Is it possible to have equality and maintain freedom? Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” is a satirical science fiction short story that takes place in the American future of the year 2081. Vonnegut’s story is seemingly a utopia from the opening line that “everybody was finally equal” but is quickly revealed to be a dystopia due to the severe limitations placed on civilians in order to maintain equality. Vonnegut mentioning of the specific traits to which every American is equal is reflecting…
Weekday Learning Center Leadership Training Program Good morning and welcome to the Weekday Learning Center Leadership Training Program. First let me take a minute to congratulate each one of you on your new position here at Weekday and encourage you to use every opportunity given to you to learn new leadership skills, to apply those new skills, and help yourself and Weekday succeed. Unfortunately, when some individuals think of being a leader and what that entails, they often think of power,…
My favorite aspect of this book was the way all of the themes worked symbiotically to create a very dynamic story. This book forced me to pay attention to the plot, something I can say about very few books. The complexity of Slaughterhouse-Five resided in the inability or unwillingness of Vonnegut to settle on a single theme or mode of discourse It took me until the end of the first chapter to discover what was going on; I even thought I had picked up the author’s edition by mistake.…
This book definitely explores some of the over arching topics we have discussed this semester, but in a pretty odd way. Kurt Vonnegut definitely has a large imagination and creative mind. He used fictional characters in a dystopian society to portray his own thoughts and feelings which I found very interesting. The main theme he presents that we have also talked about in this course is love and acceptance. Wilbur and Eliza were not accepted by their parents because they were deformed creatures…
The book “Slaughterhouse- Five” written by Kurt Vonnegut published in the year 1969 is a story about the second World War. The author Kurt Vonnegut is an American soldier placed in Dresden, Germany during the bombing of the city. He writes down all his feelings and emotions together with his friend Billy Pilgrim. The novel’s protagonist Billy Pilgrim is stucked in time, so during the whole book the author is jumping back and forth in time. Billy Pilgrim is born 1922 in New York, went to High…
Vonnegut and O’Brien tackle the Cold War as a new era in warfare, in which battles were not fought truly fought over land acquisition or the survival of a people, against an opposing force, but against an enemy that represents our enemy. We fight our enemy’s ally because we do not agree with their way of life or the people that agree with it because they believe the same thing about us. Vonnegut showcases the game of chess played between two opposites for no prize but survival using the least…
Slaughterhouse-Five is a novel full of motifs, ironies, black humor, as well as themes. The themes seen throughout the novel is sight, destruction of war, and lack of free will. Going more in depth, sight is a theme since the novel talks about being able to see clearly. During the novel, the destruction of war is mentioned quite a few times. Free will is the more obvious theme of the three and seen frequently throughout the entire novel. These three themes are seen in both the poem, A Man…
In the short story ‘The Lie’ by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., all of the Remenzels feel pressure with Eli going to the Whitehill School for Boys. But, the Remenzel that receives the most pressure is the doctor. Firstly, Dr. Remenzel feels the ‘weight’ of the name Remenzel: that the prideful Remenzel name should continue through Eli at Whitehill. “‘...but... I see all the buildings named after Remenzels,... and all the hundreds of thousands of dollars given by Remenzels for scholarships.’” This places Dr.…
Nirvana Nirvana was an alternative rock/ grunge trio formed by frontman/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in 1987 in Aberdeen, a small town near Seattle, Washington. Their first studio album “Bleach” was recorded by Jack Endino, a local producer associated with the independent record label Sub Pop. The record sold 35,000 copies in the United States, a considerable success for the band. Soon after the release of their first album Nirvana began their first, one month national…
In the story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, the author writes about a strict society where a hero, Harrison Bergeron, stands against it. Harrison breaks harsh rules for the people of this society who could have had the freedom and thrived for some amount of time. Harrison makes many daring actions for the people that are stuck in the strict society. Harrison is demonstrated to everyone that he is the only one who can save society because of the danger he displays. For example, the news…