Aim: How does Kurt Konnogut Jr.s’ background and choice of literary devices provide greater insight and clarity to his work, “Harrison Bergeron”?
Mrs. Peterson started class by handing out everyone’s freshmen transcript.
Do Now question: How do students in your school feel about the pressure(s) to be “the same”—to act, think or dress the same way others do? Do you believe this pressure derives from outside forces or from personal desires? Do you think being the same makes most people happy, or would they really prefer to act on their own? Explain
During the class discussion, a person said that our school is a non-judge mental zone and that people would never judge each other. This promotes and encourages differences amongst others. The pressure to be “the same” mostly came from an outside force, such as social media, and this is mainly because people want to fit in with each other. Students tend to want to make friends but they would have to feel accepted. This is one of the reasons why many people start to act like others.
The class then was introduced to what the “Harrison Bergeron” was and how it relates to the Do Now. Harrison Bergeron was a story that was published in an issue of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It was one of those stories that didn’t gain much popularity until after a couple of years when it suddenly exploded in popularity.
After learning about what this story was, we get a glimpse of who wrote the story and what genre his books are. Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the author of Harrison Berberon, was born in 1922 into a family of two siblings and two parents. His sibling attended high class private schools but when it was time for Vonnegut’s turn, the Great Depression hit. His family didn’t have the money to pay for Vonnegut’s private education so he was sent off to public school. In his years of public schooling, he learned the political and social beliefs which then became the basis of his writing.
Most of his novels were satires, a type of writing that gives a mocking/humorous twist of our society. His writing raises questions about morality, freedom and what we value. Vonnegut’s inspiration for his book, Slaughterhouse-Five, came from his captivity in an underground meat locker during WWII. Building on what a satire is, it mocks or makes fun of human folly (foolishness) and some examples of satires include Saturday Night Live, Family Guy, and The Simpsons. Another popular genre of Vonnegut’s is a dystopian genre. It is a futuristic vision of a society that depicts life as missable and mostly have to relate to war, violence and terror which results in widespread suffering amongst the people. Fahrenheit 451 was an example of a dystopia.
We moved on to learn about what indirect and direct characterization is. First of all, characterization is the process of determining/revealing the personality of a character in a story. There are many ways in determining a character’s personality.
Here is the list of how to do so:
Letting us hear the character speak
2. Describing how they look and dress
3. Letting us listen to their inner thoughts
4. Revealing what other characters in the story
think or say about the character
5. Show us what the character does—how they
act.
6. Telling us directly what the character’s
personality is like: cruel, kind, sneaky
Direct characterization is when the writer tells us directly what the character’s personalities are and what their motives are. An example of this is a quote from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, “Oh, but he was a tightfisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!”
Indirect characterization is when the writer shows us characters but instead of just telling us what their characteristics are, the reader has to try to figure it out themselves through the usage of speech, appearance, and their reactions. An example of indirect characterization is an excerpt from “Sonnet 130” by William Shakespeare, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.”
We can identify indirect characterization by using the STEAL method which stands for Speech, Thoughts, Effect on others toward the Character, Actions and Looks.
The class then started to answer the question if the characterization was either indirect or direct after watching the two short scenes from films.
Links to the videos:
Video #1:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11D9AcpVMA5wsQXHtSfG7sTt_3AwQbbyc/view?usp=drivesdk
Video #2:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1USBqVb_AzDZouIkIZtBsX5mgxwd3qsn2/view?usp=drivesdk
The first film was a compilation of both direct and indirect characterization. In the short scene from Toy Story 3, Andy says the personality of the toys that he has, which is an example of direct characterization. However, to find the personality of Andy himself, the audience has to hear what he is saying and how he shows affection towards his toys. This is an example of indirect characterization.
The second film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, is mostly indirect characterization because the speakers never said anything about their personalities. Ron, who had his head on the books, shows that he is not a very steadius person and is willing to give up very easily after not succeeding the first time. Hermione, on the other hand, shows that she is a capable, skilled sorceress and that she is way above everyone else in the class due to the fact that no one else was able to perform the “Wingardium Leviosa” spell. She was able to full it off on her first attempt while tutoring Ron how to perform the spell at the same time.
We started reading Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut. Mrs. Peterson starts off by reading the first paragraph and everyone was instructed to open the google document to start reading. The beginning is a kind of satire because it mocks our current government as well as introduces the date that the story is taking place. The opening starts off by introducing the setting which is in the United States for the handicapped. All of the people in the government are anti-characters and that they are currently signing off on the 200th amendment. This mocks how much laws and reinforcement the country needs in just a time span of eighty years.
Reflection:
What did I learn?
Today, I felt like I have learned a ton from this lesson. Before this class, if I asked about Kurt Vonnegut Jr or what Harrison Bergeron was, I would be baffled. I was not only able to learn what Harrison Bergeron was, but also get introduced to the author of this masterpiece. The understanding of these two lead me to find out what satires are. I have always heard about satires but never bothered to learn about them so this lesson was really interesting to me. Indirect and direct characterization is more of a little kick starter and reminder for me but was still very helpful.
Why did I learn this?
Well first of all, I learned about Vonnegut Jr because we are going to read some of his works, primarily “Harrison Bergeron” so it was great to have some background knowledge of the author. We also focused on the different types of characterizations because it will make us think about the characters more deeply while we are reading the story. The introduction of the STEAL method will be highly beneficial to us when we are thinking about the characters and their personalities because it guides us through the ways we can accomplish this. The definition of satire and dystopia is always good to have at the back of your mind because it provides a bit of information that could actually become very useful later on.
How will I use what I learn?
Using what I learned from today’s lesson, I will be able to understand the characters in novels more carefully. This will not only help me during the reading of “Harrison Bergeron” but it will also be helpful for any future books that I will read. The definition of Satire and Dystopia will be very, very useful during my future studies if I ever want to venture on into the literary fields. Overall, the information that I have learned in today’s lesson were very beneficial to me and my future.
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