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What Is Harrison Bergeron Essay About Equality

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What is equality? Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Everyone tends to question what equality stands for and why does everyone fight for it. What people mean when they say “equality” is race, religion, and sex. The story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut gives examples of how our government created a way to represent equality to be able to stay in power. The government forced equality through beauty, strength, and intelligence instead of using equality by dealing with race, religion, and sex. They thought that if they were to give the people the equality that was protested for then the government would lose their power over the people. In the story, it starts with George and his wife Hazel watching the ballerinas on television when a buzzer sound goes off in George’s head. As Hazel says, “that was a real pretty dance, that dance they did,” and George response back “huh.” (par.7), (par.8) He response that way because he does not remember anything after that sound went off. The buzzing sound was due to a headset he wore which was only worn by anyone with a high intelligence. That was the first time that it showed how the government forced equality. Same human intelligence. George’s wife had a perfectly average intelligence to where she did not have to wear the headset. The only ones that did not wear the headset were anyone part of the …show more content…

Vonnegut is warning the people how the government will make it seem like everyone will be equal to only fool us. The government does not meet the equality that everyone has placed in their minds because they have always been in control and do not want to lose that. The idea of equality is to respect one another by religion, race, and sex so, no one is powerful than any other individual. Once the government is able to see what the people mean by equality then that is the day equality will mean

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“Harrison Bergeron” takes place in the year 2081 and everyone was finally equal. Vonnegut states, that they were not only equal before God and the law but, they were equal in every which way. (Vonnegut 1224) Having equality throughout society is something that

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This government made everyone became handicapped so that everyone is the same and equal and no one is better than the others. Vonnegut’s view on equality is very judgemental and selective. Society these days, pressures

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Single Paragraph Essay “ Harrison Bergeron ” “ Harrison Bergeron ,” written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. focuses on equality — physically andmentally — strongly controlled by the government in the year 2081; the beautiful are forced tolook ugly, the physically skilled are required to wear weights. With these handicaps makingeveryone so equal, the world became very different, odd, and average. But the government hasno right or reason to push the whole world to be “…equal every which way.” (203) To suppress someone’s natural looks or physical talents is not only wrong to natural human rights, but it is also illegal, and for very good reason: everyone is different.

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The Importance of Absolute Equality in “Harrison Bergeron” For hundreds of years, humanity has struggled to define equality, as well implement the concept properly into society. Slaves; prisoners of war; and even in today’s society, we still see people of color treated as lesser than their Caucasian counterparts. Interestingly enough, color is never introduced as a problem in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron”. While most people nowadays would agree that the word “equality” refers to equal opportunity, Vonnegut forces this word to the extremes, and warps its meaning into something much more controlling, to the point where it harms society more than inequality ever did.

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They weren’t only equal before God and the law”(Vonnegut). The quotation is used to show how equality is a key party of the 2081 American society. Governmental regulation of concept of equality can cause both positive and negative outcomes to a society. Intervention by the government has

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In our modern day society, we live in a world in which equity is very important for us to achieve as citizens. Equity can be understood as recognizing that society needs differences in order to be successful. As we are humans, each one of us will be different from everyone else, and it is this difference that adds creativity and color to the world. However, in Kurt Vonnegut 's story "Harrison Bergeron", they live in a future world in which everyone is equal. A society in which the government enforced equality so much that they go to extreme measures to force everyone to be as equal as they possibly can be.

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Vonnegut’s society was formed to cater to individuals like Hazel who do not have much to contribute to society. Individuals like George Bergeron, who are stronger physically and mentally, are weighed down so as to be kept at the same level as those who are not as capable as them. Vonnegut demonstrates that this is the main problem of creating an equal communistic society; instead of handicapping richer, stronger, and smarter individuals, societies should help the weak to reach

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One common afternoon in the year of 2081, when everyone was equal, Hazel and George Bergeron were in their lovely living room watching television. Suddenly, a news reporter with a severe speech impediment came on. After trying many times to say, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” he handed it off to a ballerina who read, “Harrison Bergeron, age 14, has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.” However, in this short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut uses irony, shift and mood, and allusion to illustrated haw society would be if everyone was under the law of equality.

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At the binning of the novel, he makes a few cracks at the ‘perfect society’ with a few basic comments. These comments prove to us, even when they think everything is perfect, there will still be problems. The way he describes this ridiculous ‘equality’ is stated so simply and casually, as if saying something completely normal, gives us a lead in to how he feels about it. Along with the handicaps Vonnegut came up with, they’re spoken about so casually that its impossible to believe that it could possibly work to make everyone equal. While reading its easy to see how in the writing proves to us how impractical this version of equality is.

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Others may think that everyone should be equal, but this is taking it to far. Since everyone has to be absolutely equal in mental and physical strength, no matter who you are, you 'd be equal with the mentally and physically challenged people. As seen in the story there are mentally challenged people and in order for everyone to be equal they would only be able to think as much as them. So

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Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron, “ and Denzel Curry’s song, “Walkin, “ reveal that corruption rooted in society forces us to act against our will as a means of self-preservation. Both of these examples show the limitations of a corrupt government, and how we humans have to react to keep up. The way our system works “handicaps” our ability to perform in our daily lives, as shown by Harrison Bergeron’s handicaps due to his intellectual and physical superiority. In a society where physical and mental ability is looked down upon and judged, they handicap those that have too much power in the community.

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Kurt Vonnegut uses characterization to describe how the characters act in this society. Vonnegut also uses style to show how he uses science fiction and dystopia in “Harrison Bergeron”. The theme demonstrated in “Harrison Bergeron” is equality is not meant to make one person better than another. Kurt Vonnegut in “Harrison Bergeron”, demonstrates that equality based on characteristics is not a good thing for society. Harrison Bergeron is a short story based on the year 2081, where everybody is equal.

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If the entire world was the same, including the ballerinas, they wouldn’t be compelled to wear handicap bags. Handicap are bags that are full of lead balls that weigh as much as your equality. As stated by the author of “Harrison Bergeron”, “Go on and rest the bag for a little while,”she stated. “I don’t care if you’re not equal to me for a while.” This statement demonstrates that everyone was not always equal.

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Vonnegut’s word choice here shows not only the short sentences they form, but also how people are not able to remember how they feel. Instead of having the ability to feel and grow from one's emotion, people literally live in the moment and are not able to remember anything else. Because of this, the government has striped everyone of their personalities, creating the “equal”

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It seems to me that people have been wanting equality for so long, but what does that really mean? How much equality is enough? Year after year we make strides to bring mankind closer together and to bridge the gap of diversity. When will the gap be filled enough to satisfy everyone? It seems to me that the story shows what could happen if we keep pushing the issue to the extent.

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