Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Harrison Bergeron

In Harrison Bergeron Kurt Vonnegut makes a society where excellence and acceleration are suppressed and places a physical handicap on everyone to attempt to make an equal society. Harrison Bergeron is the protagonist of the story and has handicaps because he is strong, intelligent, and handsom. He, like his father, wish that there weren't any such thing as handicaps but, unlike his father, Harrison acts upon his feelings. He breaks into a TV station and takes off his handicaps and has a ballerina join him and they dance until they are shot by Diana. Diana see's Harrison as a threat and wants to show people with such ideas what will happen if anyone else tries to pull a move. Vonnegut is satirizing our modern society because we are always trying to avoid racism, sexism, ageism, etc. because everyone wants to become equal to have a sense that they have just as many rights as the person next to them.

1 comment:

Rory said...

Well-written Angela, but you need to develop your ideas a little more.