Citizens Equality
We the people within the community
Thesis Statement
"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut and "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
· In “Harrison Bergeron” and “The Lottery” both texts exhibit the limits of government and tradition in society. “Harrison Bergeron” restricted his intelligence while “The lottery” will never abandon their tradition of murder by keeping their village small.
Quote/Analysis "Harrison Bergeron"
“Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen…has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous” (Vonnegut 3). Harrison is being seen by everyone as extremely dangerous from trying to overthrow the government rules of making people not look the best by making them handicap . This helps my thesis because everyone is forced to think he’s dangerous by the government for being handsome. Everyone has equality by being handicap due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution.
Quote/Analysis "The Lottery"
"It's Tessie," Mr. Summers said, and his voice was hushed. "Show us her paper. Bill” (Jackson 7). Everyone in the village knows the rules of the lottery, they take the slips and keep them folded until each person has taken one and if there’s a black dot on the paper then that person is chosen and stones are thrown at them. There’s no backing out because everyone is forced and has to it’s a tradition. This support my thesis because by law it’s their tradition to keep a small amount of people in the village and this isn’t right people should feel safe in their community and not have to worry about being chosen to die by their own people.