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A Rhetorical Analysis Of 'Harrison Bergeron'

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Fatima Al Otaibi Ms. Linette Booysen October 6, 2015 H a r r i s o n B e r g e r o n : T o n e Evidently, the world of 2081 conveys the impression of a very flawed dystopian story. And that is displayed through the tone of the story in which it suggests the emotion the writer enforces in the story. To clarify the particular tone of the story, there are many critical factors that collaborate to attain that aim. Primarily, the whole of the story harmonizes with the tone of dark humour or melancholy comedy. The author uses sarcasm and sardonicism to mock a concept such as equality, which is realistically a very serious concept. He is using satire to show the absurdity of having a society that is synthetically equal. This is portrayed in the …show more content…

Equality is an ideal in which many people believe is worth fighting for. But it is indeed a dangerous goal to achieve both physically and mentally. In the story “Harrison Bergeron”, equality shifts to torture in which the beautiful must hide their beauty, and the intelligent must have their thinking to be disrupted. The result of this quest is disastrous and the land is filled with slow people, therefore there is no variety in the community. Equality is achieved, but at the price of freedom. The theme was delivered to the reader through the author’s tone that was obviously against this concept, by showing us images of how illogical the society was, “burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face”, the deeply sinister image of ballerinas develops into a humorous image when it is discovered that it was to prevent comparison to the dancing beauties. The whimsical tone of the story makes the message easier to digest. Although one may find Vonnegut’s story amusing, he reminds the reader that at one point society withstand that experience and can go through it again in the future. That is the rationalism behind the deathly serious tone. The writer was also able to inform people about the other side of equality. People may consider it as what might bring peace upon societies, but on the other hand it can truly be destructive. According to the writer’s opinion, people with natural disabilities should be provided with help to aspire for them to reach the level of those exceptional people who improve society. Without inspiration, such a society will have a great

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