Citizens In Place of Government
Would Make The World Better
Thesis Statement
"Harrison Bergeron" By Kurt Vonnegut "The Lottery" By Shirley Jackson
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson share the same comprehensive idea to present that citizens should run the laws and rulings. The idea the both texts share is that the citizens feel pressure in to following the rules of their government. In Harrison Bergeron the citizens feel pressure into obeying the rules of their government because the government has made every person equal in every way, making them wear handicap gear to cover their looks so no one can be prettier or uglier than anyone. Also, their government would make their citizens wear an earpiece that would send out a terrible, loud noise when someone thinks intelligent, so that no one can be smarter than the other. In The Lottery, everyone is constrained to participate in the lottery held in their town to select a citizen, in order to keep the population steady. No one is forcing anybody to participate in it, it’s just that the whole town participates. These elements from the stories both adduce and validate that the citizens should runt the laws and rulings instead of the government because these governments pressure people in the wrong way.
Quotes and Analysis
Quote: “They were burdened with sash weights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in” (Vonnegut 1).
Analysis: In Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, the government had forced the ballerina dancers to be covered in all kinds of handicap, to cover their identity in order to make everyone else feel less bad about themselves, in which the citizens are not allowed to take any of these handicaps off, or protest because they will be killed by the government. In today’s society, people are free to be who they are, yet there are others who have more of an advantage than they do. This supports my stance in favor that the citizens should change current laws and regulations because one government chooses to make everyone equal, by enforcing them to do so the wrong way causing distress, but if all the citizens chose, they can take different ideas from each other and make better laws because there are different citizens out there who think smart, and above and beyond, so together, they can work better laws than the government.
Quote: “‘It isn't fair, it isn't right,’ Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her” (Jackson 7).
Analysis: In The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, the citizens are intimidated by the government to participate in the lottery to murder someone in the village, in order to decrease the population. This supports my stance in favor that the citizens should change the current laws and regulations in the cause of the government enforcing laws that make their citizens participate in act of murder; especially children. If the citizens were to make laws and regulations together, there would be better laws because although there are people who go on with traditions that are inhumane, these people would be prevented of making laws that can be harmful by people like Mrs. Hutchinson.