Compare And Contrast Wilson And Harrison Bergeron

Honore de Balzac once wrote “Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn into a fact.” There will always be talk of equality but, equality is essentially impossible to achieve. The society from “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and the society from “Is the U.S a land of liberty or equality?” by Robert J. Samuelson, both speak of equality and have fundamentally reached that main goal, but their aspects of equality are conflicting and are completely different. Both societies want equality, freedom, and liberty. Samuelson’s article from The Washington Post argues how the society of the United States must preserve freedom and promote equality. “Harrison Bergeron” imagines a society in the far future where everyone

For instance, “And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times,” (Vonnegut, Jr. 1). Every twenty seconds, it would release a sound to unable George from thinking for too long. In the story, this was looked as “taking unfair advantage of their brains,” (Vonnegut, Jr. 1). In contrast, George would not be taking unfair advantage of his intelligence but instead sharing it with the world. The United States society views above average as a gift, not a burden. Special talents should be expressed and not hidden by the government and the society of “Harrison Bergeron” sadly overlooks that in effort of making everyone

The article states “I believe in what this country stands for, even though I acknowledged its limits and failures. As individuals we are no better than most (selfishness and prejudice having survived). As a society, we have often violated our loftiest ideals (starting with the acceptance of slavery in 1787),” (Samuelson 1). The United States society and our plan for equality and liberty is flawed, but we take measures to fix the problems and try to make things better. Similarly, the made up society of “Harrison Bergeron” is not a perfect and equal society but no one is doing anything to prove how the government is being unfair. There are so many things wrong with the society of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. including the forceful usage of handicap and unnecessary, harsh punishments and improvements are not being made. The society of “Harrison Bergeron” refuses to accept their failure in creating an equal society. Vonnegut is trying to show his readers how forcing equality onto a society takes people’s freedom away and even some of their equality too, by using exaggeration in his short