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Harrison Bergeron Theme Essay

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Laws are the key to having a well-mannered society. They are created with the intention of bringing good to the civilization. However, even actions with good intentions can end with devastating results. This is what occurs in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron”. “Harrison Bergeron” is about a dystopian- like future that has had citizens stripped of their individuality due to an Amendment. The people that were trying to make the world a better place did the exact opposite of that. The theme of this short story would be that absolute power corrupts all; even the people who were trying to do good. This is a good theme for “Harrison Bergeron” since both the government and Harrison had been corrupted while trying to make the world …show more content…

is that absolute power corrupts all. Having the power to change the world or to control people can alter one's views or morals. The government in the short story became corrupt while trying to bring equality to the world. Instead of bringing peace and tolerance, the law of equality took away the individuality of the citizens. The absolute power also made the government feel as if they can control everything to make this twisted utopia. The protagonist and title character, Harrison Bergeron, also was affected by absolute power. His strength and uniqueness made him believe that he should be “emperor of the world”. That thought also lead to his defeat. The theme of absolute power corrupts in this story can also be compared to of that in Divergent by Veronica Roth. In the novel, Chicago had become split into five groups based on personalities. Anyone who was not placed into one of the categories was considered a threat and killed. The government in Divergent believed that they could make the world “perfect” if everyone was the same in their communities. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the government also believed that the only way for there to be peace was to have everyone be equal. Having absolute power can bring out the worst in a person even when the intentions of them were

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