Individuality In 'Harrison Bergeron And The Pedestrian'

Words: 1365
Pages: 6

Theme essay

In our current day society people are obsessed with fitting in and making sure everybody likes them, but to what cost? Is having everybody like someone worth not being oneself. Everybody has their own set of characteristics but sometimes those characteristics can be lost or destroyed because of others. Authors create a dystopian world where societies individuality is restricted or is fully banned. Veronica Roth, Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. show how society will “shun” or punish anybody who wants to keep their individuality. Divergent, “Fahrenheit 451”, “Harrison Bergeron” and “The Pedestrian” all take place in a dystopian setting which leads to individuality being lost and overall society conforming.

Individuality
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People aren’t allowed to do certain things and sometimes there are new advances in technology that allows thoughts to be limited and everybody to be equal. In “The Pedestrian” people have to watch TV at night and not get involved with crime, they have to stay in their houses and not go outside at night. People have to watch certain channels and they cannot do what they want to do at night because they are restricted. “‘Hello in there’, he whispered to every house on every side he moved. ‘What’s up tonight on channel 4, channel 7, channel 9?’” (Bradbury 1). Everybody is expected to be home and following the rules. Not only freedom is restricted but thoughts and movement and strength are restricted. Everybody needs to be equal in a dystopian world, “They were equal every which way, nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else.” (Vonnegut, Jr. 1). In “Harrison Bergeron” people have to be equal by wearing handicaps and lead balls. However with everybody being forced to be equal, everybody has to conform and everybody has to be the same. Because someone's life is restricted whether it is on the inside or out it causing people to