Harrison Bergeron Speech

Kaylee Flaagan

Miss Fordahl

English 10

November 19, 2013

Harrison Bergeron

When I think of a short story with something I can relate to, I think of Harrison Bergeron. This story in particular, has stuck out to me very much. It is a very easy story to relate to, and makes you think. In this little speech, I will be talking about the author himself, how the story reflects on today's society, and what I think the people in the story are actually feeling towards everything.

Why do you think the author of the story, Kurt Vonnegut, chose to write about this particular story? Kurt is known as one of the most acclaimed satiric writers in America. Kurt wrote this short story because he likes to write about wars, brutality, and fear of technology. The main idea of this story does not really fall into any of these categories, but yet it does. Kurt tries to tell is how everyone should be equal. There should not be competition in who is prettiest or who is the smartest. Everyone should be equal.

This story compared to today, is very different. Nobody is different these days, everyone is different. Everybody wants to be different, nobody wants to be the same. How would any of you feel to have the same amount of intelligence as the person next to you? Would you like to be “equal in every which way?” as Kurt states in the story. Everyone wants to have their own way of standing out to someone, and being special.

All these people affected in this short story are feeling different towards all this sameness. I personally would not like to be like George and have a government transmitter to keep him from not getting smarter than the others since he is very smart. What kind of life would it be to be so smart but then get something like George and be the same as everyone else? There are ups and downs of being the same as the other people. Some positives would be how there would not be any competition with anyone, everyone would look alike, and even act alike. There would not be any weirdness or no one could be called ugly. Some of the downs would be how no one could be themselves, or be special in their own way. No one could also have amounts of intelligence or for example be more athletic than anyone else.

Overall, the author wanted to express how the world would be like if everyone was the same. He wanted to make us think of the ways it would be different and how we would react to it. He also wants us to think about if we would rather have it to be different like we are now, or to be the same as everyone else. As I said I would be both ways for many reasons. Thank you for listening.