Aim: How does Kurt Vonnugut Jr.s’ background and choice of literary devices provide greater insight and clarity to his work, “Harrison Bergeron”?
Do Now: As we continued our 3 day lesson, the Do Now question asked us to create an alternative ending to “Harrison Bergeron '' after reading Chapters 1-10. Angel thinks that everyone goes back to the dark ages, but that we should also mix it up to make it more interesting. Lapyan says after Harrison breaks out of his jail cell and makes the speech, everyone starts booing. Joshua says that Harrison is going to start a rebellion and overthrow the government, so the geniuses are free from the shackles imposed on them. Another group mentions how Harrison is just going to be told by his parents to run away because they don’t want to get fines or go to jail.
Begin Reading “Harrison Bergeron” By Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (3-10)
Link to the book:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U56cG8gWEqyFdz63PmVVYJXncXav5WvA/edit
3rd Paragraph: “Yup,” said George. He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They weren’t really very good—no better than anybody else would have been, anyway. They were burdened with sash weights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in. George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped. But he didn't get very far
with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts.
George winced. So did two out of the eight ballerinas.
Hazel saw him wince. Having no mental handicap she had to ask George what the latest sound had been.
“Sounded like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer,” said George.
“I’d think it would be real interesting, hearing all the different sounds,” said Hazel, a little envious. “All the things they
think up.”
“Um,” said George.
Analysis: Lapyan mentions how the bags of birdshot are actually pellets. You can imagine them as pellets from a BB Gun. In reality, the bags of birdshot are actually absurdly heavy due to the ball-like shapes with weight in them. George and the ballerinas have to wear this due to the fact how naturally strong and graceful they are. This is a great example of indirect characterization where the author leaves clues for us about characters so that we can predict how they act and what they are like.
4th Paragraph: “Only, if I was Handicapper General, you know what I would do?” said Hazel. Hazel, as a matter of fact, bore a strong resemblance to the Handicapper General, a woman named Diana Moon Glampers. “If I was Diana Moon Glampers,”
said Hazel, “I’d have chimes on Sunday—just chimes. Kind of in honor of religion.”
“I could think, if it was just chimes,” said George.
“Well—maybe make ‘em real loud,” said Hazel. “I think I’d make a good Handicapper General.”
“Good as anybody else,” said George.
“Who knows better’n I do what normal is?” said Hazel.
“Right,” said George. He began to think glimmeringly about his abnormal son who was now in jail, about Harrison,
but a twenty-one-gun salute in his head stopped that.
“Boy!” said Hazel, “that was a doozy, wasn’t it?”
It was such a doozy that George was white and trembling and tears stood on the rims of his red eyes. Two of the
eight ballerinas had collapsed to the studio floor, holding their temples.
Analysis: The ballerinas are shown to have a higher intelligence, which is why they also have a handicap. The paragraph also suggests how George’s handicap and the ballerinas’ handicap are connected. Whenever the government sends out a signal, George and the ballerinas are being impacted at the same time.
5th Paragraph: “All of a sudden you look so tired,” said Hazel. “Why don’t you stretch out on the sofa, so’s you can rest your handicap bag on the pillows, honeybunch.” She was referring to the forty-seven pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag, which was padlocked around George’s neck. “Go on and rest the bag for a little while,” she said. “I don't care if you’re not equal
to me for a while.”
George weighed the bag with his hands. “I don’t mind it,” he said. “I don't notice it any more. It’s just a part of
me.”
“You been so tired lately—kind of wore out,” said Hazel. “If there was just some way we could make a little hole
in the bottom of the bag, and just take out a few of them lead balls. Just a few.”
“Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out,” said George. “I don't call that a bargain.”
“If you could just take a few out when you came home from work,” said Hazel. “I mean—you don’t compete with
anybody around here. You just set around.”
“If I tried to get away with it,” said George, “then other people’d get away with it and pretty soon we’d be right back to
the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn't like that, would you?”
“I’d hate it,” said Hazel.
Analysis: We can account for George’s extensive knowledge on the fines and prison times because we can infer that he has been through or done this situation before, where he tried to take some balls out of the bag that’s weighing him down. We can also infer that the time period is actually this moment in time because the Dark Ages is historical and happened many ages ago. This is also an example of indirect characterization where the author leaves us clues to help us understand the plot/situation better and characters in depth.
6th Paragraph: “There you are,” said George. “The minute people start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to society?”
If Hazel hadn’t been able to come up with an answer to this question, George couldn’t have supplied one. A siren
was going off in his head.
“Reckon it’d fall all apart,” said Hazel.
“What would?” said George blankly.
“Society,” said Hazel uncertainly. “Wasn’t that what you just said?”
“Who knows?” said George.
Analysis: This is a perfect example showing the ear radio in action. It effectively cancels out George’s thoughts and makes him forget them after the government sends noises through the earpiece to his ear. We can infer that if people start cheating on laws, it would definitely bring to an end the status quo of everyone being equal and competition would arise between people. After that, wars and major conflict will probably arise as a result of this and the world will inevitably fall apart.
7th Paragraph: The television program was suddenly interrupted for a news bulletin. It wasn’t clear at first as to what the bulletin was about, since the announcer, like all announcers, had a serious speech impediment. For about half a minute, and in a
state of high excitement, the announcer tried to say, “Ladies and gentlemen—” He finally gave up, handed the bulletin to a ballerina to read. “That’s all right,” Hazel said of the announcer, “he tried. That’s the big thing. He tried to do the best he could with
what God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard.”
Analysis: This paragraph gives off a sense of irony- how announcers have speech impediments since your whole job is making sure you speak with clarity and confidence. I can also infer from this paragraph that the people born with natural disabilities or disadvantages get higher paying jobs and people born naturally gifted and talented get handicaps to balance the power between both sides.
8th Paragraph: “Ladies and gentlemen’ said the ballerina, reading the bulletin. She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers,
for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred-pound men.
And she had to apologize at once for her voice, which was a very unfair voice for a woman to use. Her voice was a warm, luminous, timeless melody. “Excuse me—” she said, and she began again, making her voice absolutely uncompetitive. “Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen,” she said in a grackle squawk, “has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped,
and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.”
Analysis: Major plot developments in the paragraph, George’s son, Harrison has escaped out of jail and is on the run. He is age fourteen and is referred to as a dangerous human being due to his smarts/wits and his physical build.
9th Paragraph: A police photograph of Harrison Bergeron was flashed on the screen—upside down, then sideways, upside down again, then right side up. The picture showed the full length of Harrison against a background calibrated in feet and inches.
He was exactly seven feet tall.
The rest of Harrison’s appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever borne heavier handicaps. He had outgrown hindrances faster than the H-G men could think them up. Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make
him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides. Scrap metal was hung all over him. Ordinarily, there was a certain symmetry, a military neatness to the handicaps issued to strong people, but Harrison looked like
a walking junkyard. In the race of life, Harrison carried three hundred pounds.
And to offset his good looks, the H-G men required that he wear at all times a red rubber ball for a nose, keep his
eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random.
“If you see this boy,” said the ballerina, “do not, I repeat, do not try to reason with him.”
Analysis: This shows how people perceive Harrison as a threat. Apparently, he has so many hindrances given to him by the government due to his natural gift and talents he was born with that he looks like a Halloween costume. Even through all these hindrances the H-G men and the government throw at him, he manages to overcome them.
10th Paragraph: There was the shriek of a door being torn from its hinges. Screams and barking cries of consternation came from
the television set. The photograph of Harrison Bergeron on the screen jumped again and again, as though dancing to
the tune of an earthquake.
George Bergeron correctly identified the earthquake, and well he might have—for many was the time his own home
had danced to the same crashing tune. “My God—” said George, “that must be Harrison!”
Analysis:I can infer that Harrison is trying to send a signal to his family by using the TV as a medium that he is ok and alright. This action of his further demonstrates and displays his giftedness and talents.
Literary Focuses
Theme
Dialect
Conflict (External/Internal)
Theme
This is a message an author is trying to convey and can be expressed via. books, novels, movies, thematic experiences (movies), and etc.
Themes are usually about humans and life in general and can be more than just a sentence or maybe even two
Themes can either be implied via hints from the author or stated right in the flesh where everyone can see; how you see the story and interpret it really brings out the theme of the passage.
Ex. of Themes: Death, Love, Good Vs. Evil, and etc.
A link to help understand theme better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAu3e5GZo4k&ab_channel=KhanAcademy
Dialect
Typically a language that a large demographic of people speak/engage in
How words are spoken by different demographics (ex. old people, People from other parts of the US, boys and girls)
Dialects are so different between countries and communities.
Ex: Peterson mentioned how people from down South say Y’all and how New Yorkers didn't understand that slang which really shows how differently people speak words in different communities.
A link to help understand dialect better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KZYYx6_7aw&ab_channel=TheAudiopedia
Conflict
Generally recognized as a struggle between two forces that are enemies with each other
There are two types of conflict: Internal and External
Internal conflict is when there is a struggle occuring in a character’s mind. Basically, one side of their emotions and another side of their emotions can possibly be brawling it out.
Ex. of internal conflict: Alcoholic Conflict (struggle in their mind whether to drink or not to drink alcohol), Character vs. Self
External conflict is when there is a struggle occurring between a character and an outside force.
Ex. of external conflict: Man Vs. Hurricane, Man Vs. Forest Fire, Man Vs. Their biggest, baddest arch enemy, Character vs. Character, Character vs, Nature, Character vs. Society
A link to help understand conflict better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM5cp_YL77k&ab_channel=MKane
Team Challenge
The Wizard Of Oz- This is an external conflict because the Wicked Witch of the West declared war on Dorothy
The Day After Tomorrow- This is an external conflict because the tsunami is wreaking havoc among people, destroying cars and massive buildings in one swoop.
Alice in Wonderland- This is an internal conflict because she was the one who trusted the “eat me” and “drink me” cookie and potion so this is between herself and only herself.
A League of Their Own- There is a man (presumably the coach) screaming at the top of his lungs out to one of the players. He is a very unsupportive person and there is a struggle that arises between these two people.
Links to access the videos:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a9-S0MLootW25kLIMxiEjBc_aIeBNf-B/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DtkcXcSfW6IXzmd7TvUNtk2JmZVwH04E/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ocDBLR8ZzYJTodYj17Sycy4n-cFx1bot/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dPUuzGqv_kWznv4sevVKy212099SWcPC/view
Reflection
Today, I learned and strengthened some of my very important Literary Focus skills. I also learned through the story of Harrison Berger, the world can never actually be equal. If it ever is, much conflict, chaos, and war would be bound to happen sooner or later. People are meant to be good at different things, and that does not mean silencing others' natural talents to maintain balance between the presumably “smart” and “average” people. For example, someone could be naturally great at reading and analyzing paragraphs and suck at drawing, while another person can be naturally gifted at drawing but suck at reading and analyzing paragraphs fast. I will remember the main lesson or theme this short story told us, of how people are never meant to be equal, and apply it to life in general. Themes are so vast and there are so many of them, so getting one of the most important ones etched in my brain will greatly help me in future essays or english endeavors. I also sharpened and polished my literacy focus skills. We covered themes, dialect, external and internal conflicts. These skills will sharpen and broaden my horizon of English Language skills which I can use in future writing pieces, essays, or analyzing tests. Overall, this lesson was super insightful and I hope that this blog did a good job of conveying the main points of the lesson.
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