- Published: September 27, 2022
- Updated: September 27, 2022
- University / College: University of Pennsylvania
- Level: Intermediate School
- Language: English
- Downloads: 40
The Idea by the Kurt Vonnegut that is evident in “ Fates worse than death” and “ Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut makes use of the idea of offensive generalization and cutting down of complex concepts into smaller number of words. For instance, in Fates worse than death, he refers to the Japanese as “ buck-toothed, yellow people.” Even though these are false generalizations, he uses them in a manner to make people recognize that they were the sort of generalizations that were used in the Second World War and that no matter how much we consider that we were in the right track, we still took others by mistake (Vonnegut, 45).
In Harrison Bergeron he uses the case where the regime tortures its citizens, that is, the beautiful ones were to wear hideous masks or mutilate themselves, the intellectual were to listen to piercing noises that obstruct their capability to think, and the elegant and strong must wear weights in their necks at all hours of the day. This depicted the malice the regime had towards its citizens.
There is the use of total equality as a concept in Kurt’s writings. In Fates worse than death, he talks of how the government or economic reform was to make some people miserable than others. He calls for the need to have a uniform ground from which the citizens were to be treated. In Harrison Bergeron, he talks of the insistence on total equality where the citizens bleed due to the internalized government’s goals and from the punishment it imposed on them if they exhibited any notable capabilities. The outcome of such pursuit for equality was devastating (Vonnegut, 19).
Reference
Vonnegut, Kurt. Cats Cradle. New York City: RosettaBooks, 2010.
