Literary Analysis Of Harrison Bergeron By Kurt Vonnegut

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The Power Of Television
Television is the most powerful thing in today’s society and maybe even the future societies to come. In “Harrison Bergeron,” Kurt Vonnegut shows the power of television through the use of the literary elements characterization, setting, and point of view.
In “Harrison Bergeron” Vonnegut uses characterization to show how the characters are affected by the power of television. In the story the characters George and Hazel are wiped of their thoughts by their mental handicaps, given by the government, all they can remember is what they are seeing on television (Vonnegut 38). From the text you can see that the society they live in is using their power to control citizens by using the power of television. Vonnegut shows characterization all throughout the text. In the text George and Hazel’s son is killed on TV as she is crying she is watching ballerinas on TV and forgets that her son is even dead (Vonnegut 44). In the story TV is mainly used as a sedative for the characters George and Hazel (“Harrison Bergeron”). George and Hazel’s whole thought process is made by the power of television. …show more content…

The power of television is shown by the setting of George and Hazel as their whole setting in the story is them sitting in front of the TV (Vonnegut 38-44). Not only the setting of George and Hazel is with a TV but the rest of the settings in the story is shown to George and Hazel from the perspective of a TV (“Harrison Bergeron”). The power of television is very strong throughout the whole story's setting. The image of a TV is shown everywhere in the story. The setting shows how powerful television is because the whole story is told from a