Short Works - Harrison Bergeron (into revision and outline)

Kurt Vonnegut uses the symbolism of handicaps in his short story, "Harrison Bergeron," to convey the difficulty people have in expressing their individual self and standing up against "un-equality." The handicaps symbolize the fight and struggle for individual equality; like the masks symbolize the need or desire for visual equality, George's earpiece symbolizes the reach for one's individual capabilities, and Harrison's red nose symbolizes to be equal we must humbly accept our humility. Vonnegut's symbolism describes the hardship we endure to be an individual, including accepting ourselves and realizing that others may not. In "Harrison Bergeron" we learn that there is always a price to pay when breaking lose from our "handicaps", such as death and our parents not knowing, and is that price worth our individuality. 

Outline:

A. Vonnegut's use of the mask in "Harrison Bergeron" symbolizes the need and desire for visual (or beauty) equality.

• mask to cover the beauty, to hide one's full potential 
• -- "She must have been extraordinary beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous." 
• "Last of all, he removed her mask. She was blindingly beautiful." 

B. George's earpiece symbolizes the reach for ones individual capabilities, such as thoughts and memories. 

• "Sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains."
• "He began to think glimmeringly about his abnormal son who was now in jail, about Harrison, but a twenty-one-gun salute in his head stopped that."
• "'You been crying?' he said to Hazel. 'Yup,' she said, 'What about?' he said. 'I forget,' she said. 'Something real sad on television.' 

C.  Vonnegut shows us through the symbolism of Harrison's red rubber ball nose to take a step into equality we must be humble and accept humility. 

• a mark to tell who he was, also to "offset his good looks"
• a reminder he is an outcast like Rudolph
• be humble with your humiliation

D. In "Harrison Bergeron" we learn that there is always a price to pay when breaking lose from our "handicaps", such as death and our parents not knowing, and is that price worth our individuality. 

• "Explosion of joy and grace"
• "Forget sad things', said George. 'I always do,' said Hazel. 'That's my girl.' said George. He winced. There was the sound of the riveting gun in his head." 

Short Works - Harrison Bergeron

Kurt Vonnegut uses symbolism in his short story, "Harrison Bergeron," to convey the difficulty people have in expressing their individual self and standing up against "un-equality." Through examples such as the handicaps, the fight and the struggle for individual equality; the couple, the importance of emotional equality; and Harrison Bergeron himself, the choices in life that can not be "handicapped". Vonnegut's symbolism describes the hardship we endure to be an individual, including accepting ourselves and realizing that others may not. In "Harrison Bergeron" we learn that there is always a price to pay when breaking lose from our "handicaps", such as death and our parents not knowing, and is that price worth our individuality.  

Who Am I?

The enigma we call life, basically just flat out sucks. Let's get real here, me, a person trying to discover who I am, but I don't really know what is "me" or how to find "me". Everyone knows there is no handbook that tells you the to how to do's in life. Trying to write your own story is brutal, when you don't even know the meaning of the words. 

In Robinson's poem, "Miniver Cheevy," I wanted to tell Miniver "I get you!" and "Same here!" To me I thought he was alone, that he felt abandoned and there was nothing left to do but drink on. We are all alone in life, until we choose not to be. When we stop looking at our feet and take a second to look right, to a friend, and left, to another friend, we might accept life a little bit more. Second, Miniver is confused. He is struggling to convince himself that he is in the right place, the right time in history. Time and time again he lectures to himself about where he would be accepted, possibly where it would make him happy. I think, why do others have to accept us when the greatest happiness can come from accepting ourselves. People desperately try to impress others so that they are loved; they want to feel wanted, needed, and have a purpose. I believe, if we love ourselves and what we stand for people will accept us, they will love us. A character who "wept that he was ever born" is a character running while covering his own eyes. Do you not want to live Mr. Miniver? Yeah, "I get you!" and "Same here!" but there is a time when we have to seize the day, even if we don't know which one it is. Life, again, basically just flat out sucks, but know what, when we walk on we won't even notice life sucked in the first place. Have faith in our story, have hope for who we are, and that is what makes the individual journey through life truly worth living for. 

"Barbie Doll's" Irony

The English would be boring and even more unbearable if some beautiful person had not decided to include sarcasm, come-backs, jokes, and of course irony. What would life be without the beauty of irony? I don't even want to think about how deprived literature would be without irony; how dull, plain, unexciting, unsurprising, etc. English would be. Irony adds a level of artistry, it expresses a message with more expressive and emotional meaning. I think that irony also gives the author the ability to stretch their main themes in ways making the reader really concentrate to decipher what the author really means, what they are thinking.

In Marge Piercy's poem "Barbie Doll" she expertly has us expecting a stereotypical poem about a perfect girl, one with blond hair, blue eyes, etc. However, her character ironically is described as the opposite, "healthy, tested intelligent," with "strong arms and back." Already, Piercy slaps us across our faces, upset at how quick we are to assume what makes a perfect girl. This type of irony is called verbal irony where the author tells us one thing but means something else behind it. Another type of irony uses in the poem is reversal irony where something happens and the opposite happens. In the poem the Barbie Doll cuts her "fat nose and fat legs" off and kills herself, and only after that does her community praise her on her beauty. Piercy shows us women go to extreme ends just to get the satisfaction of being accepted as beautiful or pretty, and ironically some go as far as death for that compliment, never to experience their own true beauty, and only to die trying to obtain the fake fantasy of beauty society commercializes.

*Read with Clarity*

Hi, my name is Claire, and this is my blog "Clarity Reads." Here I will share with you my personal thoughts and opinions, hopefully with clarity, on different types of literature I encounter this year. So, let's write!

My favorite text I read over the summer, was "Once Upon a Time," by Nadine Gordimer. First, I found how Gordimer started the short story with a character in reality and then transitioned it into a fairytale, was so unique and really captivated me first and foremost as the story began. Throughout the "fairytale" I felt as if I was walking right beside the family down the street, looking at the different types of security systems. I love sensing as if I am now apart of the story, feeling their anxiety, and seeing their tense expressions. Another highlight for me, is the way Gordimer was able to secretively twist our expectations of a fairytale ending. She built up a false hope, with a family living "happily ever after" in a safe home, and then we are completely left in shock as the little boy, the innocent prince, the one who really never lived a fairytale, the one destined to save the princess and defeat the evil, is slayed by society's code of fear. We standby the fence in horror as fear consumes the people who tried so desperately to keep it out. My favorite line is, "So from every window and door in the house where they were living happily ever after they now saw the trees and sky through bars." I respect this line so much, it depicts for us the hell that they have created for themselves, they can't see the good anymore without looking at the bad and taking precautions first. They are so petrified by life, so afraid, they choose to hide themselves away, cower from the evil instead of conquering it like a prince, like how a "fairytale" ought to be.