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Harrison Bergeron Essay

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Harrison Bergeron Imagine a world where an oppressive government captures what many call diversity. Where ugly is known as beauty and intelligence is insignificant. “They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” (Vonnegut) This is the future that Harrison experiences, in the short story “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut. It is the year 2081 and the government handicaps every citizen with make up or weights to create equality. Where there are over than 200 amendments and the government has full control of all citizens, this is indeed against what America had been …show more content…

Along with captivating the freedom of the people they also cause people pain so they cannot think of their own free will. “George came back in with the beer, paused while a handicap signal shook him up. And then he sat down again. ‘"You been crying"’ he said to Hazel. ‘"Yup,"’ she said. ‘"What about?"’ he said. ‘"I forget,"’ she said. "Something real sad on television”’ (Reed) Hazel is what is said to be a normal person, but is this really a level of normal intelligence? Civil rights were made so people were able to think and recreate what they think is wrong. To take away that reasoning and make their intelligence lower is similar to having a country full of wild animals that cannot think for themselves and allow others to lead them to the answer. It is like a puppet and a puppeteer where the people are the puppets and the governments is the puppeteer.
Freedom of speech is on the same level of importance as freedom of thought. Speech is taking one’s thoughts and transmitting them into words. Both are exiled in the world of Harrison Bergeron and are said to be unwanted. The opportunity to speak one’s free will is not a luxury it is a necessity for all humans. For a group of people to take this away from others and compress them is against

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