Citizens Taking A Stand
Thesis statment
Citizens should have the opportunity to manage the rules based on what the community would want as a whole that cover the community without intervention of the government if not wanted and enforcing laws that will not cause harm.
Summary
In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, both texts show how a community can be negatively affected by the government taking control and citizens not taking a stand. Harrison tried to overthrow the government with his intelligence and that caused his death. In the Lottery Tessie tried to stop the tradition of the village but that caused her to be stoned to death.
Harrison
Tessie
Diana Moon Glampers
Quote and Analysis
Quote:
“The children had stones already. And someone gave little Davy Hutchinson few pebbles. Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. ‘It isn't fair,’ she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head” (Jackson 7).
Analysis:
This quote supports my stance because it shows that sometimes the people don’t like the rules and the way things are done. When they try to stand up and say something they can’t because no one is willing to cooperate. If everyone in the village would have taken a stance and said they wanted to stop the tradition many it would have stops and that would mean that Tessie would not have been stoned to death like she did, it would stop the harm that they are doing to each other.
Quote:
“It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on” (Vonnegut 5).
Analysis:
This quote supports my stance because it is showing moments later that Harrison had stood up to the government. He was trying to overthrow them because it was something that he didn’t like all the other people did nothing but do what they were told to do and the way they were told to do it. Maybe if they had all did something the general wouldn’t have had killed him. No one ever tried to stand up and just followed directions without questioning it. If they did stand up they could all be free to be who they truly are and not who they are told to be so that there will be equality.