Harrison Bergeron Questions

1. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the present day “equality” is portrayed but in an extreme sense. In order for all people to be “equal”, citizens in the story are forced to be “handicapped” to be lowered in their potential skills (i.e. control thinking process by using a device to cut thinking processes, covering face with mask to not show beauty, etc). The story tries to argue if this “equality” is really what we desire. In most case, people want to keep their characteristics, which is represented by Harrison Bergeron, who rebel against this “equality” law. The theme is the destination and destiny of pure “equality”, though since there is the Handicapper General that acts more like a dictator; it is hard to call it pure equality. (To be honest, when I read the first paragraph, I thought the story is going to talk about world full of cloned beings.)

2. To me, the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers was a flat character. When Hazel talked about how if she was the Handicapper General, she would make the “rings” like a chime, which explains Diana is a very merciless person, since she use a very violent sound track. Also, when Harrison went on a rebel run, she came in the room and shot, not only, Harrison but the ballerina as well, because she chose to side with the rebellion. I feel like Diana is rather realistic in such situation of pure “equality”. Since there is someone that needs to enforce the law, Diana had to be a merciless dictator, since everyone else is “equal” but her, which puts her in a more powerful position.

3. The story is told by Harrison Bergeron’s parents, Hazel and George Bergeron. It is important for the author to write this story in Harrison’s parent’s point of view because the tragedy of this story is that even their son’s death can be easily forgotten under this pure “equality”.

4. I think this is best described at the end of the story, when Harrison gets shot and Hazel is in tears even though the next moment she forgets why she is crying. I think, more specifically, the critics are talking about the nature of wife, husband, and child (ren) relationship.

5. Lem’s opinion talks about how natural events should be the core of these stories but I believe humans are natural and what a human produce, even though the products are artificial, is natural since a natural human made it. Therefore, I do not think this negates the story at all.

Questions

Group 1 #3 Connie is the protagonist and Arnold Friend is the antagonist. Arnold was the antagonist because he was constantly bugging Connie, regardless to her will.
Group2 #2 During the piece “Where are you going, Where have you been?” one of the most compelling character would be Arnold Friend. His traits of being incredibly to knowledgeable about Connie’s life, and wanting even could say lusting after her sets him up as a character that steals much of the focus. Arnold Friend, just in his name you can see untruth. A. Friend tries so hard to be close to Connie but underneath a mask of false that is gilded with a “friend”. The nature of Arnold is nothing more than that of the normal teenagers flaunt, but his style has an oddity. Slang terms written on his car that were outdated, strange codes and string of numbers beside it, but yet he had a car, even a convertible. His language sets him to reveal true colors. What he says, of offering her safe ride with him is hidden behind a sweet voice and calm demeanor that quickly becomes violent. Arnold Friend is the creep that is good at getting what he wants and is planning on taking it without a fight.
Group3 #3 the ending could be strongly influenced by the movie “Smooth Talk” we watched and/or the article we read about the teenage murder case. Preferably I would like the “smooth talk” ending where he just really wants to drive her around and give her some freedom and spice to her life.
Group4 #3 This setting is Anywhere, U.S.A. Oates made a great move by bringing the setting of the story into any country home or town that is built in the United States. By this it moves the story closer to the hearts of the reader. Her story could really assist the people’s understanding of the legal cases that happened in towns just like that. Then Oates was about to bring the idea of what trauma the girls endured. The setting really brought many places that were having crazy men taking young woman, to a level that anyone could try and understand and even protect themselves.

Smooth Talk

A brutal crime that happened in 1966 influenced Joyce Carol Oates to write “Where are you going, where have you been?” “Smooth Talk” was a movie of Oates story but with a bit different ending. Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” talked about moving on in life, which I feel can be best fitted to Arnold Friend’s life. The youtube link was a semi-parody version of “Where are you going, where have you been?” by adding a different ending to it.
In 1966, Charles Schmid killed 3 girls in Tuscon, Arizona. The victims Alleen Rowe, Gretchen Fritz, and Wendy Fritz were teenagers, as Oates portrayed Connie as. Charles Schmid was a bit older than these teen girls, as Arnold Friend was. One of the crimes took place in a desert, where Charles Schmid drove the Fritz sisters to. In “Where are you going, where have you been?” Arnold Friend was a very strange character that had a strong lust toward Connie. He threatens Connie to take a ride with him by talking about a lady that died in the neighborhood recently and also compare her house to a cardboard box. These two situations are very similar. Oates version of “Where are you going, where have you been?” , this is where the story ends. In the movie, she comes back safe and finally comes to an appreciation to her families that she, until then, treated very poorly. In the youtube version, she drives off with Ellie and leaves Arnold Friend alone, trying to make a parody ending to it. All three has unique ending to it from the same story background.

Now, Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” can be interpreted a couple of way but I feel like this song can be best related to Arnold Friend’s feeling. The lyric, to me, struck as “you have to move on”. Arnold Friend, aforementioned, had a very strong lust to Connie in “Where are you going, where have you been?” but that is not true with Connie’s feeling. In fact, she rejects him but was threatened to accept his feeling. Arnold Friend had to notice Connie’s rejection and move on but he decides to force her to do what he wants, which can be a victory at the time but eventually there will be a slight loneliness behind. In a sense, the youtube version pictures this feeling of loneliness very well.

Heros

While reading the three pieces “A&P ”,“ Rites of Passage” and “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party” there were three different heroes portrayed. Sammy in Updike’s “A&P” was very outspoken and even created conflict with his ideal of being a hero. When Sammy did what he thought was the right course of action by walking out of his job at the grocery story, he made a stand for the girls that were asked to leave, but at the same time created conflict with his boss and even his family. When the little boy of “Rites of Passage” stood up and found a common ground for the boys to stand on, he became the hero by creating peace in turmoil. The girl of “The One Girl at the Boys’ Party” is a hero in a completely different manner than the other two characters. She is able to be a hero by just being herself. She stood as a woman and showed the differences in a ways that didn’t show fear. What all these characters did was portray the hero that they were and would become. At similar ages they showed that even the youth could become heroes that should be noticed. These pieces show that anyone, black, young, or female, can be a hero when they chose to stand up.

Hero

According to the dictionary a “Hero” is a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. The definition of “hero” I hold is a bit different from this. To me, anyone that I can truly respect is a hero. That may lower the standard of “hero” to be such a cheap word, but my standard of “true” respect is rather high. For example, the 9/11 firefighter is definitely a hero. One can say it is their job to save people; therefore they are not a “hero”. Well, I’m sure when they knew a plane crashed in the towers, they knew there was going to be great amount of risk. But yet, they progressed with their job. The courage they shown is what everyone should respect and therefore to me, they are a hero. At least at that moment, they did not think about becoming a hero or thinking about how much they are going to be paid. Shammy in A & P, though, failed to be a hero. He was rather heroic to at least be true and responsible for what he said, but he did what he did for his benefit. He expected a reward for what he did. Therefore, in my definition of “hero” he is not respectable and again he is not a hero.

Pg. 6 “The North Wind and the Sun” – Aesop
1. North Wind is a very blunt figure. To obtain its goal, it is very direct and forceful. Also, short tempered. The Sun, on the other hand, is very manipulative and intelligent.
2. Before thinking of the human’s reaction, North Wind revealed his full force.
3. The Sun manipulated the human to take the cloak off rather than forcing him to do so, which lead to the Sun’s victory.
4. The human is only a pawn in the story comparing to the two mighty forces.
5. A pretty obvious moral from the fable. The North Wind’s forceful approach failed to the Sun’s persuasive (manipulative, aforementioned) approach. Therefore, force lost against persuasion.

Pg. 8 “Independence” – Chuang Tzu
1. He exposes his point when he explains about the sacred tortoise and its choice of freedom. Tzu uses 3 sentences to come to his point.
2. Rather than just answering to the officials, the protagonist explains about the tortoise to make the officials understand his answer.
3. Chuang Tzu definitely has courage. Historically, Chinese government revolves around the king’s order. Going against the king’s, in this case the prince’s, order can make one’s life miserable.

Pg. 19 “A & P” –John Updike
1. Product details are rather realistic. Certain action, such as punching in codes at the cashers aslo is very true to life. This makes the reader feel like he/she is part of the story.
2. Shammy reveals himself throughout the story. First, he starts as more of a narator and by the end of the story, he was trying to act heroic. In the fact that he wanted some kind of “reward” for his action, he definitely was less of a hero but the fact that he did kept his word and quit was rather heroic.
3. The first paragraph of the story seems to be the exposition. He introduces the three girls, what kind of job he does, what kind of setting the story takes place. Queenie was extremely detailed because, obviously, she is the key figure of the story. Shammy’s maturity (feelings to her?) grew as he noticed a more positive aspect of her.
4. Yes. In the beginning, they were “just girls” that was dressed in bathing suit. Towards the end, all of them had a nickname and Shammy quites his job to try to get attention from them.
5. The dramatic conflict happens when the girls approaches Shammy and at the same time Lengel came in the store. The crisis starts when Lengel approaches the girls. The climax happens when he says “I quite”, trying to grab the girls attention.
6. He quites the job because he embarrest the girls in front of people and felt that was inappropriate. Also, he wanted to be a “hero” by trying to defend the girls.
7. Yes; 9th paragraph, were the interaction between McMhon, the meat man, and the girls occur.
8. He mentions that his life is going to be harder because Lengel and his parents are friends and he totally quite the job for a rather immature reason. The conclusion is he tried to get attention from the girls and failed.
9. Not only at “A & P”, but in any supermarket store, people go to shop and not expect anything dramatic to happen. If something does happen, they look at it and goes back to shopping.