Blogger #6
Joshua Chen
Period 3 English
10/5/21
Sophomores 2022
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?
While discussing it with me and my pairs, we believe that it is part of human nature and behavior to “fit in” with others and to find a common interest between people. We learned a few lessons ago with Maslow's hierarchy of needs that fitting in is a necessity to humans. My group and I talked about how fitting in could become a handicap because people would not want to try to think differently in order to fit in, limiting their creativity and uniqueness due to wanting to be similar to others. This trying to fit in an idea may also limit other’s actions which may often be due to the fact that they don’t want to feel different from others. Personally, I didn’t really understand why people in society have the need to fit in, but I was able to come up with a solution that may solve this problem. By preventing fitting in from becoming a handicap, society should spread awareness of being unique and that it is okay to feel or be different from others. A person may fit in, but that may not necessarily mean that he or she would have to limit their creativity in order to fit in. We should instead, honor the differences and the ideas that make us unique. I believe that not only is being respectful of differences a solution to wanting to fit in, it is also a right moral decision.
A video explaining Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-4ithG_07Q
During share out, Tracy’s group talked about how humans do not tend to want to be social outcasts, which I agree with as that is part of human nature. Cody’s group discussed an idea similar to what me and my group talked about during our pair discussion, that fitting in becomes a handicap because it limits a person’s ability to take an action that is different from the norm. Mrs. Peterson said that ultimately it comes down to people needing to accept people for who they are, and Group 6 believes that in order for fitting in to not become a handicap, humans should just not worry or care about trying to fit in. I definitely agree with what group 6 said because it goes back to my confusion on why we humans need to fit in so we’re not “left out”. After discussing, Mrs. Peterson taught us that we can’t control what other people do whether it be a friend or a stranger, we should just be mindful of the things we can control. This is advice not only for the current topic that we’re discussing, but is also a life lesson that I learned.
Link to Harrison Bergeron Short Story:
Paragraph (1-10): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U56cG8gWEqyFdz63PmVVYJXncXav5WvA/edit
Paragraph (11-End):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1grkNbIPK-JwbTo3jLwYZARpuzdo03dAI/edit
Group/Teamwork:
Questions to answer as a group:
1) How can you tell if this story fits the criteria of a Dystopian Story?
2) How does the author use direct and indirect characterization and what do we learn as a result?
3) How does the author use satire throughout the story? What specifically is satirized?
We had 10 minutes to do the first three questions as a group. When discussing question 1, I started by giving an answer of the story fitting the criteria of a Dystopian Story because it matches the criteria in which a futuristic vision of a society is oppressed with limitations and handicaps, and there was widespread unhappiness due to this handicap where everyone was made to be equal in society. This handicap caused many such as Harrison to try to rebel and go against society, but would sadly die in doing so. Andy and Charles from my group agreed with me, and Kenneth added on to what I was saying. In question 2, I had to look between the lines in order to realize the direct and indirect characterization which were used. After listing a bunch of characterizations, my group came together with a response: The author uses indirect characterization to teach us the characteristics of Harrison’s parents through their dialogue and interactions. For example, the parents were indifferent when their own child died, and Hazel the mom did not know why she was crying which shows her lack of interaction to process information. Another form of indirect characterization would be the author explaining a person’s handicap which would show their capabilities and what they are talented in. A direct characterization would be when the TV explains and describes Harrison as he rebelled against society. I did not remember what satire was, but Andy clarified for me that it was the use of irony or humor. I believe the author uses satire in the story by listing the amount of amendments there were in that time period, as well as taking away hope from the story when Harrison rebelled, got shot, and died.
A video on Direct and Indirect Characterization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRW6yVOHCQc
4) Which theme(s) are most-evident throughout and why?
5) Are the handicaps used for symbolization? If so, how?
6) How does the author use dialect to reveal the specifics of his characters and their society?
Upon further analysis and discussion with my group members, we believe the theme that is most-evident throughout was that not every story has a happy ending, which could be shown by the author giving us a false hope that the dystopian society would change to become better through revolution, to an actuality of Harrison not being able to revolutionize and change society, ending with how everything went back to the depressed way it was. While coming up with possible symbolisms, I pitched in that the handicaps had a symbolic meaning of imperfection. Ultimately, we brainstormed that handicaps symbolizes the imperfection of humanity, in that each individual has a different way of being handicapped due to their diverse talents. This shows an imperfection of humanity because not everyone is perfect or is created equal, and the handicaps symbolize the truth of reality. While discussing question 6, I realized that most of the dialogue was between the interactions of George and Hazel. While looking through the dialogue, I was able to find the repetition of an interaction between George and Hazel on their reactions to what was being shown on tv. This is specifically towards the end where Hazel repeats “I could tell that one was a doozy”, which shows an indirect characterization through dialogue of Hazel being carefree. George could also be seen as indifferent as he replied to Hazel to not worry about and to forget sad things.
Understanding of Symbolism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkI6cn8wwgM
7) The story is littered with Conflict. CHALLENGE: How many can your team accurately identify? You have “2” minutes!
This challenge wasn’t very challenging in listing the conflicts, but I was only able to think of three to four conflicts. As a whole, our team believes that external conflict occurs during character vs. society when Harrison goes against society by taking off his handicap. There is also an internal conflict of character vs. self where George was questioning if he should take off his handicap. I was extremely impressed when Cody's group was able to list all the different conflicts and rightfully received points in doing so.
Although we couldn’t come up with many conflicts, we learned that there were many more total different conflicts that occurred during the story.
Conflicts Mentioned:
Character vs. Society: Harrison vs. Society by taking handicap off
Character vs. Self: George vs. Self by questioning whether or not to take his handicap off
Character vs. Character: Harrison vs. Diana during their confrontation
Character vs. Character: Harrison vs. Ballerina telling them to dance
Character vs. Character: Harrison vs. Musician telling team to play their instruments
Character vs. Character: Diana vs. Musician telling them to scramble and leave
Video on Conflict: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM5cp_YL77k
Video:
We watched a short video about Harrison Bergeron, which follows the story of the short read we read in class two days ago. Although we did not finish the video, we get to fully visualize the dystopian society of Harrison Bergeron. After watching some of the video, I realized how frustrating it is to always put a handicap on yourself so that everyone could be equal.
Link to Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTFHRrnn19w
Reflection:
During today’s lesson, although we did get a better understanding of direct and indirect characterization as well as spotting different kinds of conflict, the main takeaway from this lesson that could be applied to the real world is how not everyone was meant to be the same, or to be equal. During our Do Now when we discussed “fitting in” and how it limits a person’s capabilities, I realized how valuable it is to not to worry about trying to fit in, including the actions of others such as your friends that you cannot control as stated by Mrs. Peterson today. I believe I was taught this not only because it refers to our aim a couple days ago on what it really means to be equal, but also to understand that we should all be respectful to others' talents and even flaws. When discussing the symbolism of handicap, the imperfectness of humanity is what makes it beautiful, and putting the handicap on everyone restricts creativity and ultimately creates the dystopian society that we saw in Harrison Bergeron. Based on today’s lesson, I was also able to realize the different kinds of conflicts taking place while watching the video about Harrison Bergeron. From what I learned today of these literary techniques, I will be sure to apply and catch direct, and indirect characterization as well as conflict in other stories we will be reading in this unit.
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