Compare And Contrast Night And Harrison Bergeron

Horrors of Uniform Societies
In society, there are many writings which teach people that there are groups of people who have different beliefs because of their past experiences. These experiences shape people's identities, making up who they are and how they live. Because communities have people with different beliefs living in them, everyday life is lively and full of diversity. During the Holocaust and in dystopian societies, many of the people lack diversity because of their living conditions. As shown in the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, and the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut, when a group of people is taken over by a stronger group,the prisoner’s lives often become repetitious and they are taught to act a certain way,

In Elie Wiesel's book, he talks about how he often witnessed people being beaten and tortured. He even said that one time “father had … been struck, before [his own] eyes, and [he] had not flickered an eyelid. [He] had looked on and said nothing” (Weissel 37). Due to how often Elie had observed people being beaten, he was not affected others being physically harmed as if he was too innocent to understand what was happening. Another recurring mindset that Elie noticed was that many people only fought for life because of their family. When Stein, an old family friend, was told that his family was still alive, he responded by saying that “the only thing that keeps [him] alive … is that [his wife] and … children are still alive. If it wasn’t for them, I couldn’t keep going” even though he later heard real news and was never heard from again (Weissel 42). Many of the imprisoned people would push through the pain and torture they experienced daily only for their family and would give up resisting against the Nazis when they were told about the demise of their family. When people are captured and forced to live around fellow prisoners dying, they become emotionless but struggle to stay alive because they believe that their loved ones may be alive, as shown by the Jewish prisoners in Elie Wiesel's

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). In this dystopia, restraints are given instead of the less gifted being raised up, which lowers the civilization to barely functioning instead of flourishing. Since none of the citizens can think about what is happening, they think that their society should be the way that it is. These restraints bring people to such a low level that they all become similar because they can not change their personalities and become diverse. Whether a community is a dystopia or a utopia, if the people are truly equal with no differences between them they will all act the same way with no