Harrison Bergeron and V For Vendetta Analysis - Essay Example

In such kind of societies, it is seen that the government is to be feared by the people: it has both the authority and the armed forces to enforce its will upon the people. But McTeigue has other ideas, declaring that “people should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people,” emphasizing the concept of freedom over oppression. In this case, the researcher would try to expound the statement of McTeige through two outstanding literary pieces: the short story “Harrison Bergeron” (Vonnegut Jr. n. p.) and McTeigue’s film “V for Vendetta.

” The short story “Harrison Bergeron,” which was written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., tries to picture a society with absolute equality, wherein people are actually equal in all concepts (Vonnegut Jr. n. p.). As stated in the story, The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law; they were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else; nobody was better looking than anybody else; nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.

All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General. (Vonnegut Jr. n. p.) In able to ensure that all people was absolutely equal, the government actually created the office of the “United States Handicapper General,” wherein the intelligent would be handicapped by a loud noise distracting them (resulting to the fact that all people would be “averagely intelligent), athletic people would have to wear weights in order to be as fast and as athletic as normal people, and where beautiful people would have to wear masks (Vonnegut Jr. n. p.). Due to such handicaps, society actually resulted to a collection of individuals who are absolutely equal in every way, all of them stupid, dumb, and following authority without question (Vonnegut Jr. n. p.). This short story, which actually serves as a political satire, shows how the aim of governments to ensure absolute equality actually harms the natural differences of people, and how it both oppresses the rights of individuals to be who they are, harming the welfare of society as a whole.

From this message, it can be seen that the freedom of individuals over oppression must be upheld, for it does not only benefit the welfare of the people, but the welfare and well-being of society as a whole. While Kurt Vonnegut Jr. used a satirical narrative to describe how oppression harms the well being of society and makes it dysfunctional, Director James McTeigue opted to use a different way to show why freedom must reign supreme over oppression, and why governments must be afraid of the people: he used the movie “V for Vendetta” (McTeigue, n. p.).

This movie actually talks about the time when the government of Britain comes to be dominated by the fascist “Norsefire Party,” turning Britain into a totalitarian state (McTeigue, n. p.). As the Norsefire Party takes power and gains hold of the parliament (following the bioterrorist attacks that will claim