Conformity In Harrison Bergeron

Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron is considered a dystopian literature due to its demonstration of the attributes of a typical dystopian society through the categories Types of Dystopian Controls and The Dystopian Protagonist. Under the category Dystopian Controls more specifically the Bureaucratic control is shown throughout the short story showing a dystopian society. The people in the society follow the orders of the government blindly without any hesitation or resistance. The government says everyone must be equal in every way so that's what the people do like demonstrated by George, “He was required by law to wear it at all time... Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from

Angezah Fernandes Mr. Mattas Ap Language 30 Nov. 2015 Conformity As humans, our lives are revolved around the line that separates conformity and individuality. Conformity is a type of social influence that includes a change of belief or behavior to fit into a group. Many people can cross the line too far back or too far forward, thus being too much of a conformist or too much of an individual.

Of Aristotle’s three rhetorical appeals, the author of “Individuality vs. Conformity: The Healthy Middle?” applies pathos to her article ultimately to capture the reader’s attention through the reader’s heart, not the mind, to evaluate her argument. The author defines how we, as humans, crave attention and love from other human beings more than anything else in the world, additionally she vindicates our feelings from trying to be accepted for being an individual at the same time and how that disrupts our lives and everybody else’s. The author’s purpose is to force us to realize that there is a delicate balance between conformity and nonconformity, and that we are all in this together, and that there is nothing we can do to alter this fate.

In today’s society the general attitude towards an individual is conform or be an outcast. It is seen in schools where people who do not fit into specific cliques become outcasts, the weird people. It is seen in the work place as well. People have conformed to standards set by society simply because society has said to do so. Society asks people to change themselves to fit in.

It's more difficult to go against something the more people believe in it. Masses of people can be manipulated because all they wanted was to follow the crowd. Different opinions can be suppressed, creativity and freedom are replaced by fear and compliance. My Chemical Romance established that ¨You've got to make a choice/If the music drowns you out/And raise your voice/ Every single time they try and shut your mouth¨ here it presents the idea of individuality being silenced by conformity, when people are afraid to be an individual because they will constantly be shot down by societal norms.

(Vonnegut 1). The quote refers to the noise that the government transmits to keep individuals, like the protagonist George, from using their full potential. Every twenty seconds or so the transmitter sends out a sharp noise to prevent any cognitive thinking. This was to enforce equality amongst one another, as the society values equality above all. This quote also highlights the oppressive nature of the government and its control over the people.

Harrison Bergeron is a novel where the author is expressing what he thinks society is leading to and what the problems are. Harrison Bergeron is the main character and his points of view and thinking matters are interesting to investigate. This author made everyone the same. Societies are pressuring people to become the same and making people think that if they don 't look or act some sort of way, they don 't matter or serve to our world, causing many people to go to certain limits and even causing suicide as a solution. In the story, everyone thinks the same, everyone walks the same, hears the same.

In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, he explores this equality idea in a in 2081 setting where every man, woman, and child are on the same level of intelligence. Although in Kurt Vonnegut’s story the government is appearing to want equality, in all reality they really just want power and control. To begin the Harrison Bergeron story, George and Hazel Bergeron’s son Harrison is taken away to be put in prison. Following this, they live in a society where “nobody was smarter than anybody else”(Vonnegut 1387), everyone is forced to wear head capps and follow the governments every rule.

Conformity is is good or bad Conformity is something that can lead to a bad society. Conformity is good but most of the time it its bad because people think that a group of people is always smarter than one person. Conformity does not mean that all people who are a group are right. Unfortunaly conformity is not always right just like in the book The Crucible.

Everyone has a natural desire to fit in. Everyone has a natural desire to be accepted by others. These desires are strong enough to cause individuals to give up there uniqueness. We are all told at a young age that everyone is different and that is wonderful. However, societal norms contradict this idea.

To comfort her friend into obediently listening to Montag’s book of poetry, Mrs. Phelps remarks that “‘if we listen nice, Mr. Montag will be happy and then maybe we can go on and do something else’” (95). Even though Mrs. Phelps isn’t agreeing to follow the majority in this circumstance, she still is promoting submission through conformity to a person in a position of power. She attempts to make listening to literature, a highly illegal crime in their society, seem like no big deal by using positive language like “nice” and “happy.” Those words put a positive spin on submission of self, all in hopes that “Mr. Montag will be happy.”

George, Hazel’s husband, has been handicapped with two things: an earphone that administers a sound every 20 seconds and a handicap bag filled with forty-seven pounds of birdshot. While this might be a lot, George continues to follow the law. “Two years in prison and a two thousand dollar fine for every ball I take out… I don’t call that a bargain” (40). Hazel fails at convincing her husband to rest his handicaps because George fears the government and their capabilities. This being said, Vonnegut uses characterization to display George’s loss of the will to fight.

The nature of conformity and individualism in Fahrenheit 451 is different compared to each other. Conformity is how everyone is in the novel while individualism is only shown outside of society. The true nature of conformity is that everyone is created equally while individualism shows what a real person is. In the novel, Montag was a character that was affected by conformity and individualism since he was once conformed in society, but then soon became an individual himself. Conformity and Individualism are polar opposites and that everyone should be unique in their own way.

When George thinks too much a sound enters his head to stop him from thinking. The handicap he is wearing limits his intellect. When he was watching television, “ A buzzer sounded in George’s head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.” In this simile, Vonnegut compared the buzzer sound to bandits from a burglar alarm.

In all of these occasions people follow society and society’s norms. Individuals who go against society are feared and viewed as threats. Society fears what is out of the norm or unknown and is sometimes shaped by that fear. Should one be one’s own individual,different or should one go with society to fit in?