary and above average to become more normal so nobody fights and gets jealous? In the book “The Giver”, by Lois Lowry, and the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., life is exactly like that. Jonas, from “The Giver”, lives in a society run by an over controlling government that has does not allow its citizens to make their own choices. Everyday, the citizens take injections supplied by the government so they achieve sameness and are no better than the others in the community. George, from “Harrison Bergeron”, lives in a society also run by an over controlling government and his society is completely
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In “Harrison Bergeron”, it says, “Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper, tore straps guaranteed to support five thousand pounds.” This tells the reader that Harrison can easily break out of what keeps him “equal” to other people. It also relates to the second reason individuality is important because people will always find a way out of being controlled; this is shown by Harrison taking off all of his handicaps without any difficulty. In “The Giver”, page 212 states, “The Giver had planned: that as he moved away from the community, he would shed the memories and leave them behind for the people” Jonas and Giver wanted to do this because they wanted the community to freak out and ask Giver for advice. Of course Jonas and Giver knew the risk of doing so, as it meant that if either one was caught, they would be killed. They were both willing to take the risk so the community could go back to having choices and have the right to be different from others.
Total equality is dangerous and is also unachievable as shown by “Harrison Bergeron” and “The Giver”. Having total equality takes away choices and individuality; it also shows us that having equality is fine, just not when the government is forcing people to be fully the same by using different methods that should be illegal. The two texts, although both are fictional stories, show us the dangers of full equality in everyways by telling us what could
In “Harrison Bergeron”, it says, “Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper, tore straps guaranteed to support five thousand pounds.” This tells the reader that Harrison can easily break out of what keeps him “equal” to other people. It also relates to the second reason individuality is important because people will always find a way out of being controlled; this is shown by Harrison taking off all of his handicaps without any difficulty. In “The Giver”, page 212 states, “The Giver had planned: that as he moved away from the community, he would shed the memories and leave them behind for the people” Jonas and Giver wanted to do this because they wanted the community to freak out and ask Giver for advice. Of course Jonas and Giver knew the risk of doing so, as it meant that if either one was caught, they would be killed. They were both willing to take the risk so the community could go back to having choices and have the right to be different from others.
Total equality is dangerous and is also unachievable as shown by “Harrison Bergeron” and “The Giver”. Having total equality takes away choices and individuality; it also shows us that having equality is fine, just not when the government is forcing people to be fully the same by using different methods that should be illegal. The two texts, although both are fictional stories, show us the dangers of full equality in everyways by telling us what could