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Harrison Bergeron

Page history last edited by Valerie Liu 15 years ago

 

Harrison Bergeron Project 

Team Members: Corinna Contreras, Valerie Liu, Diane Phan

 

 

 

Summary of Harrison Bergeron

 

"Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical short story by Kurt Vonnegut that was first published in 1961 and then republished in his collection of short stories, Welcome to the Monkey House (1968).

  

"Harrison Bergeron" is set in America in the year 2081, where absolute equality has been achieved by creating "handicaps" and requiring the more attractive, intelligent, and stronger and people of society to be dumbed down so that everyone is on the same level as the members of society who are not as well-equipped in life.

  

The protagonist, Harrison Bergeron, is fourteen years old and considered a genius. He is extremely strong, tall, and attractive. Because he is "above" others in so many aspects, he is placed under many handicaps, such as large earphones to interrupt his thinking, glasses with "thick, wavy lenses" to make give him headaches and bad vision, 300 pounds of scrap metal to offset his athletic abilities, and a red rubber ball on his nose, shaved eyebrows, and black caps on his teeth to ruin his good looks. However, he keeps outgrowing his handicaps faster than anyone else, and is thus never really stifled and equalized.

 

Harrison, who is jailed for being a threat to equality, escapes and goes on national television, declaring himself "Emperor" and un-handicaps a balerina, some musicians and tells them to play music while Harrison and his ballerina show everyone watching the "true meaning of dance." As they dance, the Handicap General shoots them dead on television and threatens the musicians to put on their handicaps or else be greeted by death as well. The television then blacks out. 

 

Harrison Bergeron's parents are watching the events unfold on television. Because of their own handicaps (Hazel has average intelligence and can only think in short bursts of thought while George has an earpiece that has cacophonous sounds played loudly to distract him from thinking too hard and too much), they both cannot focus enough and realize that the Harrison Bergeron is their own son. The story ends with Hazel only remembering that whatever is making her cry as "something real sad on TV" while George tells her to "forget sad things" and thus, forget the death of their son.

 

Click Here to Read Full Text

 


 

Themes 

  


 

Project Ideas

 

  • Documentary video

  • Posters (Promoting/Forcing the equality) 

  • Product pitch for Handicaps

 


 

Text Analysis

 

The Project Team ran the text of “Harrison Bergeron” through various online text analysis tools in order to find out if digital tools would extrapolate deeper meaning from the text that might not have been initially apparent in reading the text. 

 

  

Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count  

 

  

 

Self-references vs. Social words: The amount of self-referencing within the text was significantly less than the works that were in the database, whereas the social words were much higher. Considering the themes of an aggressive and absolute equality within the text, it’s logical that the text would use more collectivist language instead of focusing on the individual.

 

Positive/Negative Emotions: Very little mentions of emotions within the text. The text is primarily dialogue, so this data could support the underlying idea that because of the forced equality, and especially the mental and cognitive handicaps, renders the people unable to express any true emotion.

  

Ex: Hazel can’t remember why she was crying, just that it was about something sad.

 

Cognitive Words: Similar to the emotions referencing, there are fewer cognitive words because the characters within the text have limited intelligence and cognitive function.

  

  

Wordle

 

When running the text through Wordle, the analysis shows that the prominent words reflect the overarching theme of the work. Words like “think,” “anybody,” “people,” and “like” implies a generic quality about the characters and the world depicted in the text.

 

  

TAPoR: Visual Collocator

 

 

Equality was once again examined when using the Visual Collocator tool within the TAPoR database. One of the words connected with equal, was the word finally. This implies that within the framework of the story, the equality that they have attained has been a long time coming, and it is something that the people of the United States strove for throughout the years.

 

This led to the idea of a pseudo-documentary about the struggles and the events of the road leading to equality.

 

In conjunction, the word weren’t is another collocate. Because the text analysis tool only looks at the words of the text and not the context, this collocate could have two separate meanings. Weren’t equal to the characters in the story would mean that the era that they lived in before wasn’t an equal one, and the story describes this. On the other hand, weren’t equal could be interpreted as describing the underlying essence of the story. As educated readers, it’s apparent that the text is a satirical one, poking fun at this caricature of equality, and the collocate could identify that the equality that is portrayed isn’t really equal at all.

   

Law is another collocate that is associated with the word required which basically implies that laws, rules and regulations are needed in order to keep the people equal; a sentiment that is echoed in the text. 

 


 

Videos 

 

The Videos will be slightly comedic in nature due to the absurdity of the subject material. A "History Channel" format will be used to structure the editing of the videos. 

 

 

 

A Small Feel of Equality

 

An introduction to the theme of the Harrison Bergeron Project

 

 

My Little Equality

Lenka - "The Show"

 

A children's video on the great achievement of equality in the United States of America. Used as a mandatory educational tool in the classroom. 

 

 

The History Network Presents: Hail Equality: The Long Road to Freedom

 

In this introduction to the history behind the Equality Movement in the United States of America during the mid twenty-first century, the History Network focuses on the highlights of the movement using audio and footage from the movement to illustrate the spirit of the times.  

 

 

To create the narration and audio used in the documentary, the project team decided to structure the tonal qualities of the audio clips around the text tool, Gender Genie. By running the Harrison Bergeron text through this tool, the final analysis of the text concluded that the author of the text was female. However, the results were not conclusive as the split between male and female score was 2593 to 2596 respectively. With an almost exact tie in score between male and female, the narration and audio clips recorded were processed to sound female with a male undertone. Such androgynous sound fits perfectly with the tone and central theme of the original text.

 

 

Taporware tools, Raining Words and Word Brush were used and captured using Fireshot. This footage was then placed in the History Network documentary.

 

 

For futher expansion of this piece of the project, the following will be added to the documentary:

 

  • Product Infomercials and Commercial

    • Government Ear Radio/Transmitter 

    • Handicap Sacks

  • Interviews with people associated with the equality movement and its enforcement 

    • The Handicapper General
    • H-G Men
    • Activists 
  • Perhaps an exclusive with the author

     

 

Website

 

Handicap General's Website

 


 

Future Project Expansion

 

  • Time, resources, money, and technological know-how hindered the scope of the project.
  • Generally, a more in-depth development of the world in 2081
    • An online store selling the essential handicaps, with pricing, dimensions, and usage descriptions; a complementary aid foundation similar to Medicaid/Medi-Cal, providing all Americans with affordable handicaps
    • A government laboratory where unpleasant sounds are recorded or created and transmitted to those with earpieces; an official "library" of sounds to distract thoughts, and another official library of thoughts that are prohibited by the government. This library of thoughts, which would be as confidential as FBI/CIA documents, could then be compared in a text analysis tool to see what words are similar or different.
    • Public service announcements about equality
    • "The More You Know" type of commercials on television with words chosen from Wordle, TAPoR, and other literary text analyses tools

 


 

Annotated Bibliography

 

 

Ang, Tom. Digital Video: An Introduction. New York, New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2006.

 

          With the bulk of the Harrison Bergeron Project consisting of digital video, unerstanding the elements behind digital video faciliates the process. In this book, the basics of digital video are explained in a simple step by step method. While filming, technical difficulties no doubtedly arise; under tight time constraints, these issues can retard the filming process, effectively destroying the core of the Harrison Bergeron Project. Common digital video issues are diligently addressed in this book, making it a must have during the filming process. 

          A common occurrance is that of problems with exposure. Since lighting has dramatic effects on the filming process, knowing how to manipulate light in an effective manner produces more interesting and aethetically pleasing results. This area of know-how in the book provides important tips that steer the filmmaker towards more correct use of ambient light. With object positioning key in the lighting and the general filming process, key lighting and other 'accepted' lighting/positioning procedures are discussed at length. 

          Particularly interesting is the chapter on wideshot perspective; due to the protest-documentary nature of the project, such perspective shooting is key to the adequate portrayal of the tone and short story in general.

 

 

Feather, N. T. “Attitudes towards the high achiever: The Fall of the Tall Poppy.” Australian Journal of Psychology, 41, (1989): 239-267. 

 

          An article describing the “Tall Poppy Syndrome” as a social leveler in Australian and New Zealand business circles. The article describes how cultures in the UK and Australia view extraordinary success and achievement as a negative trait, and the cultures resent those that rise above the rest of society. Feather discusses how tall poppy syndrome works: One person acquires wealth, power, or some other advantage, and then society “cuts” them down to be on the same social level as them. Feather notes that because of the largely working class society, attitudes skew towards giving everyone a fair chance. In addition, she interviewed New Zealand business people and entrepreneurs, and she noted how they often had meetings and strategies about how to fly under the radar, not mention that they own a company, and not flaunt their wealth. In turn, entrepreneurs are reluctant to start companies because of societal backlash, and those who already own companies may put a cap on their business growth in order to discourage any attention drawn to their company. She also notes that presently, society’s attitude is starting to shift and embrace achievement. The society is encouraging everyone to be better, the best that they can be and be equals at the top, instead of discouraging high-achievers to the point where they are like everyone else. This phenomenon very much resembles the themes that revolve around Harrison Bergeron, and it offers a larger insight into the reasons and justification for handicapping and placing obstacles in the way of successful people.

 

 

"Harrison Bergeron: Introduction." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol 5. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 11 February 2009. < http://www.enotes.com/harrison-bergeron/introduction>.

 

          Beginning with a quick overview of the history behind Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron," this web site provides an in depth examination of this short story that focuses on the themes, style, historical context, and literary criticism to academically dissect this literary work. Having such an overview to fall back on provides an easy way to access the greater themes of the work as well as the basis for personal interpretation of the text. The historical context of the text allows for a more genuine interpretation of the short story by painting a more vivid picture that connects the themes discussed in the short story to those that occurred in reality during the time period in which it was written. Allusions to actual events and people would not be easily noticed by the reader if historical context were not included. This website provides such context and uses academic investigation to connect such passages in the text with contemporary events and people that may have been alluded to in the story. The connection between the real and the imagined relies on sound historical analysis; this website provides the basis for such an analysis.  

 

 

LIWC – Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. 10 Feb. 2009 <http://liwc.net/index.php>. 

 

          A text-analysis tool that organizes and sorts words into categorizes like big words, self-references, social words, positive emotions, negative emotions, overall cognitive words, and articles of speech, and then compares the averages in each of the categories in the provided text to the averages of personal texts and the averages of formal texts. For example, in Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron,” LIWC was able to categorize and report that compared to personal texts and formal texts, Vonnegut’s satire has an overall higher average of social words and an overall lower average of cognitive words. Following the satire’s ridicule of the extremities of total equality, it makes sense that the social words used is higher and that cognitive words, which seem to mean “thinking” words, is considerably lower, since thought may signify a difference in equality, which cannot and is not present in the future world in “Harrison Bergeron.” Text-analysis tools like LIWC are able to break down the text and categorize and compare the words into categories to see the text in a different perspective. The tool gives insight to comparisons and contrasts to general word-type frequencies in other texts so the user can analyze that difference and use it to aid additional interpretation.

 

 

Srivatsan, R. "Photography and Society: Icon Building in Action." Economic and Political Weekly 26.11 (Mar. 1991): 771-773. 11 Feb. 2009 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4397434>

 

          An analytic article about various forms of photography, including film, in different fields, and its role in "incessantly communicating and making meaning" (771). The article discusses how the visual format has transformed people from listeners to viewers, and how the the medium of photography and film "has a way of penetrating any discourse and powerfully reconstituting its logic and practice" (771). It continues to discuss not how visual media is the truth, but rather its "claim to truth" and how it is able to habitualize the viewer to whatever it broadcasts by "repeated exposure in the name of truth, as guaranteed by the ethics" of television and photography. Movie cinema, it argues, is as powerful in sparking ideas of change or dulling other ones, because it is produced "by a fusion of the cinematography and a story line" (771). The importance of a story line in visual media can be applied to how ideas of equality and hammered and broadcasted to the members of society in "Harrison Bergeron," and also to the way we will try to both emulate and recreate the brainwashing processes of the story as well as create our own translation of the themes of dystopia and the absurdity of total equality. The idea of the "story line" -- which suggests a creation of something slightly fictional -- coupled with visual media's "claim to truth" and the viewers' assumption that the truth will be delivered, permits easy manipulation of the viewers' minds, as "Harrison Bergeron" portrays and as we try to recapture. Our project's focus on media outlets like video, photographic documentation, and a children's learning video, uses visual medias in the same ways as Vonnegut's satire wields despotic power and generates its own agenda and following.

 

  

Vit, Marik. “Uniformity and Deformity in “Harrison Bergeron.”” Article Alley. 09 Feb. 2009 

<http://www.articlealley.com/article_78132_22.html>   

 

          An essay on the drawbacks and effects of the equality displayed in Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron.” The essay discusses how the quality in the story isn’t really an attempt at making everyone equal, but making everyone the same. He argues that this kind of equality strips away any sense of individuality, and that in and of itself leads to “the absolute deformity of humanness.” He argues that when the power of the government falls into the hands of those too incompetent to govern a country, those people are forced to find a way to protect their power and their position. In the case of “Harrison Bergeron,” the government forced handicaps on everyone that was above-average, thus drawing those that might be a threat to the power of the government down to a below-average level. He argues that the world depicted in the story closely resembles modern communist governments that discourage original thoughts and personal opinions. In general, the processing of the society allows the people to be more easily manipulated. The essay displays how the situation in “Harrison Bergeron” could be easily imprinted onto today’s society, and the current fervor for equality could even evolve into the negative utopia displayed in the story.

 

Wordle. 10 Feb. 2009 <http://www.wordle.net>.

 

          A text-analysis tool that creates “word clouds” – groups, or clouds, of words from a provided text, with the most prominent words appearing larger than the less prominent words. Wordle breaks down the text to a jumble of small, infrequently appearing words, and large, frequently appearing words, and allows the user to change the font, colors, and layouts of the text to appeal to the aesthetics. The tool creates an interesting visual effect that cannot be easily seen by simply reading the text in its traditional, original paragraph or line form. With the frequent words enlarged, the user can see the emphasis and analyze the importance of the words, possibly realizing or reinforcing themes that were previously unnoticed. Entering the text of Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron,” my group noticed the interesting arrangement and prominence of the words, “just,” “think,” “like,” and “anybody.” Seeing as “Harrison Bergeron” is a satire of the consequences of the extremities of complete and total equality, it is interesting to find that a simple text-analysis tool can also conjure up the same ominous message to “just think like anybody” – ultimately, a brainwashing message to enforce a completely similar mindset to create and maintain equality. Using Wordle, we not only create an extra aesthetic image for the project’s goal of creating a documentary, but we also can use the similar emphasis in both short story and “word cloud” and see how the satire can be so decomposed and still convey a similar, if not the same, type of theme.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

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