Control. Equality. All. Anthem is a novella about a man who is in a society that controls all aspects of everyone's life. Equality goes against the populous and goes out on his own. Harrison Bergeron is a short story about a family who goes through the day showing the different restrictions of their society. Of what happens to those who follow and those who don't. These both Anthem by Ayn Rand and Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, jr have many concepts in common.
People when placed under control will naturally resist power. In Anthem the main character is put under arrest and by law he should say what he did but again and again his captures ask “Are you ready to speak,’ but we shook our head” When under arrest he still wouldn’t give up the
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In anthem this is shown when the elders say to the main character “ how dared you, gutter sweeper (...) to hold yourself as one alone and with the thoughts of the one and not of the many” The irony that is shown by this is how the elders who are supposed to help all and have all help others but they reject the idea that he had to help the collective group. While in the Harrison Bergeron society the fear of going against the group makes them think bad stuff could happen like “if I tried to get away with it (...) then other people’d get away with it-and pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn't like that, would you?” this society has them thinking that if they go against the greater good in any way that everything will go wrong. Yet there are people who still do it showing how it doesn't work. In both situations whether it's a big help for all or a small help for one they don’t except that help.
Anthem and Harrison Bergeron both share many concepts in common. People naturally resist control, People are not equal, asn they show how an one for all society fails. The novella and short story prove and disprove their governments ideas as well as sharing other