Revised Intro and outline to Short Works Essay

Here is a revised introduction and outline to the Short Works essay mentioned in the last post.

The symbols, George’s sound in his ear, and the ballerina’s weights, are used by Vonnegut in his short story, “Harrison Bergeron” to create absolute, forced equality in his futuristic community. The symbols show the burden of the involuntary, complete parity, and how progress is seized when there is utter equality. Later, the symbols show how the handicaps, now representing the affliction of absolute equality and the rarity of progress, create problems with relationships. Vonnegut is able to use symbols, the sound in George’s ear and the ballerina’s weights, to show how outright impartiality has a negative effect on the progress of thoughts, relationships,  and can prohibit excellence.

Outline:

I.                   At the start of the story, the physical handicaps, weights on the ballerinas, and the mental handicaps, the sounds in George’s ear, represent the burden of absolute, enforced equality.

a.       “They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot.”

b.      “And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear”

c.       “the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains”

II.                As the story progresses, the symbols come to symbolize progress, specifically how no progress is made with absolute equality created by the handicaps.

a.       “But he didn’t get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts.”

b.      “George was toying with the notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped.”

III.             When the end of the story arrived, the symbols finally illustrate the harm to relationships and the rebellion of the handicaps through the creation of other relationships.

a.       “George came back in with the beer, paused while a handicap signal shook him up. And then he sat down again. "You been crying" he said to Hazel… "Forget sad things," said George. "I always do," said Hazel. "That's my girl," said George. He winced. There was the sound of a rivetting gun in his head.”

b.      “Harrison plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy.”

Introduction to the Short Works Essay

In my English class we were given an essay that we will write overtime with an elaborate process. The prompt is to chose one author's text that we read for summer reading and explain how this writer utilizes one of the following literary tools-- characterization, symbolism, irony, tone-- to make a comment or pose a question about the challenges we face when trying to live as individuals in the world.

I chose to write about the symbolism in "Harrison Bergeron" By Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

For this blog post we are required to post our introduction of the essay.

My introduction:

Vonnegut in his short story, “Harrison Bergeron” is creating a community where everyone is absolutely equal; nobody is more exceptional or better looking than another. If person has special brain power, they get a sharp noise sent to them at random times in the day so they will not use their brain to an advantage. In this futuristic culture, equality was prized and handicaps, like the sharp noises sent to exceptional brains, were placed on people that the higher authorities thought would be better than anyone else, to keep complete parity. Vonnegut satirizes the fact that everyone should be equal and uses the symbol of handicaps to portray his stance on the topic. The symbol, handicaps, is used by Vonnegut to contribute to the absolute equality in a large group of people, so that Vonnegut can satirize how equality can hurt us, which consequently creates people who resist the handicaps, and with these handicaps it hinders the ability of other individuals to recollect the memory of those rebels who are skeptical of the norm and strive for a change in the system.   

Miniver Cheevy and the concept of YOLO

What is the phrase people have been saying? YOJO? YOGO? 

No, I've got it, YOLO! 

It means: You Only Live Once.

People use it to describe life and how to seize every moment. 

Nemo is going to touch the boat because "you only live once".

Miniver Cheevy, would rather say You Only Live at the Wrong Time.

Yes, that is a bit wordy but this character in the poem, "Miniveer Cheevy" by Edwin Arlington Robinson, wants only to live in Medieval Times. He currently lives in the 1900s, about 3000 years from the end of the Renaissance. Sucks for him right? Well he thinks so too.  

Miniver longs to be in a place where “swords were bright and steeds were prancing” (Edwinson, 778). He convinces himself that he was born in the wrong millennia and wishes “that he was never born” (Edwinson, 778) . At the end of poem, he decides that being born out of time was only fate and kept on drinking alcohol to numb the pain of being a misfit in the 20^th century.

Robinson was the early developer of the concept YOLO and is trying to show us how to live like we only have one life.

He makes Miniver have a drinking problem to exemplify the fact that if you are not excited about where and when you are living, accept that fact, move on, and then accept the fact that you are unique and You Only Live Once.

My advice to you, Reader, and Miniver: YOLO.

Iron-y it Out

For a story titled, "Once Upon a Time" you wouldn't expect it to be gruesome, or even contain a death at the end?

Well, if you said yes, brush up on your literary terms, especially "irony".

Irony in the simplest terms is the contradiction or opposite situation of what is expected to happen to a person, circumstance, or statement. 

This shows irony because it is expected that the improved literacy department can spell, however, apparently not.

There are three types of irony verbal, dramatic, and situational. You can laugh about the three types of irony here.  In Gordimer's work mainly situational irony is used, and a couple of instances of verbal irony too. 

The verbal irony, saying one thing but in truth meaning another, in Gordimer's work is when she says that the characters "were living happily ever after". The author is really telling the readers that the family is not actually living in harmony but rather in the wretched state of never being satisfied.

The situational irony, the exact opposite of what is expected happens, occurs many times in the story. It usually comes in the format of the couple buying a piece of safety equipment to keep them safe but it hurts and hinders them in the result.

One situation is when the whole community buys alarm systems to keep out the burglars. The alarms keep going off because of the wandering cats(oh, you darn cats!) and becomes a sound that the whole community is used to. Gordimer tells the reader that, "under cover of the electronic harpies’ discourse intruders....broke into homes". The expected result of having alarms is that the home would not have been broken into, but using irony, Gordimer plays with our expectations and makes the alarms harm the families.

Another situation is when the ***spoiler alert*** boy dies from the installation of barbed wire on their fence to, ironically, keep the boy safe.

Irony is a fantastic way to produce a sarcastic tone in a literary work. Instead of just telling the reader that people need to know when to stop and be satisfied about safety and that there needs to be a balance between the two extremes and sometimes being unsafe is okay, the author sarcastically describes a horrendous child's story through ironic situations.

In many ways, it is easier and more entertaining to describe things ironically. That is probably why Gordimer decided to write "Once Upon a Time" through irony. 

Favorite Summer Reading

Hi bloggers! My name is Rachael and you have arrived at my blog. This is a blog about literature and my position and view on works of writing. Hope you enjoy & rachael-ize (realize) something new or interesting!

This summer I read a large amount of short stories and poems for the upcoming English 2 year, and I guarantee that I read all of them, don't worry. While I read them, I was struck by a plethora of emotions, they were all quality pieces of literature, I assure you. But of all the texts, I really connected with the short story, "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. because of the satirical nature of the story. For some reason, I enjoy making make believe situations that make fun of the current or past scenes, sort of like what happens in "Harrison Bergeron". Maybe I'm a reincarnation of Vonnegut, but I probably don't want to be, well that's a whole other can of worms(maybe a topic for a later post......).

But I digress.
This story in set in the future where everyone is equal to the point where "nobody was better looking than anybody else" Now, that would suck, like how would you have beauty pageants?! Oh, wait, that means we could all be America's Next Top Model! Maybe this isn't so bad after all...

However, at the end of the story, because of all of the equality, the main character, Harrison, gets killed. By this the author is trying to show society how bad things can be when everyone is equal, and that there should be some people in the world that are better or worse than you. Annnnnnnd life will go on- I promise- if someone gets a better grade than you on the biggest test of the year. 

What really struck me as interesting was the fact that the government put handicaps on exceptional people so that they would not take "unfair advantage of their brains". 
(The picture below depicts the fashioning of a handicap) 

This caught my attention because in today's world its the bright minds that will exceed the unimaginable and people, especially teachers or coaches, will nurture and help those with exceptional talents to go above and beyond. Maybe someday those without 'handicaps' or have broken free of their handicaps with exceptional intelligence and talent will teach us how to find a corner of a circle--that could be all of us.

So, let's all try. Shall we?