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Exploitation In Kurt Vonnegut's The Euphio Question

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It is a nice feeling to be so financially secure that one can live without a care in the world, but when that financial security comes from commercial exploitation, there might be a problem. In Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s short story, “The Euphio Question,” he criticizes this commercial exploitation of new technology in present-day society by criticizing a mirror version in his story. Radio announcer Lew Harrison mulls over the idea of selling a newly discovered sound that induces euphoria, saying “‘“Lew, how can you cash in on this gimmick if you can’t get a monopoly on the universe?”’... ‘Maybe it’s the kind of thing that shouldn’t be cashed in on,’” (Vonnegut 220). The narrator disagrees with Harrison, reasoning that selling what is effectively
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the idea of equality was taken to the extreme. Satire is also used to exaggerate how awful equality is to persuade readers to believe that total equality will violate human rights. Kurt Vonnegut also uses symbols such as handicaps which make everyone equal and Harrison Bergeron to display the lack of freedom present in a world of total equality.

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So you have to have one too. And everyone has to get the newest cars” (10). If individual economic pressures weren’t enough, the Feed and the supporting corporations learn the interest and desires of the characters. With this information, those implanted with the Feed are constantly bombarded with personalized advertisements, manipulating them into consuming their products. This further reinforces the idea that their worth is tied to their consumption habits.

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In the short story, most people see Vonnegut’s character as an immature fourteen year-old boy. People can see this easily when he states his goal is to become an “emperor” and how “Everybody must do what [he] say[s] at once!” (3). Harrison then goes on to stamping his foot in a way most people would see from a child who is throwing a tantrum. This is important because when Harrison points out that he only wants to be an emperor, it really shows how little he cares about the message the people saw and more about want he wants.

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Vonnegut is using specific facts to indicate logic and in other

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1634 Words | 7 Pages

Several instances in Tom Walker’s life suggest that became a corrupt and immoral human because of his overbearing trait of greed. Irving uses these instances and Tom’s life on the whole to caution readers of the results of greed. By making Walker’s personality rotten and full of greedy intentions, Walker’s life can be viewed as shameful and unappealing. This perspective makes an impression on readers and enhances Irving’s message explained in the last paragraph of the story. Using Tom Walker’s life as an example of what life choices not to make, Irving warns reader to steer away from their personal greed in order to remain good people.

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686 Words | 3 Pages

This child in this video is displaying Insecure Avoidant behavior. During phase one, the father and child were left alone in a room. The room had minimal furniture and a few toys, nothing too overwhelming. The video mentions there should be no interaction between the parent and the child, however the father speaks to the child and gives him a toy. In phase two, the stranger enters the room.

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265 Words | 2 Pages

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. criticizes commercial exploitation of new technology in the modern world through the fiction short story, “The Euphio Question”. For example, the author narrates, “‘Euphoria Heights,' I said. ‘That's great!' said Lew… ‘once a prospect set foot on Euphoria Heights, and you shot the happiness to him, there's nothing he wouldn't pay for a lot'”

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258 Words | 2 Pages

In his short story “Harrison Bergeron,” Kurt Vonnegut presents a vision of a distant future in which Americans have been forced into slavery disguised as equality through the use of physical and mental handicaps. This frightening vision represents a common theme in science fiction literature as it “depicts a future government that controls its people by eliminating mental stimulation” and “warns of controlling trends in society” (69). For example The government in our short story has given all the smart people in their nation a headset to keep them from thinking deeply. “the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.” (3) By doing this, the government has turned everyone

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2045 Words | 9 Pages

“The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal”1 is a statement that in the mouth of the American writer should sound at least victorious. However, Kurt Vonnegut in the opening line of his dystopian short story Harrison Bergeron creates a highly ironical declaration, which he later ridicules by the following story. The author who gained his fame by writing the novel Slaughterhouse-Five, describes the world supposedly equal and free, but entirely bound by the laws that command the lives of people. That describes also fairly well the second short story 2 B R 0 2 B, which title refers to the famous phrase “to be or not to be”2 from William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, as mentioned in the text, “the trick telephone number that people who didn 't

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516 Words | 3 Pages

The story, “2BR02B” by Kurt Vonnegut tells the story of a world where there is controlled population, old aged and diseases were overcome, and the world was seemingly positive. In this place humans call their home, certain people volunteer to ie, and the population continued to stay controlled. The Wehling family are expecting three triplets, but they must need to find 3 people to sacrifice. Dr.Hitz, Leora Duncan, and the father of the newborn children are killed, with the painter creating an amazing mural willing to be killed after seeing all the deaths unfold. This leads to the question, is the world really worth sacrificing yourself for others?

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1341 Words | 6 Pages

After finishing final exams, Hadiya was hanging out with her friends in a park when she, was shot to death in the 4400 block of South Oakland Avenue in Chicago. There are many other homicides like Hadiya, who have become the victims of gun violence. These innocent deaths in Chicago fuel the debate about gun laws and their use. Gun laws in Chicago are strict than any other city in the U.S but still are not able to stop fatal shots. Chicago, is still found in the flood of gun violence.

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Vonnegut uses oxymoron and the repetition of allusion to further idea, that to an extent, the truth, being as practical as it might, does not give humankind enough satisfaction, and it is actually in those deceptions one is given the vaguest illusion of value and

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2330 Words | 10 Pages

Adorno, although not directly addressing the aura, did not see the aura’s degradation at the hands of technology as beneficial to the progression of art. Unlike Benjamin who focused on film, Adorno focused his piece on the changing in the music industry as a result of technology. Consequently, Adorno saw that a capitalist society was capable of burgeoning as a result of the technological progress. In response to the proliferation of music, Adorno saw that the appreciation for the music itself shifted towards the money used on behalf of the consumer: “The consumer is really worshipping the money he has paid for the ticket” (Adorno 278). Rather than music maintaining its identity as an art form, music was transformed into an industry as a result of consumerism.

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596 Words | 3 Pages

In the stories, "The Lie," by Kurt Vonnegut and "Barn Burning," by William Faulkner, the main characters, Eli Remenzel & Colonel Sartoris (Sarty) Snopes, both mature from childhood into adulthood. This growth and maturity develops from having family support and a stable upbringing or perhaps their growth happened within their own self-consciousness. The main characters, in both these stories, use their inner maturity to be strong and courageous and make good decisions as they are growing up. In the story, "The Lie," Eli matures into adulthood.

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682 Words | 3 Pages

Well-known nineteenth-century author, William Hazlitt, in his essay, “On the Want of Money,” describes his position about wealth. Hazlitt’s purpose is to convey the irony of money; being in want of money and not having money can both cause altering effects. Hazlitt furthers his position by using rhetorical devices such as imagery, word choice, and metaphor. Hazlitt divides his essay into a parallel structure, focusing one part of his essay on the consequences of desiring money, and the other to describe the consequences of having money.

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