Compare And Contrast 1984 And Harrison Bergeron

Can an overbearing government/society cause an individual to break down mentally and or physically? The thought of the government having some control over our lives can be seen as overbearing but to others it can be seen as a bubble of protection, George Orwell’s 1984 can be compared by a character’s act of rebellion due to the lack of freedom and contrasted by the repercussions of an individual rebelling to Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron”. The act of rebelling is perceived as such a negative practice in both of the dystopian societies, on the occasion that one rebels it cause for drastic measures. In 1984 Winston Smith rebelled against Big Brother by doing whatever he pleased. “The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed would still have

In other words, Winston Smith wrote in his journal, which is against the law so therefore he committed a heinous crime according to “Big Brother” a non-existing character that acts as the current system of government in this dystopian setting. As well in the short story “Harrison Bergeron” the character Harrison rebelled against his government. ““Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen,” she said in a grackle squawk, “has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous”” (Vonnegut). What Vonnegut was trying to point out is that Harrison was considered a vigilante because he took off his handicaps, which made him stronger and bigger than everyone else and the purpose of the handicaps were to keep everyone equal and in case that people were to take them off they’ll be fined but Harrison’s case is different since he’s a felon. Both Winston Smith from 1984 and Harrison Bergeron “Harrison