Harrison Bergeron: a Reader’s Response
Josh Gebbeken eng102 - 27319_4116
11/4/11
Assignment: Essay Unit 2
Harrison Bergeron: A Reader’s Response The words Harrison Bergeron for the title of this short story can be described easily by three words: perseverance, determination, and freedom. The freedom to be able to succeed in life to its fullest potential and Harrison Bergeron shows what it takes to do that. The place of time that Harrison lives in is a dystopian society. No one is bold to defy the new laws or question them if the laws are just. By looking at Harrison who’s only fourteen years of age in the story had to wear the heaviest form of handicaps ever created. As the text says, “Nobody had ever worn heavier handicaps. He had outgrown hindrances faster than the H–G men could think them up.” (Harrison Bergeron Page 3) This is where Harrison’s perseverance and determination really shines. Normally deep thought thinking was defused by sending noise through the headphones with the example of Harrison’s father George. Several times throughout the story George would go into deep thought to only be interrupted by radio noise coming out of the headphones. Harrison’s thought process was never hampered by the heaviest of headphones and was able to continue on to a goal despite it being ended so soon. If we see how the proverb, ““Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” What applies to this work simply has to do with the people of this era eagerly pushing for a utopian society. Without them noticing their utopia ends up as a dystopian society instead. Equality here in this story has been corrupted that it’s no longer strictly based by principles, but characteristic traits that one possesses. Throughout the years the United States would finally know equality during the year 2081 as the beginning paragraph says,” … everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way…All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and
11/4/11
Assignment: Essay Unit 2
Harrison Bergeron: A Reader’s Response The words Harrison Bergeron for the title of this short story can be described easily by three words: perseverance, determination, and freedom. The freedom to be able to succeed in life to its fullest potential and Harrison Bergeron shows what it takes to do that. The place of time that Harrison lives in is a dystopian society. No one is bold to defy the new laws or question them if the laws are just. By looking at Harrison who’s only fourteen years of age in the story had to wear the heaviest form of handicaps ever created. As the text says, “Nobody had ever worn heavier handicaps. He had outgrown hindrances faster than the H–G men could think them up.” (Harrison Bergeron Page 3) This is where Harrison’s perseverance and determination really shines. Normally deep thought thinking was defused by sending noise through the headphones with the example of Harrison’s father George. Several times throughout the story George would go into deep thought to only be interrupted by radio noise coming out of the headphones. Harrison’s thought process was never hampered by the heaviest of headphones and was able to continue on to a goal despite it being ended so soon. If we see how the proverb, ““Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” What applies to this work simply has to do with the people of this era eagerly pushing for a utopian society. Without them noticing their utopia ends up as a dystopian society instead. Equality here in this story has been corrupted that it’s no longer strictly based by principles, but characteristic traits that one possesses. Throughout the years the United States would finally know equality during the year 2081 as the beginning paragraph says,” … everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way…All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and