Similarities Between Harrison Bergeron And Fahrenheit 451

Everything around us in the world is constantly changing, so people often wonder, what is going to happen in the future. Many authors have had thoughts similar thoughts and fear that societies will start to fall apart. Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, and Kurt Vonnegut, author of “Harrison Bergeron” have their own ideas of what will occur in the future. These authors wrote books or short stories describing the fears they have for what societies are going to become in the future. Also, these authors tend to have a sort of pessimistic view on what will occur in the future. A thing these two authors have in common is their beliefs that societies in the future will lose all sense of happiness and emotions, lack individuality, and lose all

In Fahrenheit 451, all citizens do the same events every single day and do not do anything outside of the normal activities. For example, when Guy is talking to Faber, he says, “When do I get to start working things out on my own?”(Bradbury 88). This shows the reader that Guy is tired of always following orders and being just like everyone else. He wants to be able to think and do things on his own without having to worry about if it is normal. This idea is also present in “Harrison Bergeron”, but on a much larger scale. In this book, the government does everything in their power to make sure that everyone is equal and no one is smarter, stronger, quicker, or better looking than anyone else. If anybody is even the least bit better than someone else, the government handicaps that person so they return to being equal with the rest of the civilization. George is more intelligent than the normal person so the government makes his carry a bag full of lead balls on his shoulders and a mental handicap radio in his ear. “Go on and rest the bag for a little while. I don’t care if you’re not equal to me for a while” (Vonnegut 2). Hazel notices that George is looking wearier than usual and tells him to lie down and relax, but George doesn’t want to because that will cause him to not be equal with Hazel and everyone else. In order to make sure everyone is equal, the government plays a huge role

In Fahrenheit 451, a government is not mentioned but the reader can make an educated guess that there is someone who makes all the laws and oversees everyone to make sure no one is doing something they are not supposed to. When Guy steals a book from a house they are burning down, he has to skip work the next day and wonders if he will ever return to being a fireman again. Beatty comes and visits him and suspects that it has something to do with a book, and tries to explain to him that books do nothing but confuse people. “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Every man the image of every other; then all are happy” (Bradbury 55). Beatty is telling him that everyone should stick to the government rules and not read books so no one lets their imagination run free. The government makes the firemen burn all books so they can be controlled easily because no one will know different from how they live already. The government also plays a huge role in “Harrison Bergeron” by making sure no one has an advantage or disadvantage over another person or anyone in the society. The head of department, which is the person in charge of the government, in this story is a lady called the Handicapper General. She is in charge of making sure everyone is equal and controls the people who are better than