writing assignment kurt vonnegut, jr.'s harrison bergeron there is a study guide to this story. At first glance, this story might seem to be a sneering attack on the political value of equality. At the same time, the story seems to place a high value on, for example, intelligence.

But a little reflection a little employment of our own intellect upon the story will get us into some uncomfortable muddles. Maybe the difference between competent and incompetent intellect is not that some people just see things clearly and some just don't. Maybe they just happen to have developed some ways of dealing with muddles that enable them, eventually, to arrive at clarity. Maybe this art is something that can be picked up by anyone who's not really and truly intellectually lame afflicted by down's syndrome, for example, and other quite definite and clinically specific conditions. It does seem, though, that something we might call sustained attention is a necessary prerequisite to thinking things through effectively enough to figure out how one might want to adjust one's notions in order to pass to a new level of clarity. Let's work on the assumption that vonnegut's story is dressed to the likes of us, instead of to some impossible intellectual elite, or to some clique of geniuses, and that it's not aimed at driving us to despair, but at stimulating us to think in ways that the world of 2081 in the story would make impossible for us. Allocate several hours to working up as good a provisional draft as you can on one of the following topics.

You'll already be taking your initial ideas the ones that made for your initial muddle through a fair amount of tinkering. What you end up with is something that you'll want to review one of these days after you've re read the story. Perhaps you'd like eventually to call it to the attention of some of your friends. Meanwhile, you'll get some practice in revising whatever the phrases and sentences and paragraphs you start out with in your very first draft which is not the one you'll be handing in.

Explain In Details How Good Essays Are Supposed to Be Written

In particular, you will be practicing the art of imagining possible distinctions and evaluating their potential relevance in a particular context. caution: all of these topics require you to talk about facts recognizable in today's american society. But do not let this distract you from the necessity to discuss these with specific reference to the facts of the story to which you are relating them, whether by comparison or contrast. : all of these topics require you to talk about facts recognizable in today's american society. But be sure to discuss these with specific reference to the facts of the story to which you are relating them, whether by comparison or contrast. You need not hide your own view on the issues the story raises, but the task here is to show how the story raises those issues, and how it indicates indirectly, by subtle clues we might decide them or ought not decide them.

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what vonnegut seems to be mocking as average intelligence: don't overlook the force of seems here. Part of the game of certain kinds of fiction is that the author sets us up for a first impression that eventually we are expected to diagnose as false. We would have been incompetent readers if we did not! but it does mean that we've stopped short if we don't eventually get beyond it.

Here again we should recall what should by now be your default caution: narrators are not authors! even when the narrator is not a character within the action of the story, but a disembodied voice conveying the events to us, it is something the author has created, made up, constructed. In the passage at hand, the narrator may be simply articulating the point of view of the society at large that is under portrayal. That is: hazel's intelligence is what hazel and george recognize as average because that is what their world describes as average. But are the descriptions of this vast propaganda machine to be taken at face value? surely not by the story's readers, who are supposed to recognize the ways of thinking on display here as derangements. The kind of thinking on exhibit with hazel, which is taken by hazel as a natural fact level of inborn talent which everything else is to be dumb downed to, may be every bit as much a cultural construct. A fabrication, as what george is reduced to being capable of, under his earphones.

The inanities on display are not confined, either, to the hazels: george coughs up a fare number of them, too. If competent thinking on the level of active skill is a matter of cultivation as well as natural talent, then what constitutes average intelligence in practice will not be a matter of iq even if we buy into the disputed idea that iq tests actually do measure native intelligence . As folks who think of ourselves as people of average intelligence, we are surely expected to react to the idea of hazel's performance being average as an insult to our intelligence! but that doesn't mean that the insult is vonnegut's: perhaps he's paying our intelligence the compliment of relying on it as capable of detecting that it comes from not from him but from the derangement he is concocting for our inspection.

Consult the study guide to this story before attempting this writing assignment. Please send your comments to [email protected] . contents copyright © 20 by lyman a. Permission is granted for non commercial educational use all other rights reserved. 1994 do not use footnotes list all references cited in the text in alphabetical order using the following format for different types of material: hunt, s.

Yet today, people are forced to flee their land of birth and forced to live in refugee camps under miserable conditions. Rich ocr examples of college level persuasive examples of math extended ap english language and composition sample essays 2001 in diamonds, velvets and laces, she is the observed of all observers, in beauty and grace she is the one peculiar star envied by all her class but, alas, the peevish child, the restless girl, is but reproduced in. With courseworks, instructors can easily manage course materials, class meetings, assignments, and student collaboration from a single website. To get started, log into, courseworks harrison bergeron thesis response essay to harrison bergeron with your, columbia.

Originality: no plagiarism, all works are written from scratch following all the instructions. Papers are checked for plagiarism and grammar harrison bergeron thesis response essay to harrison bergeron using a leading plagiarism detector in the industry. Response paper on harrison bergeron by kurt vonnegut the short tale of harrison bergeron is something that isn't very new to me. Way back in high school, we were tasked to read this in one of our literary circles sessions. Today, having finally read a good selection of interesting stories, i decided to take a deeper and much more complete look at it. I can definitely say that despite it being rather short, harrison bergeron was a story just oozing in meaning and symbolisms.

Ldquo harrison bergeron rdquo offers vigorous political and social criticisms of both america in general and the america of the 1960s. The political system depicted in vonnegut rsquo s story is distinctly american and founded on the principles of egalitarianism, which holds that people should be equal in every way. Equality is a beloved principle enshrined in america rsquo s declaration of independence in the phrase ldquo all men are created equal, rdquo but vonnegut suggests that the ideals of egalitarianism can be dangerous if they are interpreted too literally. If the goal of equality is taken to its logical conclusion, we may decide that people must be forced to be equal to one another in their appearance, behavior, and achievements. Ldquo harrison bergeron rdquo can also be interpreted as a direct critique of communism. In the 1960s, america was engaged with russia in the cold war and had recently struggled through the mccarthy era, when suspected communists were accused and blacklisted from artistic, literary, and political communities. The futuristic american society of ldquo harrison bergeron rdquo operates on communist principles, supporting the idea that wealth and power should be distributed equally and class hierarchies should not exist.

Like the accused communists of the mccarthy era, anyone not conforming to society rsquo s accepted standards mdash in a reversal of sorts, anyone not adhering to the communist structure mdash is sought out and punished. It is unnatural to distribute wealth and power equally, he suggests, and it is only by literally handicapping the best and brightest citizens that the misguided goal of equal distribution can be attained. Major theme analysis of harrison bergeron the story harrison bergeron is an in depth story about equality. Everyone is different for a reason and when you are equal, life is boring and dull. Also when there is a ruler who controls everyone in the world and punishes those who do not listen and do not want to be equal. How the government makes laws and/or amendments for people to follow helps the world stay in order but causes some problems too. The government makes up amendments that the people have to follow, and there is no limit to how many they are aloud to have.