The Censors And Harrison Bergeron

The government is supposed to serve the people. However, in some cases, the government serves themselves instead. For example, some destructive governments may try to take away the peoples’ freedom of speech, and right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Similarly, in the stories, “The Censors” and “Harrison Burgeron,” the authors explore how these totalitarian governments can hinder people’s ability to thrive. These governments completely control people. In “The Censors” it's in the form of censoring letters, and in “Harrison Bergeron,” it's in the form of imposing handicaps on people. These restrictions cause people to comply with the government, whether they like it or not, taking away their free will. Therefore, In both “Harrison

Throughout the story “The Censors”, the “Government becomes [so] destructive” that they completely change Juan once he begins to work for them, his “safety” is jeopardized as he is brainwashed into losing his values (Declaration of Independence US 1776). At the end of the story, when Juan’s letter to Maria finally reaches him, his “mission” to save himself and Maria has been completely abandoned, instead, “he censors [the letter] without regret,” and the government ultimately “execute[s]” him (“The Censors”). The government in The Censors becomes so “destructive” that it causes Juan to completely lose sight of his morals (Declaration of Independence US 1776). While Juan originally becomes a government censor to save himself and Maria, he eventually feeds into their system of rewards, as he quickly begins to climb ranks. He becomes obsessed with his job, and no longer thinks about saving Maria, all he thinks is work, work, work. He completely relinquishes his ability to have individual thoughts and actions outside of what the government is telling him to do as a censor. Juan censoring his letter to Maria “without regret” shows how he has changed and become just another government controlled sheep, among other sheep, that can’t think thoughts or do anything outside of their job. Likewise, Juan’s devotion to doing his

Throughout the story “Harrison Bergeron”, the characters are unable to be “free and independent” because they are unable to “absolve allegiance” from the government that they are forced to follow (Declaration of Independence US 1776). In the beginning of the story, George mentions that the ballerinas and himself are burdened with many “handicaps” including “sashweights and bags of birdshot” to weigh them down, as well as intellectual handicaps that play “noises in [people’s] ear radio” that cause pain and “scatter [people’s] thoughts” so that no one is smarter than anyone else (“Harrison Bergeron”). The government completely eradicates the ability of George and others to be “free and independent” by placing handicaps on them, forcing them to keep this “allegiance” with the government (Declaration of Independence US 1776). Under the government's conditions, everyone in “Harrisson Bergeron'' is forced to be exactly the same. Same intelligence, same athleticism, same attractiveness, same everything, and they do this by using handicaps. This essentially just punishes people by forcing them to wear weights, masks, and ear radios that greatly impair their quality of life and cause physical pain even though they did nothing wrong; All so that some people don’t feel bad about themselves. Furthermore, a society that forces