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Harrison Bergeron Equality Essay

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Equality: Valuing our Independence and Freedom What is equality? In the dystopian stories “Harrison Bergeron” and Anthem, the word equality has a totally different meaning than what someone in our society may think. These two stories claim to treat every citizen the same and equal, but characters such as Harrison, or Equality-72521 were treated with disadvantages. In my mind, equality is having the same rights and responsibilities as another person. In “Harrison Bergeron” equality was taken to another level in my opinion. One way they showed equality was by using weights to bring down the people who were physically at an advantage compared to other people in the society. Also, people above average mentally were given a little mental handicap radio in his ear, which brought them down to average. This was tuned to a government transmitter, and would send out sharp noises to affect the use …show more content…

The main character, Equality-72521, lives in a society which freedom and individual rights have been obliterated. Equality is very intelligent, and inquisitive person who seems to be very loyal to the society’s rules and standards. When assigned jobs, he was assigned a street-sweeper, in order to keep him average and not be able to use his intelligence and curiosity. This led to him being even more curious, meeting a girl, and discovering electricity. After weeks of work and trials, he successfully builds a lightbulb. Equality decides he needs to show this invention to the World Council of Scholars, in order to help the society. When he shows his invention to the Council, they reject him and threaten him, causing him to flee and leave the society. Outside of the society with the Golden One, the girl he meets, he finally realizes the true feeling of equality and freedom. By launching a new race of men, who believe in individualism, Equality vows to protect his home and new

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This shows how Equality starts to become an individual and how he's able to separate himself from others in his community. He knows he posses greater qualities from the rest of his brothers and is now able to see that those qualities are his alone. In the story there's a point at which Equality finds a book from the unmentionable times. He finds a word that is used to divide people into individuals. The word “I”, from that point on he no longer uses “we” to talk about himself.

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One of the biggest rules is you cannot try to learn to anything new or invent something. Equality decides that he wants to learn more and invent new things. In this society the council decides what you will do like a road worker or a teacher. Equality gets assigned to be a street sweeper. He doesn’t like this assignment

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Equality lives in a collectivist society, which is a society that believes, “that man must be chained to collective action and collective thought for the sake of what is called “the common good.” Therefore, Equality being the person he is, struggles with being an individual. He knows it is against the law but he enjoys knowledge so much, it confuses him. He states, “And in our heart-strange are the ways of evil! - and in our heart there is the first peace we have known in 20 years.”

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Equality has always been one step ahead of his superiors, and understands that the others in his previous society are the real Damned ones. Equality is able to continue growing from the harsh experiences he suffers through in his previous society. Equality continues to chuckle at being Damned, since he ran away with his invention into the Uncharted Forest, all the while free from living in a society burdened by altruism and conformity. Not only can he quench his lifelong thirst for knowledge, Equality can continue to bring back the advancements of the Unmentionable Times. Equality learns to think for himself, and to not let others creep into his mind and prevent him from achieving what is deemed as impossible.

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Have you ever wondered to yourself what the future holds? What technology will be invented, or how we will get around? Harrison Bergeron tells a story about the future; not one of flying cars and robots taking over, but rather equality. In this futuristic essay it is described that people have certain advantages over other people according to looks, strength, and intelligence. However the government wanted everyone to be equal to one another to lessen discrimination.

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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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Social Justice How far is too far for equality? In the short story Harrison Bergeron we see one view of what happens when you try to enforce a level playing field on society. Written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1961, It is a tale following an amendment(Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.

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In the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, everyone is made equal by making the more ‘advantaged’ humans ‘handicapped.’ However, the equality wasn’t ideal, so Harrison the perfect being of this society, wanted to make adjustments to their society, and does it in a forceful way. “‘I am the Emperor!’ cried Harrison. ‘Do you hear?

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Equality is really enjoying his time in the forest he enjoys making things with his own hands and being able to do and say whatever he wants. Though a couple days in he meet someone, The Golden One, the two travel together and eventual find a house from the unmentionable times. There he discovers many things including books, the books he reads contain something new for him, the word I. This brings him to revelation of how the only thing holding a person back is his brother

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Equality is a great idea that we should strive for and achieve; however, being made equal physically and mentally by the government could be very unfair. People should still have characteristics that make us different. One can be diverse but still equal to his neighbor. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s use of point of view, conflict, and imagery in his short story “Harrison Bergeron,” illustrates how difficult living in a world where everyone is the same would be.

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In Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” the reader delves deep into the depths of a futuristic society where the government focuses its time towards making everyone’s talents equal to one another. This was done so through the use of several amendments and of handicaps enforced by the government . The story of “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut consistently portrays the theme of equality which was done so through the use of handicaps like a transmitter. ” Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.”

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With all of his experience that nobody has known in at least a century he is extremely capable of deciding whether of his choices are right. His personality keeps him from giving up hope and giving up on his society and his companion but keeps him curious enough to keep searching for something better in life. Equality has aged to the point where he thinks he needs to change the world and will try to do so. Most would believe that Equality’s actions were righteous and could not contemplate that his actions were

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“Harrison Bergeron” shows total equality in an extreme way that catches attention, to show there are consequences to this often sought after way of life. The author uses the extreme ways the government forces equality to demonstrate how equality actually degrades society as a whole. The story showed how forced equality can make people have unrealistic and absurd world views, and how important jobs in society are left to people who are incompetent and unfit for the job. All of these consequences are easily paralleled in society today, and, unless people recognize the danger, could quickly become a serious

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The people of the United States fight and strive for an absolute “equal” society, but is it what’s really wanted? “Harrison Bergeron,” a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut, uses satire to describe the deficiency in our idea of a truly “equal” society. Throughout the story, Vonnegut describes the torture and discomfort the government administers among the people, and though they were “equal,” they were not balanced. Vonnegut uses characterization and word choice to warn his readers of the potential drawbacks of a truly “equal” society. He warns normalcy would become the base of thought, and people would become incapable of emotion.

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No matter how many handicaps you put on someone they aren’t going to change. It’s kind of like trying to cover up beauty with a mask or make-up. Handicaps have no value in making anyone equal. Although equality is needed, no one in “Harrison Bergeron” is solely based on appearance and how smart you are. Equality is treating everyone one with the same amount of respect so therefore, no one in this short story is

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