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Similarities Between 1984 And Harrison Bergeron

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A dystopia is an unhappy place that is an illusion of a perfect society where nobody is equal and everyone is oppressed. In the dystopian novel, 1984, the protagonist Winston Smith rebels against the over controlling government that gives the illusion of a "good life" to it's people. The short story "Harrison Bergeron" written by Kurt Vonngeut Jr. tells the tale of the great Harrison Bergeron who escapes jail to free the people of their handicaps and show them the beauty of being different. Lastly the movie Idiocracy, directed by Mike Judge, the protagonist Joe Bower is chosen for a military experiment which goes horribly wrong where the entire word has become incredibly stupid due to the failure of natural selection. All dystopian literature, …show more content…

In 1984 Winston starts out as an everyday citizen, but later throughout the story becomes more and more rebellious towards the corrupt government. Winston probably could have gone his entire life without rebelling towards the government but he met Julia, she was the one to influence Winston and to start a rebellion. But the rebellion never really worked out. Winston was sent to jail and Julia was gone, the rebellion did not end well for them. The case was similar in “Harrison Bergeron”, Harrison escaped jail and immediately went to rebel against the government and its handicaps. Harrison was so strong that he was able to easily shred away the incredible amount of handicaps he was given. He began to rid other people of their handicaps as well to show the beauty of the full potential of the people and their talents, the musicians played beautiful music, Harrison and the ballerina began to dance and began to fly. It was a showcase of complete freedom, however, sadly it came to an end that was all too soon. The Handicapper General came in with a dual barrel shotgun and shot down Harrison and the ballerina in two shots. She then threatened everyone else to put their handicaps back on or they would get the same treatment. Harrison may not have lived long or started a large rebellion, however, the message he did spread was huge. Joe Bower was not much of a rebel. He was put in a society he was not familiar with. Joe had become the smartest person on earth due to American society becoming less intelligent over time. Since the people saw Joe as the “smartest person in the world”, the government brought him on to find a way to fix all of their problems for a full pardon of his “crimes”. Joe fixes the problem of the “dust bowl” by watering the crops with water

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302 Words | 2 Pages

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. are good examples of what would happen if one law was created to make a thriving utopia, but it turns it into a frightful dystopia. Both stories have one major law that attempts to create a utopia, but turns it into a dystopia. In Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist, Montag, and his friend, Clarisse, talk about how books are illegal in this society. It says “‘Do you ever read any of the books you burn?’ He laughed.

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901 Words | 4 Pages

The two stories, “Harrison Bergeron” and Fahrenheit 451, both have common themes. The common themes of the stories may include; our reliance on technology can spiral out of control if we let it, knowledge is joyful and painful, and that we can be confined by our own self-censorship. All of these themes are exhibited throughout both stories frequently. Whether it is as Montag has conflict with his wife over books or as Harrison’s parents forget right from wrong in their society. In Fahrenheit 451, their technology definitely gets out of control.

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714 Words | 3 Pages

Comparing and contrasting 2081 to Harrison Bergeron Admit it, one time you were bored or sat down with nothing to do and couldn’t help but imagine how life would be if everyone was equal, don’t even try denying it, you’ve thought of that at least once in your life, but as any good writer would do, they’d write their thoughts down and turn it into a story, that’s exactly what Kurt Vonnegut did. Just imagine living a life where no one gets compared to others in any way. We all wish for a society like that, but Kurt showed us how equality can negatively affect our society. But that’s not the our main idea in this essay, our main idea is to highlight the comparisons and contrasts between the story “Harrison Bergeron” and the movie version “2081”. To begin with, Both the story and the movie had the same introduction/ Opening; “Everybody was finally equal.

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1086 Words | 5 Pages

Dystopia is a popular genre in which authors write about a fictional society that is perceived to be perfect and ideal by the vast majority of the people in it. Authors must intrigue the reader, and this is difficult because they have to somehow illustrate a future that is vaguely similar to ours. However, it has to be completely fictional, which makes it tough to formulate realistic storylines. Nevertheless, these authors use literary elements to counter these difficulties and produce realistic characters and you can see this when Ray Bradbury, Ayn Rand, and James Dashner use symbolism in their respected novels, Fahrenheit 451, Anthem, and The Maze Runner. This literary technique gives Dystopian Literature the uniqueness and adds the key elements to make the story flow.

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1517 Words | 7 Pages

Since I began high school, language arts has been my most difficult class. It doesn’t quite click with me like math and science do, yet I continue to sign up for the advanced classes to challenge myself. Each assignment can have a huge impact on one’s grade since there aren’t many, and it only added to the stress of this particular essay missing the first couple days we had to work on it. Oddly, we were told to wait before writing the introduction; something I was okay with because introductions and conclusions cause me more apprehension than any other aspect of an essay. We were then told that we were to all write a specific type of introduction.

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865 Words | 4 Pages

They both also had trouble coming to terms with the fact that they held no power against their external circumstances. Winston is oppressed by the governmental structures of Oceania, and Eliezer struggles with loyalty concerning his Jewish faith and following orders in the concentration camps. Winston dislikes the uniformity and silence that is forced upon him in Oceania. Similar to Eliezer, the consequence that follows rebellion in 1984 is most likely death. The story of 1984 follows Winston’s decision to act against society, but ultimately to fail and return to oppression.

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1243 Words | 5 Pages

It will, therefore, be correct to claim that he was a hero, as he dared to do what people even twice his age could not have dared to. He commanded respect despite his age. For instance, he declared himself an emperor and claimed he was a greater ruler than anybody who had lived. That was an act of heroism and portrayed the government as very cruel and in need of a change. According to Harrison, he was the change needed for better

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1780 Words | 8 Pages

The government decided to use handicaps to make everyone equal in every single way. They introduced mental handicaps to put everyone on the same intellectual level, physical strength handicaps to make everyone as strong as the next, physical beauty handicaps so that no one had an advantage because of beauty. George describes the ballerinas on TV as “Good - no better than anyone else would’ve been” (Vonnegut, 1). George also describes Hazel’s hypothetical skills as handicapper general as “‘Good as anybody else’” (Vonnegut, 2).

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193 Words | 1 Pages

Rebellious Rage: Julia and Winston Rebel In the book, 1984 written by George Orwell, Winston and his one time lover, Julia, and partner as long with his ally, lead together into rebellion to take down Big Brother and the Party in a whole. In 1984, the government is strict and overbearing towards their citizens making them glance over their shoulders, scaring them to force them to obey. The overwhelming surveillance in 1984 leaves distrust between the supreme ruler of Oceania and their citizens. Another example of a corrupt government style leads to torture for no particular reasons, like getting information out, it’s just to change the victim's views.

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729 Words | 3 Pages

According to Google, a dystopia is an imagined state or society in which there is a great suffering or Injustice, typically one that is totally literation or post-apocalyptic.” Although plot lines of “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “Examination Day” different many ways the to share a core theme nightmarish dystopian future Harrison Burgernon was written in October 1961, this short story was written by author Kurt Vonnegut. In this story there are the characters Harrison, George, Hazel, a ballerina, and the handicapper general. In this story Harrison gets taken out of his home and gets put in a maximum security prison. This is because the government is worried that he may try to overrule them.

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729 Words | 3 Pages

Many people face terrible decisions that rack them for all of eternity. However, they never change and always stay the outcasts, like Winston from 1984 authored by George Orwell. Winston lives in London, Oceania and has a knack for thinking rebellious ideas. He never forms meaningful bonds with anyone and trusts no one but himself.

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870 Words | 4 Pages

Thesis: In Kurt Vonnegut 's story, "Harrison Bergeron," symbolism, tone, and irony reveal the author 's message to the reader which is his perspective on equality. Notably, there are countless symbols in the narrative "Harrison Bergeron" all of which trace back to the theme of the story. The handicaps people are forced to wear are symbols for the control the government has over people. "George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn 't be handicapped.

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665 Words | 3 Pages

Loss of critical thinking in Fahrenheit 451 The dictionary defines dystopia as an “imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives.” Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 exemplifies dystopian writing at its finest. The loss of critical thinking reoccurs in this novel as a theme.

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964 Words | 4 Pages

“Our business here is to be utopian, to make vivid and credible, if we can, first this fact and then that, of an imaginary whole and happy world” (Wells 10). Definitions of utopia and dystopia are various and different by many critics and writers. For instance, utopia is how to organize the society and relationships between people in a perfect way than in writer’s society. In addition, it is thought that utopia is principal category in literature in the twentieth century. Utopia is similar to science fiction because both of them represent unreal world and refer to unique and perfect society (Suvin 34 – 38) there is another definition of utopia which is “Utopia is a holding operation, a set of strategies to maintain social order and the perfection in the face of deficiencies, not to say hostility, of nature and the willfulness of a man” (Davis 37).

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596 Words | 3 Pages

The short story “Harrison Bergeron”: by Kurt Vonnegut and the film 2081 are alike in many ways. One similarity is that one of the ballerinas went up on the stage next Harrison. In the movie the ballerinas description and appearance matched how they described her in the book.. The book also matches the visual appearance of Harrison as his handicaps looked as if they were just welded together after they had been pulled out of a yard full of scrap metal. The actions in the movie and the book where practically synchronized.

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