Bergeron And Anthem: A Comparative Analysis

“It is a sin to write this,” (Rand 17) Equality 7-2521 says as he writes fearfully about his society’s real sins. Harrison Bergeron and Anthem are about collectivist societies, whose intentions were to make a perfect world, but in the process was turned into pure destruction. Although, Harrison Bergeron and Anthem are both pieces of dystopian literature, they differ in their portrayal of the ideas of families and technology. In Harrison Bergeron, their society has families, relationships, and their technology has advanced. Unlike Anthem, Harrison Bergeron does allow families. This is seen when the story mentions,” George and Hazel Bergeron’s fourteen year old son.” (Vonnegut 1). This shows they are allowed to have relationships in their society.

In Anthem, they do not have families nor any types of relationships. “International 4-8818 and we are friends. This is an evil thing to say, for it is a transgression, the great Transgression of Preference, to love any among men better than others, since we must love all men and all men6+ are our friends.” (Rand 30). This tells readers that they are trained to not have relationships or know what families are. This means people cannot have friends or people in which they favor, everyone is equal so everyone is favored equally be all being favored. Another difference in dystopias are that Anthem’s technology has regressed. ”All the great modern inventions...such as the newest one, which we found only a hundred years ago, of how to make candles from wax and string.” (Rand 23-24). This shows that technology and electricity no longer exists. Technology and electricity has regressed, everything that had been from the “Unmentionable Times” is nonexistent now, this new society started from complete scratch. In summary, Harrison Bergeron and Anthem have major differences in their societies, but they both end up to be dystopias. It does not matter of one has electricity or one has families or one has flying cars. The only part of a society that matters is the way they treat the people. People need freedom and reasonable limits, they also need love and affection. There is no way to have a great world or society if no one is happy, yet there is no way to make everyone happy. There is no perfect