Bergeron & Lottery

In the story “Harrison Bergeron” Harrison, who is the son of George and Hazel, fights for what he thinks is right. Harrison breaks out of jail and goes onto live TV. There, he breaks of his handicaps and reveals that the handicapper generals never wear the handicaps unless in public. He shows everyone and tries to persuade them to follow his movement. In “The Lottery” Tessie, who is married and has a child, is attending her town’s annual lottery where they get to pick a piece of paper from a black box.

If you get the paper with a dot on it, which Tessie did, you get stoned to death. While she was getting stoned her son even hit her with a stone because it was a tradition. In “Harrison Bergeron” and “The Lottery” the theme of not following society standards blindly is demonstrated through the man versus society conflict. This evidence shows how people, such as George in this case, must suffer when they are following society’s standards.

George is forced to wear a handicap at all time because he needs to be equal. He doesn’t like wearing just like many other people and is always in pain because of it.

In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. the theme to never follow society’s standards blindly because it can be dangerous is demonstrated through the man versus society conflict. The author mentions, “He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter.

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Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (Vonnegut JR). Not only do people suffer from the handicaps but they also suffer from a lot more things such as forgetting things that are important. The author states, “George and Hazel were watching television.

There were tears on Hazel’s cheeks, but she’d forgotten for the moment what they were about” (Vonnegut JR). This evidence proves my theme because it shows how people follow society’s standards and along with that live a very dangerous life. The evidence shows that because Hazel was watching TV and something happened that made her cry because she realized at that moment how unfair being equal is. Instead of her being able or wanting to act out like her son, she forgot all about it and thinks being equal is fair. Hazel and George along with all other suffer in the story because they follow society when society wants to be equal. In return they live a dangerous and suffer because of the handicaps they wear and must face.

In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the theme to never follow society’s standards blindly because it can be dangerous is demonstrated through the man versus society conflict. The author comments “Take just one paper. Harry, you hold it for him. Narrator #4: Mr. Graves took the child’s hand to and removed the folded paper from the tight fist and held it while little Dave stood next to him and looked up at him wonderingly” (Jackson). In the evidence, everyone in the village follows there traditions every year and is forced to play the lottery which if you get a dot on the card you get stoned to death. Everyone follows this blindly because they want/have to fit in.

So overall, when they want and/or have to fit in, they are all in danger because they have the chance to die. Another example is when the author shows this is the text when he states, “The pile of stones the boys had made earlier was ready; there were stones on the ground with the blowing scraps of paper that had come out of the box. Narrator #2: Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands” (Jackson). In the evidence, it shows how people will do a lot of things when they follow society. People in this evidence are about to stone someone to death. Tessie, who is going to die, thinks it is fair and doesn’t mind it. Then she gets picked and suddenly thinks it’s unfair, but because she was following society she got into this situation. In conclusion, the evidence I provided shows how people follow society’s standards blindly but when something happens to them they don’t think it’s fair. This shows how it can be dangerous because anyone could die or suffer.

In “Harrison Bergeron” and “The Lottery” the story’s show that following society’s standards when you think nothing can happen to you, can end up being dangerous.