Aim: How does Kurt Vonnugut Jr.’s background and choice of literary devices provide greater insight and clarity to his work, “Harrison Bergeron”?
We started with a team challenge of figuring out whether a clip from a movie contained internal or external conflict. The excerpt was from “A League of Their Own”. In this section of the movie, a woman playing baseball was being yelled at by a man, Jimmy, for a mistake she made. She started crying because he was being very rude to her and unfair. The man who yelled at the girl got yelled at by the umpire, they started arguing.
First, let’s go over what the difference between internal and external conflict is. Internal conflict is a struggle that takes place in a character’s mind. For instance, a decision between two things. It is also known as Character vs. Self. External conflict is a struggle between a character and an outside force. There are many different outside forces, Character vs. Character, Character vs. Nature, and Character vs. Society.
Here is the link to the clip: A League of Their Own
After this activity, we continued reading “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., from paragraphs 11 to 16. To summarize, Harrison was able to put himself on television for everyone to see. He probably broke into the announcement room. He claimed to be “the Emperor”and that everyone needed to listen to him. He began to take off all of his handicaps and selected his Empress. The Empress would be able to remove her handicaps as well. One of the ballerinas rose, and Harrison removed all of her handicaps. He removed the musician’s handicaps too, telling them to play as best as they could. The Emperor and Empress began to dance beautifully together, defying gravity. Just then, Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio and shot them dead.
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?
My group and I discussed that “fitting in” can become a handicap because you would become too equal, you’re too ordinary, and you are losing your independence and individuality. It is the easiest option in society and the easy way out. Trying to fit in means suppressing your abilities, which becomes a handicap. We think we can prevent “fitting in” from becoming a handicap by embracing your talents and knowing everyone is unique and there is no reason to put others down. You have to celebrate your uniqueness!
Group/Teamwork: Answering the following 7 questions:
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!
My group’s answers:
This story fits the description of a Dystopian Society because it takes place in the future, conditions of life are miserable, society is controlled, and they get rid of people who disobey the rules. This behavior is normalized so they don't know how bad it is.
The author uses direct characterization by including Harrison’s handicaps on TV. The author uses indirect characterization by including George’s reactions to the beeping in his head and his handicaps. This shows how corrupt society is and that George is really smart.
The author uses satire in the first sentence when it says, “THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal… ‘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?’” The author is alluding that this current time period is the dark ages.
Some themes most evident is that equality is not a good thing in every aspect, people’s individuality should be embraced. A key term to go along with this is hopelessness.
The handicaps are used for symbolizing the physical embodiments of what people change about themselves to fit in. They represent restraint, abilities, and insecurities.
The dialect is used to show that everyone speaks the same and has similar vocabulary. It shows even more equality. George and Hazel speak the exact same despite him being smarter. They both use the terms, “reckon; gee; y’all; and doozy”.
We only came up with three conflicts: Character vs. Society (Harrison vs. Government), Character vs Character (Diana vs. Harrison) and Character vs. Self (George vs. his handicaps).
Finally, we ended class watching the story’s short film.
Reflection:
Today, I learned about the difference between direct and indirect characterization as well as conflict. I also learned about the true meaning of the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and its theme of celebrating uniqueness and embracing individuality. It was a very interesting story that I really liked, and the meaning is very important to think about. I learned this so that in the future I will accurately be able to identify the different types of conflict in writing to better understand the text and how the author shows the readers what is going on. I will use what I have learned to analyze texts better and more efficiently to become a better student for my high school career and beyond.
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