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Equality In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

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Equality In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron
“To every action, there is always opposed an equal reaction.” In this quote, spoken by Isaac Newton, he implies that every action that humans do or create there will always be an opposed response. In this story, a society created an “equality”, but in doing so, people couldn’t reach their full potential. “Harrison Bergeron”, written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., revolves around the idea that equality can help, but also destroy a society. Vonnegut describes identical and uniform human beings using symbolism that represents a bigger concept to argue futuristically that equality destroys the growth of individuals and consequently limits society.
Vonnegut is attempting to illustrate that equality if taken to an extreme point, can no longer benefit society, but destroy it. Harrison Bergeron lives in a “truly equal” society that puts
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Harrison Bergeron is an individual that is trapped in a limited and restricted society. Throughout the entire story, the dialogue is consistently used in short fragmented sentences. This is similar to the non-existent growth that societies experience when individuals are not encouraged to reach their full potential. On page number 99 it reads, “‘Huh? said George’, ‘That dance-it was nice,’ said Hazel.” represented in the story as an example of the choppy dialogue. These quotes spoken by Harrison’s parents; George and Hazel, show that when these characters exchange words, they are short and not elaborate. This is partially because they have sound pieces in their ears that make noises when they are going into too deep of thoughts. This is an example of a way that society is trying to make all of its individuals equal and not have anyone person smarter or more skilled. It is expressed through characters like Harrison Bergeron, that this is not the right thing to do and that something must be done about this restraining

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