Harrison Bergeron Analysis

Faith is the belief in, devotion, or trust in somebody or something. In 1984 by George Orwell and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, both of the communities put blind faith into the government for no logical reason. The government has absolute control over everything that they do. This blind faith results in people in both of these communities having no independence or individuality and in effect no rewarding life.

In 1984, the people of Oceania put blind faith in the government even though the government does not help them in any way. The government is very controlling. They are constantly watching everyone and they do not allow free thought or individuality. The people of Oceania believe in the government without question. An example

The people would believe anything that the Party said even if they knew it to be wrong, they would still believe it. The author uses foreshadowing with this quote. Winston at first did not believe this statement, however, at the end of book when he is being tortured, they ultimately break him down to believe everything that the government tells him including this statement. Another way that blind faith is shown is “WAR IS PEACE; FREEDOM IS SLAVERY; IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (4). The author uses these oxymorons to emphasize the contradictions of this society. These words are the official slogans of the Party. Even though the words mean opposite things and do not make sense, the people believe the slogans because that is what the Party has stated so it must be correct. The last example is “Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (34). The Party is in power and therefore controls the way the past is presented to the people. They can present lies to become truth in order to control what people think and what those people want. The author uses repetition in this statement in order to focus the reader on it and to

In this society, everyone had to be equal to each other. The government put handicaps on those who were smarter, prettier, stronger, or more talented than anyone else. The people would live their lives with these handicaps as they believed in the government and what they were doing. The first example of this blind faith is “If I tried to get away with it then other people’d get away with it and pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn’t like that, would you?” (68-70). The people believe that competition that they had in the past was very bad and that the current government where everyone is the same and everyone does what they are told is a much better way of life. The author is using irony in this statement. Competition has always been something that was suppose to be a good thing for people. It focused on people’s strengths and individuality. This society instead handicaps anyone who has any strengths that makes them better than anyone else. Another example that shows blind faith is “THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal.” (1) This emphasizes how important everyone believes it is that everyone is equal. They have finally obtained the equality that they thought they had wanted for so long. The author is using satire with this statement to show that although we say we want to be equal, is that