One of the greatest creations of mankind is his control of himself and his fellow man. Throughout time this system of control has gone by many names and has had many different styles but is known collectively as Government. At times governments have acted in behalf of their citizens and in other instances they have oppressed and controlled. We each agree to our social contract by living in a country yet we are never asked if we agree or even truly informed of the rules. Yet we live by the laws in hope that they will promote our safety and standard of living. Society’s greatest creation has also been its most terrible and at times people have spoken out against governments and warned us of what may lay ahead. Kurt Vonnegut was a writer who critiqued society and explored the possibilities of what it might one day become. Using satire he expounded on the phrase “All men are created equal” and gave his own view of what a society which takes that to the extreme may become.
In his short story Kurt Vonnegut depicts a society which forcibly handicaps its citizens thus making everyone equal. Dancers wear weights; the intelligent are forced to wear earplugs which make distracting sounds every half minute to scare away any higher level thoughts. Even the TV anchorman is selected because of his terrible stutter. All this is controlled by the Handicapper General, a government official charged with enforcing equality. The great irony of this society is shown poignantly through the sad lives of the main character and his wife. For brief moments we see that the husband has some sense of the injustice of the society yet still abides by the laws due to compliancy and knowledge of the punishments enforced by the government. At one point his wife suggests that he removes some of the weight from bags he is forced to wear around himself yet he refuses even though they are home alone because he believes that the simple act of removing some weight may be the beginning of social unrest, and he fears the repercussion if he is found. Despite that this story is meant to point out the beauty in free life is also exaggerates this freedom. The man who escapes from prison and is meant to embody freedom is said to be seven feet tall and looks like the God Thor from ancient Norse Mythology. He performs impossible feats of strength and agility and he even commands the TV viewers to worship him, a point meant to emphasize our nations zealous and sometimes overlooking love of freedom. The irony is also shown when the Handicapper General appears and kills this Thor and his new lover. The General herself has no handicaps what so ever and is therefore herself free and better than the rest of the people she controls. The hypocrisy of her existence is stark. Kurt Vonnegut’s critique of our society is not entirely legitimate however because he goes to the very extremes of the spectrum. I am not saying that a society like this could not exist one day but it is unlikely because thankfully some people fight for our freedoms and help keep others aware.
The movie adaptation of Harrison Bergeron differs from the short story in a number of ways yet still attempts to capture its essence. The movie goes more in-depth about the lives of the controlled masses and the secret truth behind what they see on their television. The movie also offers a stark portrayal of the society and points out the seeming lack of hope there is for it to change. The main characters who are also lovers in the end are separated, one mentally destroyed and the other commits suicide from lack of belief that life is worth living. It reminds me greatly of the book 1984 in which the main characters are also forced apart and crushed back into conformity. I think they changed the story line of the movie to offer a more stark realism of life and that this change worked effectively. I do not think the movie used humor as effectively as the story yet it sacrificed this to offer a greater perspective of irony and lack of hope.
They are both effective critiques of society, yet I feel the movie is better because it explains more the true despair of the lives of the people who are unknowingly controlled.
Some of your sentences could use commas, but otherwise this was very well written. I agree with your comparison of the movie and short story. The short story was much more extreme compared to the movie and I agree with you in that it shouldn’t be taken literally. Watching the movie reminded me of the book 1984 too, and I also thought it was more serious than the short story. Good job with this post.
I like your how you set up your blog it is done very well. I am not at proof reading so you probably want to go to the WRC to get a better idea of what you should work on. To me the blog is done well and there are very few minor errors from what I could spot. I do agree with Grant about your blog.
Byron-
I think that your post was a very good one. I love the way that you go into depth about all the things that you pointed out as satire or irony. I definitely agree with you on those points. I think that you wrote very well by going in-depth about the reasons for why they are satire. I felt that throughout your paper you were pretty much error free. I overall just always love that way that you write and are able to get out what you want to say through your writing. Good job on this one!
Good summaries. I definitely agree that the movie shows the despair of the lives of the people, but to a certain degree. The movie and the short story definitely went in different directions in how to show an oppressive government and an “unknowingly controlled” population. The points you made were good, but I think the compare and contrast could have been expanded upon / added more detail. Overall, minor grammar and punctuation mistakes, good post and keep up the good work!
Byron,
Your post was very nice. There are just a couple grammar errors and some spelling errors that need fixing but thats not a big deal. I liked your opinions about the overall story from the book and movie. You go into great detail when describing them, and that gives the reader a clear view of exactly you want to point out and what you want them to think. I agree with what you said about the movie, that they did change some things about it from the story so it could be a movie. Without those changes it would have been a very bad, and short, movie. You mentioned a book called 1984, if its anything like this i wouldnt mind reading it. Good post.