Harrision Bergeron/All the Troubles of the World Comparision

In the short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, and “All the Troubles of the World”, Kurt Vonnegut and Isaac Asimov, respectively, suggest that dystopian societies with a significant amount of power given to an individual can lead to a revolt. However, while Harrison Bergeron chooses to rebel against the dystopian society, gain equity by breaking free of the handicaps, the rebel character of Multivac attempts to commit suicide because is he overwhelmed by all of society’s problems. Kurt Vonnegut reveals to the readers that the society in which Harrison Bergeron lives in is dysfunctional, by using the character of Diana Moon Glampers to show us that it is impossible to “make everybody finally equal”[59] without making society corrupt. Firstly, the character of Diana Moon Glampers, the handicapper general, was one of the main people who caused a disturbance throughout the society. Diana Moon Glampers was the handicapper general that was focused on making every person in society equal, ironically forgetting about herself who was unequal to the rest. Secondly, Harrison Bergeron’s valiant attempt to free himself from equality caused him to rebel against society.

Harrison was “crippled, hobbled, [and] sickened” [63] yet determined as ever to break free from the absurdity. Meanwhile the character of Multivac was also dealing with many troubles with society. The author Isaac Asimov used the troubled character of Multivac to acknowledge that humans cannot rely of technology to solve all their problems without causing a disturbance in civilization. Moreover, Multivac “bears all the troubles of the world on its shoulders and it is tired,” [280] Multivac is so tired that he indeed “want[s] to die.” [281]. Furthermore, the society does not want Multivac to die because it is so dependent on Multivac that without him, society would crumble and turmoil would ensue. In conclusion, in both short stories the authors reveal that too much power in one’s hand can lead to a corrupt society. The corrupt society in “Harrison Bergeron” reveals to the readers that it is impossible to make society equal without a rebellion. Also, in “All the Troubles of the World” the readers discover that technology can never solve all our problems and relying on it to do so can cause a dysfunctional society. Both stories reveal that power can lead to a crumbling society.