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Compare And Contrast Harrison Bergeron And The Veldt

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‘Dystopian novels help people process their fears about what the future might look like; further, they usually show that there is always hope, even in the bleakest future.’ -Lauren Oliver. Dystopian stories give readers a futuristic, imagined universe that portray an illusion of the perfect society through technological, moral, corporate or bureaucratic control. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr and The Veldt by Ray Bradbury, are both short dystopian stories that explore different types worlds. This essay will compare, contrast and explore both these stories. Both these dystopian stories, The Veldt and Harrison Bergeron, have recurring and similar themes. In Harrison Bergeron, the author suggests the danger of having total equality. The …show more content…

They were equal every which way.’ The story also states, ‘Some things about living still weren't quite right, though.’ This informs the reader that the latent theme in the story underlines that striving for a world where equality is everything, is not worth it; even though many people believe it is. The story Harrison Bergeron communicates the message that total equality is nothing but a mistaken goal that is dangerous in both execution and outcome. The story states that to achieve mental and physical equality among all Americans, the government in the story tortures its citizens, which makes the situation not so ideal. It states that ‘the most beautiful people must wear hideous masks….the most graceful and strong must wear weights…he most intelligent beings must listen to earsplitting noises.’ These sentences inform the reader about how this dystopian world works, and how it is not a fun society to live in. In addition to this, the author writes about how the government system has affected one of the main characters. This impacts the story as the reader is constantly reminded of the negatives about this dystopian world. The story directly states, ‘the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage

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Comparing and contrasting 2081 to Harrison Bergeron Admit it, one time you were bored or sat down with nothing to do and couldn’t help but imagine how life would be if everyone was equal, don’t even try denying it, you’ve thought of that at least once in your life, but as any good writer would do, they’d write their thoughts down and turn it into a story, that’s exactly what Kurt Vonnegut did. Just imagine living a life where no one gets compared to others in any way. We all wish for a society like that, but Kurt showed us how equality can negatively affect our society. But that’s not the our main idea in this essay, our main idea is to highlight the comparisons and contrasts between the story “Harrison Bergeron” and the movie version “2081”. To begin with, Both the story and the movie had the same introduction/ Opening; “Everybody was finally equal.

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Harrison Bergeron was a book written in 1961 that portrayed an abnormal child defying the dystopian government; in 2009 a movie was made, based off of it called 2081 that changed the character both physically and morally. The differences in how Harrison Bergeron, the main character, appears in each story changes how the audience perceives his morality. These changes are easily highlighted in Harrison’s age, dialogue, and appearance. The tone of the story is also changed, resulting in similar changes to what the audience interprets. As both stories continue these differences become more and more apparent and by the end, there is a clear split in what the audience ‘takes away’.

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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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Compare and contrast Harrison Bergeron The 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments have been written, and it seems the world has finally become what people call “equal” nowadays in 2081. This isn’t bad for some people but these so-called handicaps to keep people equal aren’t good for everyone. Both the text “Harrison Bergeron”, and the film are similar in events but there are a few differences in the situations, plot, and characters. One main difference that was evident is a character in the text “Harrison Bergeron”, that was represented as blindingly beautiful.

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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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Period 5 Quarter 1 Final Essay by Anish Kashyap Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., The Monsters are due on Maple street by Rod Serling, and Pros and Cons of Genetic Engineering in Humans by Matt Bird all show that a utopian society is destined to fail. The ways of life in each society show that utopian societies are destined to fail. In Harrison Bergeron, the society is destined to fail because everyone is the same and they have strict laws. In The Monsters are due on Maple Street, the neighborhood is destined to fail because people are prejudiced against others and people make illogical conclusions.

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The Importance of Absolute Equality in “Harrison Bergeron” For hundreds of years, humanity has struggled to define equality, as well implement the concept properly into society. Slaves; prisoners of war; and even in today’s society, we still see people of color treated as lesser than their Caucasian counterparts. Interestingly enough, color is never introduced as a problem in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron”. While most people nowadays would agree that the word “equality” refers to equal opportunity, Vonnegut forces this word to the extremes, and warps its meaning into something much more controlling, to the point where it harms society more than inequality ever did.

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The story, Harrison Bergeron really shows the importance of diversity and for every individual to have a right to be unique. The government trying to make every thing completely fair is actually unfair to people who can 't get any excitement in a world like this. Limiting peoples thinking will also strongly slow any advances in technology, maybe even to a stop, so they might never solve some of the very important problems they face. Same with strength, if someones is in danger to an animal or a malfunctioning machine they will need to be able to escape. So really a world thats completely fair is impossible to create.

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Kurt Vonnegut uses characterization to describe how the characters act in this society. Vonnegut also uses style to show how he uses science fiction and dystopia in “Harrison Bergeron”. The theme demonstrated in “Harrison Bergeron” is equality is not meant to make one person better than another. Kurt Vonnegut in “Harrison Bergeron”, demonstrates that equality based on characteristics is not a good thing for society. Harrison Bergeron is a short story based on the year 2081, where everybody is equal.

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Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else,” (Vonnegut). Both of these stories describe the way of life the future could be like if the government is granted too much power. It shows us that we should keep limits on what the government should be able to do; find a happy medium between what is guiding people to have moral actions, and what is controlling people, such as a dictatorship.

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