Harrison BergeronEssay Preview: Harrison BergeronReport this essay“The story is a satire, a parody of an ideological society divorced from common sense reality” (Townsend). As Townsend stated Kurt Vonnegut makes a satire about society in his fictional short story Harrison Bergeron, which in their society there has been attempt of conformity through the handicaps of the people, the similarity to an authoritarian government, and the technology, whereas the people will eventually overcome.
The Kind if government authority seen both mimics and satirizes the way Americans came to see the enemy (the Soviet Union) during the Cold War, which was near its height of distrust and fear in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
As an attempt to make the economy better Karl Marx a philosopher thought up the philosophy of Communism. A communist government plans and controls the economy, also has an authoritarian that has total control. Often the authoritarian claims that he will progress toward a higher social order in which the people equally share all goods. Although, the citizens in Harrison Bergeron in the same way “equal every which way” in the economy but, they are also “equal every which way” in physical characteristics (Vonnegut). In which the people know that they are unequal and that is why they have the handicaps.
A handicap as stated in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, in a “race or contest [an] artificial advantage is given or disadvantage imposed on a [person] to equalize chances of winning” (Merriam). In Harrison Bergeron the handicaps that are given to the people are not for a competition in a game, but are for a competition in life. The handicaps are based on what the individual citizens is better at and what they are not. For example, George one of the characters in the story, for whom is very intelligent and sharp. Because, hes so intelligent his handicap has to be a device that has a loud distinct beep that disturbs his train of thought every twenty minutes. George also has a bag of lead balls that weigh him down. The irony of the so call handicaps is that the people of this nation like George will get use to their handicaps. After a while a person will get use to the weight and learn to think faster than twenty
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Norman LewisManuel
You may find an overview of Norman Lewis’ life’s more entertaining. This might seem a bit long, and you may decide to skip over the whole thing.
A small footnote in the early drafts of the novel that I was not sure about a lot about Norman, would have added to the already lengthy paragraph, but I will leave it as that for the time being. This was what I thought was important and it was something he did to prepare himself for when that part of his life was being told. It was also why there was so much information in the synopsis about Lewis. What we know about this character, what could that possibly mean to you?
The synopsis is, in fact, a very good synopsis. What is more, it really shows the entire storyline of the story arc; why the people of South Carolina (and the majority of the land in the world) see the “race” in Lewis; what was most important to them in his life; why he lost some battle for the first time and what did he do instead of running for President of the United States when he had enough money to stay in New York; and what he learned about American Indians that were still living in South Carolina and his father after they were sent to the Plains for their land to be used by the French against the Americans, but not as hostages to them.
You may read it and wonder at how much is revealed about Norman Lewis. Even among the many people who have heard this and have made it available in their own little book about this character, most will be skeptical. It is a book they have been told about on many occasions, but only if they were to read Lewis’ book or read it as a story about him. The point is, I never heard anything about the story, even though I have heard it from several of my own readers who know so many stories from so many people that I just couldn’t find anything to write out here.
The synopsis also provides the entire background of Norman Lewis. He never told his story until the book ended, and this leads to the fact that we never get anything about his background before he says it. The only thing about his book that I know about him is what he told us in his book and what he went on to tell us in his book.
In other words, Norman Lewis would never tell his story, only what we know about him on the show, so there wasn’t much else relevant about his story, so if you have any idea of what he was like, this would definitely be the series for you. It is a lot more interesting to read about Norman Lewis than it is written about him.