The satire of Harrison Bergeron

The story wriiten by Kurt Vonnegut,Jr, "Harrison Bergerson", is satire. A satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration or ridiculous to expose and  criticize people's stupidity or vices. The author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, used some of the elements of satire; Hyperbole, Parody, juxtaposition, double entendre, verbal irony, dramatic irony and situtional irony.

 In this story, that was written during the Civil Rights Movement, Kurt Vonnegut  was simply targeting the citizens of the nation and those of them who fear change. This story is about how the future would be if society's people was equal. One of the most important reasons he wrote this is because, he beilieved that with everyone having equal power and talent, the world might become a better place. He also wanted people to see what the future would be like if all the citizens were equal.

Kurt Vonnegut used parody, in which an author mocks works of art to show the true stupidity. Everyone in the future were equal by being handicap. A guy named George in the story had to wear handicap radio's in his ears. They claim it was to keep everyone like him from taking unfair advantage of thier brains. The story was weird in many ways. Everyone had equal stupidity. Noone was smarter than the next person. No one was able to be better in anyway.

By the middle of the story I realized what was going on. Kurt had used juxtaposition.It was then when I put what was going on in the real world and what was going on in the story side by side. I then thought " is this how the world would be if  Dr. Martin Luther King got what he wanted"? The world would be equal, but the world wouldnt be the same if everything changed

Another form of of satire Kurt Vonnegut used was hyperbole. The part of the story when Harrison Bergeron picked up the musicians spun them around like they weren't heavy at all, was completely exaggeration. No way in the world a human being can do that. The strength of Harrison Bergeron was ridicously outstanding. That will be great having that kind of power but its impossible.

Kurt Vonnegut used situational irony as well. Many people thought that the world would end in catastrophty. I thought the citizen's would get aggrevated by the whole, "everyone being equal" and take over. After Harrison Bergeron tried to take over, the Hanicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers had killed him and his empress. I honestly thought that's where the chaos would began.

The story was weird until I learned the true meaning of satire. Then everything came together. Harrison Bergeron was definitely a satire.

Signs of Satire

1). I say parody because the girl in the video is mocking the people on the "feed the children" commercials by saying how much she needs things and how her life sucks.
2). I also say hyperbole because she wanted people to see that everyone has their needs. So she exaggerated alot. They tried to make it were they made it seem as if her life was much more worse than the "poor people".

3). I also said situation irony because in the beginning I heard the voice and expected it to be like, the girl was really going through hard times until I saw that they were making a joke as of everything the people would do on television.

4). I also said Double Entendre because there actually was two meanings. to when the sister dyed her hair a different color. I thought her sister really died. Until the statement was finish; "her hair". It was then the girl rose up and said "whatcha think".

5). This one I had to think of alot because i really wasnt sure of it. Juxtaposition, I say because, they put the girl and the "feed the children", children side by side to make it seem like both of them were actullay the same. When the story had different meanings in which they tried to imply that her life was better than .