The United States of America is founded on equality. Our society fights for equality everyday. Fahrenheit 451 and the short story Harrison Bergeron both encompass equality to an unreasonable extent. The society of Fahrenheit 451 banned books in order to restrict the smarter people mentally and bring them down to the lowest level. In Harrison Bergeron, the society is physically restricted with weights, masks, and earphones. Fahrenheit 451 and Harrison Bergeron are perfect examples of a dystopian society. Both stories restrict their society below their highest potential. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is clearly smart enough to comprehend books, but the government is keeping everyone down. On pages 55-56, Captain Beatty says, “ Not everyone born …show more content…
The people in “Harrison Bergeron” that are smart, good looking, strong, etc are categorized as dangerous. It isn't right to judge someone because of their knowledge and looks because they were born with it. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the news reporter says, “He is a genius and an athlete, is under handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.” In today's society, handicapped means something totally different. People that are handicapped in this day, are considered disabled. On page 31 in Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag and Captain Beatty, who are firemen, say, “‘What happened to him?’ ‘They took him screaming off to the asylum.’ ‘He wasn't insane’...’Any man’s insane who thinks he can fool the government and us.’” They automatically assume that the person is insane because they were harboring books and hiding them from the government. Both of these stories show how the government is being unjust and unreasonable. Also, the firemen in Fahrenheit 451 have their job backwards. They burn books instead of putting out fires in an emergency. They carry around blow torches rather than hoses. It isn't right. The first word of the book on page 1 says, “ It was a pleasure to burn.” They are so ignorant to the fact that their society isn't