Harrison Bergeon

Tessa Kauffman 1st

Compare and Contrast

“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is a short story based in the year 2081 on an April that is not quite spring. A child named Harrison Bergeron is taken away for being an individual. His parents Hazel and George watch on a live broadcast as the plot develops. This leads to a conflict of total equality and uniqueness.

The story “Harrison Bergeron” and the film “2081” have many similarities. One similarity is the handicaps in both the story and the movie. The handicap is symmetric metal weights to make the strong more weak, the earpieces makes the same noises, and the metal weights are illegal to remove. Another similarity is that Harrison physically breaks into the studio where the dancers are located. Also the handicapper, General, is the one who kills Harrison and the lady he dances with.

The story and the movie also have differences. In the story, Harrison declares himself emperor while the movie plants a bomb that really just emits the broadcast for the movie station. These differences make it seem like Harrison is more genuine and kind than in the story where he is more selfish and pompous. Another important difference is that in the story both Hazel and George watch the program while in the movie only George watches. This changes the plot because you really only see one reaction and it intensifies the mood of unfairness. In the story, George got the sounds transmitted every 20 seconds, but in the movie it seemed that it happened only when he started thinking. This change made the handicap less like a punishment and more like a reprimand.

I think these changes make the story more interesting The changes made the characters more real and more tolerable. The characters changes made things more interesting. Overall, the changes made it better.