Single Paragraph Essay
“Harrison Bergeron”
“Harrison Bergeron,” written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. focuses on equality—physically and mentally—strongly controlled by the government in the year 2081; the beautiful are forced to look ugly, the physically skilled are required to wear weights. With these handicaps making everyone so equal, the world became very different, odd, and average. But the government has no right or reason to push the whole world to be “…equal every which way.” (203) To suppress someone’s natural looks or physical talents is not only wrong to natural human rights, but it is also illegal, and for very good reason: everyone is different. Equality means everyone has equal rights, not that nobody is better than anyone else at one trade or another. Furthermore, competition is a natural necessity that keeps people—and, moreover, the world—moving forward. In fact, Vonnegut points out: “Some things about living still weren’t quite right…April, for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime.” (203) No matter how equal the government tries to make the world, people will always be flawed in some way, shape, or form, good and bad, and every individual needs these flaws to not only survive, but to thrive creatively and freely as his or her own person.
Word Count: 206
Works Cited
Jr., Kurt Vonnegut. "Harrison Bergeron." Power of Language - Language of power. Pearson Custom Publishing, 2009. 203-209.
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