What’s with all these books in the nineteenth century about the future? Books like Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley and short stories like “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut make people feel that the future not as bright as it seems.These stories were made years apart from each other, but their main message is that the way the world is progressing people will give the government totalitarian control and become mindless sheep following their leader. With that in mind “Harrison Bergeron” and Brave New World both approach the theme, truth and perception, even though both stories are skewed from reality, using symbolism and irony. “Harrison Bergeron” exposes what happens when we live in a false reality and forget about the
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George represents an unconsciously suppressed person with blind faith in the system and feels like wearing a “mental handicap radio” and limiting his intellectual prowess will make everyone “equal”, but he lives a lie as people can never be “equal”; their individualities will show no matter how much people try to conceal them. Another character used as a symbol is the focus of the story , “Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper…”(Vonnegut). Harrison’s a symbol of freedom; someone who still wants to show his individualities and tear of the unrealistic chains like “tissue paper”, he’s knows the truth; he knows that everyone can not be “equal” and strives to pull the rest of the people into his thinking.Vonnegut uses many symbols to support the main claim, likewise, he also incorporates some ironical elements that support the claim. In their society, even ballerinas hide: “Their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture…”(Vonnegut). The masks for the ballerinas are meant to hide their beautiful faces, but the mask just reinforces the person’s attractiveness showing that people …show more content…
The society in the story gives up many individualities which were symbolized by the way they reproduce:“...The whole of a small factory staffed with the products of a single bokanovskified egg”(7). The people in the story gave up individualities to the government and traded them for efficiency thinking that being born in a “egg” seems like the best way to go, but they are living in false reality. Individuality makes people unique and giving up these traits just makes people empty shells of themselves and living in a false world. Another symbol used in the book was the wonderful happiness drug or “soma”, every time someone looked gloomy, he/she heard the phrase “...What you need is a gramme of soma…”(60). The “soma” in the novel was a way for their government to keep people happy so they do not realize that their Brave New World was actually not as great as it seems. The “soma” tricks the people into a false happiness high and they never look for the truth. Many ironicial aspects are shown throughout the novel like the relationship between Bernard and Helmholtz, “.... what the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals”(67). In Brave New World two people who know that they are “individuals” in their false reality; in their world people are never supposed to act as
George represents an unconsciously suppressed person with blind faith in the system and feels like wearing a “mental handicap radio” and limiting his intellectual prowess will make everyone “equal”, but he lives a lie as people can never be “equal”; their individualities will show no matter how much people try to conceal them. Another character used as a symbol is the focus of the story , “Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper…”(Vonnegut). Harrison’s a symbol of freedom; someone who still wants to show his individualities and tear of the unrealistic chains like “tissue paper”, he’s knows the truth; he knows that everyone can not be “equal” and strives to pull the rest of the people into his thinking.Vonnegut uses many symbols to support the main claim, likewise, he also incorporates some ironical elements that support the claim. In their society, even ballerinas hide: “Their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture…”(Vonnegut). The masks for the ballerinas are meant to hide their beautiful faces, but the mask just reinforces the person’s attractiveness showing that people …show more content…
The society in the story gives up many individualities which were symbolized by the way they reproduce:“...The whole of a small factory staffed with the products of a single bokanovskified egg”(7). The people in the story gave up individualities to the government and traded them for efficiency thinking that being born in a “egg” seems like the best way to go, but they are living in false reality. Individuality makes people unique and giving up these traits just makes people empty shells of themselves and living in a false world. Another symbol used in the book was the wonderful happiness drug or “soma”, every time someone looked gloomy, he/she heard the phrase “...What you need is a gramme of soma…”(60). The “soma” in the novel was a way for their government to keep people happy so they do not realize that their Brave New World was actually not as great as it seems. The “soma” tricks the people into a false happiness high and they never look for the truth. Many ironicial aspects are shown throughout the novel like the relationship between Bernard and Helmholtz, “.... what the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals”(67). In Brave New World two people who know that they are “individuals” in their false reality; in their world people are never supposed to act as