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: Think/Pair/Share
“Fitting in” is sometimes viewed as a necessity.
How can it become a handicap?
What can be done to prevent it from becoming one?
Harrison Begerson by Kurt Vonnugut Jr.
After completing the do-now, we had the challenge to figure out whether the clip from “A League of Their Own,” we had to see if it was an internal or external conflict, In the scene, we were required to watch, a woman is playing baseball. But she was getting yelled at and started crying because of a man named Jimmy. Jimmy was being extremely rude to the girl and Jimmy was eventually called out by the umpire. This led to a huge fight between Jimmy and the umpire.
Link to the Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dPUuzGqv_kWznv4sevVKy212099SWcPC/view?usp=sharing
Continue Reading “Harrison Bergeron” [Sections 11- END]
Link to the Document : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1grkNbIPK-JwbTo3jLwYZARpuzdo03dAI/edit
Harrison Bergeron’s handicaps are smashed and he is trying to crown his “empress.”
He took off the handicaps of the ballerina and saw her beautiful face. He took off all the handicaps from all the musicians and told them to play their best.
The laws of the world were broken, so were the laws of gravity and motion when Harrison and the ballerina danced and kissed each other.
Diana Moon Glampers killed the emperor and the empress in two shots and gave everyone 10 seconds to put back their handicaps.
The mother of Harrison Bergeron saw her son shot on television, but she quickly dismissed and forgot this scene.
Harrison Begerson by Kurt Vonnugut Jr.
THE END OF HARRISON BERGERON
“If you keep on fitting in, you’ll lose yourself and you won't be able to show the greatest protection of yourself. You lose aspects of yourself.”
—Period 8 Sophomore Class of 2022
“Rather than spending energy on something I can’t control. I won’t even spend the energy in the first place.”
—Sophomore English Teacher Mrs. Peterson
After finishing the last section of Harrison Bergerson, we turned to our groups and began discussing questions about Harrison Bergerson. After about five minutes, we all came together as a class and answered the questions together.
Questions To Answer As A Group:
How can you tell if this story fits the criteria of a Dystopian Story?
How does the author use direct and indirect characterization and what do we learn as a result?
How does the author use satire throughout the story? What specifically is satirized?
Which theme(s) are most-evident throughout and why?
Are the handicaps used for symbolization? If so, how?
How does the author use dialect to reveal the specifics of his characters and their society?
The story is littered with Conflict. CHALLENGE: How many can your team accurately identify? You have 2 minutes!
These are the answers we came up with together as a group:
1) How can you tell if this story fits the criteria of a Dystopian Story?
They are living in a sense of false reality. They are trying to live in a false reality. No one is doing anything. They are always suffering from pain and unhappiness.
2) How does the author use direct and indirect characterization and what do we learn as a result?
The handicaps that exist are an indirect characterization because the ballerina is never told to the readers as beautiful or intelligent. But the readers end up learning this from reading about her handicaps.
3) How does the author use satire throughout the story? What specifically is satirized?
The author uses satire and one example of this is the handicaps. Individual intelligence is always valuable in our society, but in this society, they have handicaps that make those intelligent unable to focus.
4) Which theme(s) are most evident throughout and why?
There was a theme throughout the story that even though it was an oppressive and dark story, there is always hope. Society is dark and oppressive while Harrison is the hope.
5) Are the handicaps used for symbolization? If so, how?
Handicaps are used to symbolize irony because the main reason why everyone uses the handicaps is that it makes everyone equal. But in reality, it’s unfair to everyone and takes away how people are different.
6) How does the author use dialect to reveal the specifics of his characters and their society?
The author uses dialect to reveal Harrison because he used very advanced language and that showed how educated he was. Hazel was using poor grammar and it shows she is a direct creation from the society they live in.
7) The story is littered with Conflict. CHALLENGE: How many can your team accurately identify? You have “2” minutes!
George vs Handicaps (External)
Ballerina vs Handicap (External)
Government vs the People (External)
Harrison vs Handicaps (External)
Government vs Ethics (Internal)
Government vs Equality/Freedom (Internal)
After completing the questions as a group, we began sharing them together out loud to the class. I first began the discussion by answering the first question. I answered that the story of Harrison Bergerson is a dystopia. The people inside the world are living a false reality and no one is advancing or doing anything. Amy and Melody agreed with me and Rachel added that the people in Harrison Begerson are always living in pain and suffering, I thought that was a really good point and we were awarded team points due to our contribution to the class conversation.
For the second question, Sora answered that the handicaps are an indirect characterization because the ballerina is never told to the readers as beautiful or intelligent. Melody then added that the readers end up learning this from reading about her handicaps. This isn’t a direct characterization because we are never told that the ballerina is extremely beautiful or special.
A Video Of Harrison Bergeron Is Shown In Class
Link to the Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTFHRrnn19w
Flashback is used as a technique to show Harrison being taken away.
There is always a constant ringing and blaring to show the handicaps.
The ballerinas are on stage wearing the handicaps.
Hazel suggested taking some of the lead balls from inside the handicaps outside to let George rest.
Hazel is very simple and down to Earth, a creation of this society.
“Hazel is like a mother, they should give her a raise,”
—Sophomore English Teacher Mrs. Peterson
Reflection:
In today’s lesson, we learned how Kurt Vonnugut Jr.s’ background and choice of literary devices provide greater insight and clarity to his work. We learned that Kurt Vonnugut Jr used direct and indirect characterization to develop and flesh out the characters in his story. Kurt Vonnugut Jr. also uses satire throughout the story to further depict this story as a dystopia. However, we also learned that not everyone in this world is the same, or is equal. This helped us understand that we have different choices and techniques to use instead of flat out saying the intentions and characteristics of a character. This also helped us recognize how important we as individuals are. We should learn to embrace our unique qualities while embracing other people’s special traits and characteristics that make them special.
This knowledge can be applied to real-life because I realized that everyone is special and unique in their ways and their unique traits should be valued and cherished. After today’s lesson, I will be able to use my newly refined skills of indirect and direct characterization to spot out other conflicts from different stories later on in the year.
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