Ash's Bookshelf

Ash's Bookshelf

Black Beauty
Pride and Prejudice
Little House in the Big Woods
King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian
Old Yeller
The Luckiest Girl
Where the Red Fern Grows
A Wrinkle in Time
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Good Night, Mr. Tom
War Horse
Dear Mr. Henshaw
Flush
All About Sam
Number the Stars
Absolutely Normal Chaos
The Giver
Walk Two Moons
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Saving Shiloh


adighe17's favorite books »

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Vonnegut's Message - Harrison Bergeron


This story about Harrison Bergeron sends a message to us saying that there is no way to make everybody equal and there is no such thing as a utopia. The world will always have some amount of chaos and problems no matter what. Even though in many countries people have equal rights, they aren’t actually treated equally and some people have disadvantages because of the way they were born. In the story of Harrison Bergeron by Vonnegut, the citizens were assigned handicaps so that nobody is better than anyone else. This does make everyone equal, but not in a good way because their freedom is taken away from them and they are completely controlled by the government. In this story, people probably didn’t realize what a dystopian world they lived in because thanks to the handicaps they were given, they couldn’t think about much at all before they forgot. This is slightly ironic because the government wants everyone to be equal but there are still a few people who have an advantage and all the power and control. These handicaps also do the reverse of what they’re meant to; instead of making everyone equal, they make the stronger people even stronger because it builds up muscle to carry the handicaps with them. Everyone slowly works their way around the handicaps they’ve been assigned and gets on with their lives. Even though in a way they are regressing because as a society they aren’t moving forward and advancing, they are actually progressing by becoming more adaptable to the flaws they’ve been given. The government tried creating a utopia, their idea of a perfect world where everyone is equal but instead they made a dystopia where everyone lives with handicaps and disabilities, nobody has the freedom to make their own choices and live by their own rules. The world will never be a utopia because there will always be those bad people in the world, oppressive rulers and tyrants who only want power for themselves.

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