Would you be willing to put your life at risk to fulfill what you want in life, proving your individuality or even trying to improve the government by taking control? This question forms from the two stories “Anthem” by Ayn Rand and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. The two main characters are Equality 7-2521 from Anthem and Harrison from Harrison Bergeron, and they are both part of a dystopian society. A dystopian society or a dystopia is an exaggeration of a worse case-scenario with society to make a current trend, or societal norm to be set to an extreme level. In both stories the characters stride to break free from their terrible society of brainless halfwits. Throughout the books Equality and Harrison quest for a greater knowledge than their peers and search for individuality and possibly taking over the government to better their societies.
Harrison was striding for the goal of controlling the government to better his society, while Equality was just in search for his individuality. In Harrison Bergeron the characters all had “handicaps” like weights or things in their head to keep them from having individual
thoughts, in all of their society Harrison held the most. “Scrap metal was hung all over him. Ordinarily, there was a certain symmetry, a military neatness to the handicap issued to strong
people, but Harrison looked like a walking junkyard” (Vonnegut 3). Harrison has the most handicaps of anyone ever holding an extra 300 pounds, this is because the handicapper general Diana Moon Glampers probably believed he was actually a threat to her control. During this time in Anthem Equality is starting to realize that he would probably be better off by himself because he is much smarter then the people in charge of his society. “I am not a tool for their use. I am not a sacrifice for their altars” (Rand 98). This is after Equality shows his invention of a light bulb and the council of his society strongly disagrees with his life...