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A Comparison Of Aesop 's Fables And Grimm 's Fairytales

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Most stories are not just stories written to entertain the reader. Intentional or not, writers are often commentating on the world around them. Social commentary is interwoven in the fabric of novels, and it is often up to the reader to determine what they take away from any given work. Although written for entertainment’s sake, stories usually include the social or political views of the author and serve as a platform for their views to be made known. Aesop’s Fables and Grimm’s Fairytales are not the only stories written with lessons or morals in mind. Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” has a long list of underlying themes and motifs that give the reader pause for thought about the ideas of equality and the American Way. The idea of equality is one that has been entrenched into the hearts and minds of the citizens of the United States since the days of the founding fathers. The thought that one person is better than another is an ideal that as a nation, the founding fathers strove to overcome. They believed that each person should have the identical rights and opportunities of every other person in our society. This sentiment becomes grossly perverted in Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron”. In the tale, the American government has taken the idea of equality to an extreme that is not only inhumane, but in essence takes away our freedom and individuality, the very fabric of what we consider American. Vonnegut set this story in 2081, more

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