The outlook on our future is promising due to teenagers realizing how crucial uniqueness is in this world. Teenagers are coming to the realization that a person’s heart is much more important than their outer appearance. Teenagers are beginning to understand that a person’s outer appearance isn’t what’s going to make the world better, their heart is. In both “The Uglies” and in “Harrison Bergeron”, the authors show how they believe the future is going to turn out. Their predictions show a future that is not so promising and a future that is completely controlled by their government. Reading these stories should inspire young teenagers minds and help them realize that this isn’t the type of future they want, which will then lead to teenagers …show more content…
Those who are better looking have to wear masks to make them uglier and those who are smarter have to wear mental handicap radios that play noises every 20 seconds to scatter their thoughts. In the story, Harrison decided he was done being controlled by the government and tore off all of the things the government had put on him to make him less of a person. The text says, “Harrison thrust his thumbs under the bar of the padlock that secured his head harness. The bar snapped like celery. Harrison smashed his headphones and spectacle against the wall. He flung away his rubber-ball nose, revealed a man that would have awed Thor, the god of thunder” (Bergeron 25). Harrison finally wanted to be unique and instead of getting praised for being different, he was shot dead by the government. This is how the author of this story believes our future will turn out because the people are constantly begging for equality. When today’s society say they want equality, is that really what they mean? They state that they want everyone …show more content…
In the Uglies, being a pretty is the one thing everyone can’t wait to be. If you’re not a pretty, you’re pretty much thought of as useless until you turn 16 and get to have the long awaited surgery that transforms your face into something completely new and better. It is nearly impossible for Uglies to not want to look pretty. Even if one was to hate another, they would still want to look and be like them if they had big eyes or full lips. The text says, “There was a certain kind of beauty, a prettiness that everyone could see. Big eyes and full lips like a kid's; smooth, clear skin; symmetrical features; and a thousand other little clues. Somewhere in the backs of their minds, people were always looking for these markers. No one could help seeing them, no matter how they were brought up. A million years of evolution had made it part of the human brain” (Westerfeld 19). In other words, Tally is saying that it is part of their biology to want to be pretty. There is almost no freedom in Tally’s world and the only way to be accepted is to undergo the surgery and look like everyone else. The author is showing today's generation that this will be the future if teenagers keep idolizing and doing the same things as celebrities. Teenagers see someone they idolize with big lips and go get lip injections or see someone with long eyelashes and get eyelash extensions instead of just embracing how they
In all aspects a utopian society is a society that is place to achieve perfection, and that is the society that both the “Uglies”, by Scott Westfield and “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut, was striving for. In both of these stories, the government had control over the people’s choices, freedoms, and their natural abilities. Yet both government strive for a perfect society, the methods they use to achieve this goal were different from each other.
The theme of the text “Harrison Bergeron” is equality has its pro’s and con’s,the author's use of similes and metaphors helps develop the theme.First off,one element that help support this theme is honor. Humor helps support the theme because in the text,”Harrison Bergeron” it shows how employees can’t even do their jobs because they have their handicaps on,but Know one earns a better profit because they're the same.Another type of element the author uses is similes .In the text it says,”but Harrison looked like a walking junkyard”.That helps support the theme because if the leader or government puts handicaps com people they will get mad and try to escape their state or country.The theme in the article is equality has its pro’s and con’s this
“Harrison Bergeron” starts with explaining the society within the story. It begins, “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way,” (Vonnegut 158). With this startlingly different introduction, Vonnegut explains that everyone is equal but does not include how during this time. As the story progresses, the reader begins to see exactly how the citizens are “equal.”
In this society everyone is obsessed with beauty. And the Uglies are the people between the ages of 12 and 16 they live in a remote community far from the beautiful people. In this community the Uglies anxiously wait for their 16th birthday. At the age of 16 they go through a mandatory plastic surgery in order to live up to society’s standards. After they go through plastic surgery they will be known as pretties, and they will also live with all of the other gorgeous people.
Harrison is no ordinary being of society. In fact, he is described as "a genius, an athlete,…and should be regarded as dangerous….Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of ear phones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses….Scrap metal [is] hung all over him….he wear[s] at all times a red rubber ball for a nose, keep[s] his eyebrows shaved off, and cover[s] his even white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random" (Vonnegut 236). His physical appearance alone would definitely offset him from the rest of the crowd. Just by walking down the street, one could sense his greatness by his excessive handicaps. Furthermore, his mental capacity is great enough to override the annoying sounds that the H-G men create. The reader can obviously see that Harrison has something more to offer, yet his society is binding him down and taking away his individuality: "Harrison 's only crime was taking control of the television studio, but his motives outweighed the crime. He was shot for exposing the world to beauty" (Marton). In this sense, Harrison represents uniqueness of an individual. He is the one willing to exploit his society and have variation as being a celebration of oneself not a crime, or is this possibly his only
Have you wondered what the world would be like if everyone was forced into the government’s opinion of equality? In Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s story “Harrison Bergeron”, it is the year 2081 and the government has altered the society into being physically and socially equal. The most charming people are left to wear hideous masks, the intelligent are to be equipped with a earpiece that plays ear piercing noises, and the strong people have to wear excessive heavy weights so they resemble the weak. I believe that the society of “Harrison Bergeron” is not truly equal, because no one can be changed unless they want to be.
Have you read the books Monster and Harrison Bergeron. Steve Harmon is a teenage boy who was convicted of robbery and murder. Harrison Bergeron lives in a futuristic world where everybody is equal, but he has been arrested because he was too gifted and has an immense amount of handicaps.Steve Harmon from Monster and Harrison Bergeron from Harrison Bergeron have similarities and differences.
In a society where the talented are so handicapped that they cannot even function, the theme reflects the impracticality and dangers of egalitarianism. Harrison Bergeron symbolizes defiance and survival next tot eh TV symbolizing brainwash. The third person narrator creates an effective and fair method of detailing all the events in this futuristic society. Harrison Bergeron’s conflict creates an understanding of the result of total equality. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. emphasizes the need for competition and individuality in society, in order to live with freedom and prosperity.
The authors of the stories “Old Glory” and “Harrison Bergeron” show many futuristic details to develop a theme. In the short story “Old Glory”, a boy’s great grandfather has many new opinions about the new Shoot-On-Sight (SOS) law that was passed. It takes place in the future, where the great grandfather tries to stand up for what he believes, and ends up getting shot. The short story “Harrison Bergeron” also takes place in the future, where the world and everyone in it is equal. Hazel and George's son Harrison stands up for what he believes, and tries to overthrow the government. Throughout both stories, a theme that has developed is to have freedom to live and be the way you want to.
For instance, it says,”Every twenty seconds or so the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantages of their brains.” Also it made people without abilities feel equal. This proves to the reader that it made the people in “Harrison Bergeron” not equal because it was unequal for only people with abilities to wear handicaps and not the average to. Handicaps made people unequal because now people with handicaps have a harder life than the people with no handicaps. They have a more free life rather than walking around with something preventing you to do something that you have developed. Like how George is smart, he must have developed that from studying or doing other academic things. But now he is wearing a handicap to prevent it. This makes it useless for him to think. As a final result, people maybe think that it is equal but overall looking at the story it really isn’t fair because they make people with abilities lives harder than the people with no
Being a teenager is quite an awkward time in a person’s life, it is like being a mutation, half-child and half-adult, losing innocence along the way. Around the age of 14 people hit high school and life begins to change for both males and females. Girls and boys officially start their journey into women and men, hitting many bumps and hurdles on the road to discover themselves. In the novels, Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, two very different boys begin the voyage into adulthood both making mistakes and facing obstacles along their way. Within these two stories the reader delves into the secrets of what exactly is ailing the minds of american males. In both novels, the boys face a
Being unique is a necessary part of life. People are told starting as children that they need to be themselves. They are told to do what they love and love what they do. What if the world didn’t allow this? Kurt Vonnegut ponders the idea of a life in which the government enforces complete equality. “Harrison Bergeron” takes place in a future society that hinders people with skills to make everyone equal. This society makes everyone worse instead of better. Complete equality has too many issues for it to be viable. Equality should be for all in the eyes of the law. However, complete equality should not be pursued because taking away the differences between people is a clear mistake.
Harrison Bergeron goes against conformity to try and brake the equality of everyone. It states in the story “Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper, tore straps guaranteed to support five thousand pounds.” -Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. In this quote it shows the power he has to try and brake away from everyone else and try to do what he wants instead of being like everyone else. By doing this, he is going against conformity in the society to be himself and not like others.
The most important theme that we can easily notice in the story is the lack of freedom, which is extremely significant to the American ideals, and Harrison demonstrates it as his escapes from jail, remove his handicaps, and influence others around him. In order to have a completely equal society in Harrison Bergeron’s world, people cannot choose what they want to take part in or what they are good at because if a person is above average in anything, even appearance, they are handicapped. These brain and body devices are implanted in an effort to make everyone equal. However, instead of raising everyone up to the better level, the government chooses instead to lower people to the lowest common level of human thought and action, which means that people with beautiful faces wear masks. Also, people with above average intelligence wear a device that gives a soul-shattering piercing noise directly into the ear to destroy any train of thought. Larger and stronger people have bags of buckshot padlocked a...
Although the comparisons are well hidden, both today’s society and the story ‘Harrison Bergeron’ share similar qualities. They both deal with equality, which leads to problems and consequences. A second similarity is the struggle of competition and trying to prevent it from occurring, which also leads to problems. Lastly, both struggle with normality, and the fact that it’s hard to accept that different is okay now.