Similarities Between The Lottery And Harrison Bergeron

In the dystopian short stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. both display a society that strives to make a better system, yet the participants are blind to the moral flaws that they are constructed against. While “The Lottery” strives for population control, the means of achieving it comes at the cost of a life. However “Harrison Bergeron” is the most effective in achieving equality because it attempts to make all citizens equal , and by using the ''handicap'' approach it permits society to function on a level that allows each individual to be treated the same regardless of what other qualities they may have. To begin, in “Harrison Bergeron” the society was based on fairness because anything

He did it in such a way that limited other people, but by using this approach he was able to put everyone on the same level. The philosophy in “Harrison Bergeron” was to to make everyone equal, however our society is corrupt and demands control over the stronger people in order to bring them down. “the minute people start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to society?”(233). This is referring to the limitations on how the society is forced to take control in order to be equal, if we disobey the law we have consequences and society falls apart. “Harrison Bergeron” methods of unfairness shows inequalities towards the control over the persons persona throughout the story. By showing how corruption in a dystopian society can be affected towards power becoming unequal and directed towards one person in a society . Having the power to do what you want makes a dystopian society suffer in unfairness towards the individual. For example, Harrison Bergeron wanted to diverge from tradition yet when he tried he was killed for his efforts. Thus, Vonnegut understands how authority and control can be a part of a dystopian society because people rebel against society to make the structure fair and to take initiative in controlling the individual

The society was able to successfully make everyone unified not defining them by money or looks. Vonnegut's perspective was based on equality because being unique is hated throughout the story. For example, the ballerina can be seen as a reference of perfection, they use a mask to disguise their beauty to make everyone equal in their world “and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face ,would feel like something the cat drug in.”(vonnegut232). This clearly states how beautiful people have to wear hideous mask to cover their perfections because society doesn't permit taking an unfair advantage. The same goes for George even though we don't know his appearance we know he was an intellectual person because he falls into the same category of being born with a great mind. “and George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear.”(232). His thoughts were being disrupted through a device , this is considered to be fair to the average thinkers. Vonnegut Jr. portrays his ideas towards the illusion of equality because he mentions equality at the beginning of the story, explaining the wonders of everyone being equal in their own individuality. A society based on equality is able to place people on the same pedestal, thus this method