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.