Harrison Bergeron

Jordan Smith
Mrs. Sumner-Winter
Literary Heritage
9-28-09

Study Questions

The country reached equality due to the changing of certain Amendments in the constitution. American democracy and capitalism are not dead nor has soviet-style totalitarianism succeed in taking over. I believe it creates a fresh start for a lot of people, allowing them to reach new levels, heights they always assume to be unreachable, yet they continue to be treated as controlled beings.

There shouldn’t be a system in the world that can allow for the sort of tyranny that is displayed in the story. A just system would not cause such factors either. It seems that Vonnegut is trying to demonstrate that humans can be organized by media attention. I think a major part of this would be greed, because everyone wants power, which leads to envy and doing whatever it takes to accomplish their goals. Queenie and the other girls did what was normal for them, because they were program to see things that way, so if you believe that you should have complete control over others, and then it can become an attainable goal. That individual’s believe what everyone those in power say is true. Well im not sure about Rosie O’Donnell, but I know that Oprah’s popularity is incomparable. There are some many people in this country that worship Oprah’s every word, from which books to read and buy each month to which is a better color. Black or grey? It’s scary to think that just from being a household name that you can hold so much influence over people’s decisions. I think that they are role models, because they are so confident in themselves, that it actually attracts others. That has to be the only way to explain it because you cannot explain why a person of Rosie O’Donnell’s stature would be able to have influence. There is no way that she has gone threw a life changing experience, and even if she did, what makes her different from the everyday American. Everything is derived around marketing and if a Barbie doll looks more like a human, then little girls are going to want to look more like that doll which they idolize. Obviously we all go through trends or “fads” during out schooling and it is mostly due to peer pressure. If certain kids resemble what is shown on television then that most be the thing to do or wear. I honestly think that practices that include everyone regardless of skill level are good to a certain point. It is good at establishing the feeling of belonging. If you single the weak out, then they walk around believing they are weak.

The agents are there to make sure that everyone abides by the rules that are set in place, which means anyone out of line needs to be punished. One process would be if someone was given power and they were to misuse that power and become a tyrant.

I would like to think that the author was parodying the part of “freedom of speech”. Those handicaps take away from people being able to think for themselves. Well, allowing for all individuals to have one voice represents a lot about equality.

Any sort of reform is going to produce tension among the citizens, if people do not like where they are being placed, then they speak out, which leads to a movement. Basically the government in this story is forcing equality among the citizens, well that can either work two ways, one way being the story and the other being f Harrison Bergeron influenced more people.

That it is alright to be normal and you do not have to be super to be in control over any matters.

George is described as being quite intelligent and having an understanding on situations and can develop an accurate opinion on matters. However, Hazel is shown as having a barely normal brain pattern and seen being slightly clueless, to the point that she envies the transmitter in George’s ear. They live the typical life of a husband and wife that sit together and watch television after a long day of work. I believe he’s getting at the everyday family. When you watch or see so many things during the day, you’re bound to hear an assortment of sounds, and that’s kind of how it is in George’s ear. He goes from hearing a glass break to a car accident.

Harrison is a threat to society because he is a genius, at the age of fourteen. He was forced to wear ear-phones so the noise amplified in his ear, wore glasses to mess up his vision, had black caps on his teeth so that he would seem uglier, and he had weight forced on him.

I think he was going to the main source of where people got all there information, the most watched program on television. I think he was trying to show people that he was not the villain but instead one of them, just someone that had seen past the lies of the government.

His actions are similar to Sammy’s, however, greater because he is trying to urge an entire nation to rise up and think for themselves opposed to doing the right thing to protect the pride of a few girls. The young are able to continue to dream and use their imagination and do not believe they should be locked up physically and mentally. It translates to a country going down.

Harrison is telling them that he will make more established than they are now, as long as they stand up and perform now, and turn away from what is scripted for them. That everyone is beautiful in a way and they shouldn’t have to cover that up from others.

When there is a rebellion the best way to silence it is to get rid of the leader and that is what the handicapper general did, she ended Harrison’s rebellion. Her name shows that she is the person that makes everyone else worse in an effort to make she seem better.
She is similar because when there is a problem and people are going against you own beliefs, then those things must never be tolerated.

I think she forgot what she was crying about because there was no one to tell her and she got distracted by surrounding matters.