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A Rhetorical Analysis Of 'Harrison Bergeron'

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Fatima Al Otaibi Ms. Linette Booysen October 6, 2015 H a r r i s o n B e r g e r o n : T o n e Evidently, the world of 2081 conveys the impression of a very flawed dystopian story. And that is displayed through the tone of the story in which it suggests the emotion the writer enforces in the story. To clarify the particular tone of the story, there are many critical factors that collaborate to attain that aim. Primarily, the whole of the story harmonizes with the tone of dark humour or melancholy comedy. The author uses sarcasm and sardonicism to mock a concept such as equality, which is realistically a very serious concept. He is using satire to show the absurdity of having a society that is synthetically equal. This is portrayed in the …show more content…

Equality is an ideal in which many people believe is worth fighting for. But it is indeed a dangerous goal to achieve both physically and mentally. In the story “Harrison Bergeron”, equality shifts to torture in which the beautiful must hide their beauty, and the intelligent must have their thinking to be disrupted. The result of this quest is disastrous and the land is filled with slow people, therefore there is no variety in the community. Equality is achieved, but at the price of freedom. The theme was delivered to the reader through the author’s tone that was obviously against this concept, by showing us images of how illogical the society was, “burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face”, the deeply sinister image of ballerinas develops into a humorous image when it is discovered that it was to prevent comparison to the dancing beauties. The whimsical tone of the story makes the message easier to digest. Although one may find Vonnegut’s story amusing, he reminds the reader that at one point society withstand that experience and can go through it again in the future. That is the rationalism behind the deathly serious tone. The writer was also able to inform people about the other side of equality. People may consider it as what might bring peace upon societies, but on the other hand it can truly be destructive. According to the writer’s opinion, people with natural disabilities should be provided with help to aspire for them to reach the level of those exceptional people who improve society. Without inspiration, such a society will have a great

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In 'Harrison Bergeron,' Kurt Vonnegut employs various types of figurative language to convey the story's themes and create vivid imagery. Some types of figurative language used in the story include metaphors and hyperbole. The government-issued handicaps that the characters must wear are described as 'bags of lead' and 'spectacles with thick wavy lenses' that distort the wearer's vision, emphasizing the burden and limitation that the handicaps impose on individuals. Hyperbole is also used in the story, such as when the announcer on the television is described as having a voice that is 'like gravel being chewed,' creating a jarring and unpleasant image of the announcer's voice and highlighting the oppressive nature of the society in which the

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Karina Vasudeva 3/7/16 Period 4 Khouri What is Vonnegut satirizing? In Kurt Vonnegut’s extremely well-thought out story “Harrison Bergeron,” Vonnegut manages to effectively satirize the faults of socialism through exaggeration using figurative language, as well as paradoxical details. In the story, everyone is finally equal “due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments in the Constitution.” However, this is contradictory to the freedom of expression and other rights, as those with above average abilities are required to wear handicaps, or else they are jailed.

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Harrison Bergeron, everyone was not truly equal. When she asked George does he want to rest, he would have been stronger if he did. Also Harrison Bergerson isn’t equal to anyone because he is strong enough to break free of his physical handicaps. On page 3 Hazel states,”I don’t care if you’re not equal to me for a while.” Harrison is different because on page 5 the ballerina states, “ He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.”

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“Harrison Bergeron” is a short fiction written by Kurt Vonnegut, the story is set in the year 2081, and it talks about a futuristic society where all people are equal. No one is smarter, beautiful or stronger than the other, and if someone happens to be better than the others they find themselves compelled by The United States Handicapper General to wear what they call “handicaps” in order to bring down their abilities to the most basic levels as the others. Throughout the story, Vonnegut expresses a strong and vigorous political and social criticism of some historical events in the US during 1960s such as the Cold War and Communism, television and American Culture and Civil Rights Movement. “Harrison Bergeron” was published in 1961 during that time several events were happening around the world in general and in the US in specific which was engaged in a series of political and economic crisis with the communist Soviet Union know as The

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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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Kurt Vonnegut uses dramatic irony in ridiculous ways in “Harrison Bergeron”. Dramatic irony is when the characters in the story do not know what is going on but the reader does know. In almost every part of the story, the characters are unaware of what is really happening because of everyone being equal. The characters have accepted and embraced the idea that it is good for everyone in society to be equal in intelligence, appearance, strength and speed. George doesn’t even care that his intelligence is being controlled by the radio in his ears.

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In his short story Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut uses an astounding amount of powerful imagery and diction to create the perfect scenes of the dystopian reality he creates. Throughout his use of imagery, Vonnegut creates scenes palpably imagined by readers. He uses underlying humor to lighten scenes of the morbid and macabre nature of the future where being different can be a death sentence. The future that is created in totality by Vonnegut is a dire scene created to be filled with a pastiche of people strung with handicaps to make them to be exactly the same as the “perfectly average citizen.” Vonnegut’s tone throughout is both dreary towards the bizarre and twisted dystopia that makes everyone equal, but is also somewhat insulting to those who do not bear handicaps due to being lacking both mentally and physically.

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