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Compare And Contrast Harrison Bergeron And The Lottery

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Aarti Patel Mrs.Singh ENG 3U0 07/07/2015 Maintaining an Utopian Society: Harrison Bergeron and The Lottery Utopia is drawn as a place, a situation, or a condition which is absolutely perfect in terms of laws, customs, and politics. If individuals in the society have different perspectives, then can the society be ideally perfect? Even though laws and customs, made by the governing people, may not seem fair to the people who are bound to them, they will still continue to follow them regardless, for the sake of obedience. In the short stories "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, the antagonists aim to achieve an ideal society; however, the protagonists suggest that it is maintained unfairly through …show more content…

In the short story, "Harrison Bergeron," the protagonist is Harrison Bergeron who represents rebellion and individuality. This is shown when, "Harrison [plucks] the metal handicap from [the ballerina's] ear, [snaps] off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy. Last of all, he [removes] her mask. She [is] blindingly beautiful," (Vonnegut Jr. 4). This suggests that even though people are forced to wear handicaps to encourage equality, Harrison Bergeron fearlessly takes his and the ballerina's handicaps off. He rebels against the societal rules because he wants people to show their natural talent and not be controlled by the government. Furthermore, the protagonist in the short story, "The Lottery," also symbolizes distinctiveness and rebellion as she stands up for the unfairness of the lottery. When her husband is chosen to get stoned Ms. Hutchinson says, " 'You didn't give him enough time to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair'," (Jackson 4). Therefore, Ms. Hutchinson opposes fearlessly since she thinks that it is unfair that a random person gets selected to sacrifice his or her life for the benefit of others. Both, Harrison Bergeron and Ms. Hutchinson, symbolize mutiny and distinctiveness by not supporting their communal

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Books and movies have been around for many years and lately movie directors have been making more and more movies based off of books. Most people do not know that around 50% of movies are based off of books. Although, it really depends on what people mean when a movie is “based” off a book. Some directors say a movie is based off a book, but has a different plot and seems totally different. So, in order to keep true to the book, directors keep the plot relatively the same, but there are a few times they decide to change the message entirely by changing just a few key events.

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In the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, George and Hazel Bergeron are talking about reducing their handicaps but think that “if you … just take [it off] when you came home from work … pretty soon [they would] be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else” (Vonnegut 872). These people, normal citizens in their society, have been so brainwashed by their leaders that they believe competition is a negative and they are happier living with handicaps. They also think it is normal that “[nobody is] smarter than anybody else. Nobody [is] better looking than anyone else. Nobody [is] stronger or quicker than anyone else” (Vonnegut 872).

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“Repent Harlequin Said the Tictockman” by Harlan Ellison wrote in 1965 is about a time keeping government trying to achieve complete efficiency. The 1961 science fiction short story “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., is about complete equality, disabling humanity from success. By examining elements of character analysis, tone, plot, setting, and diction, readers can see that these two dystopian stories can be compared and contrasted. “Repent Harlequin…” and “Harrison Bergeron” take place in alternate futures where the government has either taken control of everyone’s schedules or removed things that would make them unequal. Both stories are led by an antagonist and by someone who rebelled against them, but eventually, the rebellion fails and as far as we know the oppression goes on.

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Individuals are the building blocks of society, but they can’t dictate the way society flows. In the short stories “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson and “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut, and the theories of enlightenment philosophers, individuals can not change society. Tessie Hutchinson from “The Lottery,” tried to persuade her village that the tradition was wrong, but she faced death. While, Harrison from “Harrison Bergeron,” tried to overthrow society's ideas, through atrocious actions. The philosophers believed that the governors of society should be responsive and secure rights for the people.

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The Lottery and Harrison Bergeron, both share common themes and differences in their stories. One would be that both societies claim theses “traditions give them unity and equality”. Another theme commonly shared is both stories show how people can be blind to tradition. Although these stories are similar they have their differences one being Harrison Bergeron tried dyeing like a martyr while Ms. Hutchinson died trying to save her own life. In both of theses stories society believes that their barbaric traditions bring them equality and unity.

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The Lottery is a short story about a town of people that will crowd and all the men will get a slip of paper all the paper is blank… besides one and that one has a black dot, so a lucky person will get it and if they have a kid older than 16 they have play this game, anyway the winner will get a “prize”. The Lottery story and The Lottery movie have many things that were different. The Lottery story is different from The Lottery movie by where it is located and where the event took place, such as in the story they were sacrificing someone in a large field while in the movie they were stopped by the building. If they didn’t have the building in the way she could have lived longer while if they did she would have died sooner.

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The short story “The lottery” is about a small village that has an annual lottery in which the winner gets stoned to death. Many of the townspeople know this is inhumane, but they choose not to speak out because their name isn’t picked. Jackson uses direct characterization to describe all the characters in the village and uses symbolism throughout the story. Not to forget about the vivid description of the setting in the beginning of the short story. Shirley

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The story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is about a couple, Hazel and George Bergeron, in the distant future when all people must be equal. This equality is reached in the form of handicaps. Weights are placed on the strong and athletic people in society, masks are forced upon the beautiful, and loud noises are constantly blasted into the ears of the intelligent to prevent them from thinking. While most equality is often thought of as good, the story shows a much darker side, using the government’s forceful equalization of the people. “Harrison Bergeron” uses multiple perspectives to highlight the costs of equality paralleled in today’s society.

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Thesis: In Kurt Vonnegut 's story, "Harrison Bergeron," symbolism, tone, and irony reveal the author 's message to the reader which is his perspective on equality. Notably, there are countless symbols in the narrative "Harrison Bergeron" all of which trace back to the theme of the story. The handicaps people are forced to wear are symbols for the control the government has over people. "George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn 't be handicapped.

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In “Harrison Bergeron”, each person was not truly equal. For example, the ballerinas in the story were prettier than the maximum people, so they were required to wear masks. Hazel, the mother of Harrison, believed that the ballerinas were beautiful since her mask was extremely ugly. Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicap General, forces them to be like the public and will punish anyone who says different. Consequently a few people enjoy being the same, it is not easy, and following the Handicap General’s rules is challenging.

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Coldly seizing the paper to reveal that she possessed the marked ticket indicates a lack of empathy, not of a friend and a spouse, but as a participant removed from any loyalty to family, instead loyal to the lottery tradition. By holding the slip of paper Mrs. Hutchinson had drawn, Mr. Hutchinson seals his wife’s fate knowing full well what will come next. Mr. Hutchinson had made the choice to essentially betray his

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No matter how many handicaps you put on someone they aren’t going to change. It’s kind of like trying to cover up beauty with a mask or make-up. Handicaps have no value in making anyone equal. Although equality is needed, no one in “Harrison Bergeron” is solely based on appearance and how smart you are. Equality is treating everyone one with the same amount of respect so therefore, no one in this short story is

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