Comparison Of Harrison Bergeron And The New Utopia

The Italian poet Petrarch once said, “Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.” In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and in “The New Utopia” by Jerome K. Jerome, governments strive for equality, but end up turning this society into a boring world of sameness, not heeding Petrarch’s warning.. In “Harrison Bergeron,” the main character, Harrison Bergeron, attempts to cure his society with variety and make everyone different, but gets killed in the process. Similarly, in “The New Utopia,” the narrator realizes that a society of sameness is not necessarily the right one and that variety is the best choice through a dream. Both “Harrison Bergeron” and “The New Utopia” have citizens that feel obligated to keep equality

On page two of “Harrison Bergeron” the text supports the statement by saying, “‘If I was Diana Moon Glampers,’ said Hazel, ‘ I’d have chimes on Sunday-just chimes. Kind of in honor of religion.’” This quote indicates that Hazel would not even try to get rid of the handicaps. Hazel would not try to change the law so that they don’t need handicaps anymore, because they are so obligated to wanting their society to be alike. On page two of “The New Utopia,” the author states, “‘By THE MAJORITY,’ he replied raising his hat and lowering his eyes, as if in prayer.” This quote suggests that this society trusts all of the decisions made by THE MAJORITY. The people of this society trust all of the decisions made the THE MAJORITY because they are really obligated to being the same in every way, so they will listen to the people trying to make them alike. Both societies have different perspectives of sameness and equality, but they are both obligated to keeping the sameness and equality in their

In “Harrison Bergeron,” the government, rather than making everyone the exact same so that you can not tell them apart, assigns mental, physical, and cosmetic handicaps to every citizen. The text demonstrates the system, “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better-looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” This quote indicates that although everyone does not look the exact same like in “The New Utopia,” everyone is equal because of the mental, physical, and cosmetic handicaps applied by the government. The repetition of “Nobody was __________ than anybody else” shows that the government made sure that no one had an advantage over anyone else. Meanwhile, in “The New Utopia,” the government makes everyone the exact same. The text states, “All the people...wore a quiet grave expression...in a pair of grey trousers, and a grey tunic...clean shaven, and each man had black hair.” This quote suggests that every single person in the society is the exact same looking and acting because the society wants no one to have any sort of advantage over another person. Therefore, although the two short stories both have governments in favor of equality, their views on its implication are slightly