Buchanan 1

Tiffani Buchanan

LNG 113

Mrs. Weaver

16 February 2011

Dystopian Societies and Their Price on Mankind

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be equal to the person sitting next to you?

What would it feel like have your job be determined by the way you are born? Vonnegut portrays this

sense of equality in the world of “Harrison Bergeron”, a world where you were all equal in knowledge,

strength and skill. Everyone who does not fit these ‘qualifications’ are ordered by law to wear weights.

Rand illustrates it in Anthem as she tells the story of Equality 7-2521, who lives in a society where

everything is dictated. Everyone is seemed equal in knowledge. The society hides the past before the

Great Rebirth so that no one knows how they are made and who their parents are, or how society

was created. Niccol depicts this parity in Gattaca, where you are only known for the DNA you have. No

matter what he would do everyone only saw him as an invalid person who didn’t have the DNA

to live up to high expectations. Vonnegut, Rand, and Niccol create stories where their characters must

overcome insurmountable obstacles in order to realize their potential.

Harrison’s society limits every potential that an individual can have. The government takes away

anything and everything that would make you better than anyone else. “They were equal in every

which way” (1) explains that the individual was just like anyone else. “A rubber ball for a nose

… eyebrows shaved off ... and black caps for his teeth” (4) He couldn’t look better than anyone

else or even use his brain to his advantage to think he did. “To keep people from taking an unfair

advantage of their brains” (1) they made them wear radios that every 20 seconds a noise would
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come and disrupt the thought they had previously. “All this equality was due to the 211, 212, and

213 amendments to the Constitution.”(1) They made a dictation by enforcing the laws that made

everyone the same. Harrison had to be the one who broke free of his society’s limits. He showed

the world that you didn’t have to be the way they wanted. Equality7-2521 was in a society with

the same potential limits.

Equality is made to believe that his differences are a curse and he should accept his life

mandate to atone for his sins. “There are no men but only the great WE” (19) According to

Equality's society individuals have no identity of their own. They're not allowed to act as

individuals, or to think of their lives as unique and self-guided. Instead, the only real identity

they have is the group identity, the ‘great WE.’ Everybody thinks of themselves only as a

member of one big, indivisible collective. “If you are not needed by your brother men, there is no

reason for you to burden the earth with your bodies.” (22) Equality expresses the basic doctrine

of his society here. It implies that human individuals are a burden and have no reason to live

unless they can be of use to others and the greater good in some way. This ultimately makes each

individual feel guilty for being alive. Individuals need some higher reason to live aside from

themselves, or else their existence is unjustified. It is exactly this idea that Rand militantly rejects

as false morality. He knows that being an individual is a good thing but his society tells him that

“what is not done collectively cannot be good.”(73) Conformity, obedience, and sacrifice are the

cause of unhappiness and destruction. The society establishes a ‘truth’ that they “know all things

which exist” (52) and so the things which someone makes up in their head will never be true. Rand uses

this “equality” to show how keeping someone from the things needed to succeed in life. Niccol uses the

same in Gattaca when he tells about Vincent.

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Vincent’s society makes everyone believe genes determine their fate. He is taught to believe that

“no one exceeds his potential.” They want you to believe that the way you are born, a god-child or a

genetically made child, determines whether or not you succeed in life. “This child is you just simply the

best of you.” It tells us that the way they created babies was through the genetic makeup. “It didn’t matter

the test score only the blood test” means that it didn’t matter how smart you are. You could be the

smartest person on earth and you still wouldn’t be able to succeed if you were a ‘god-child’. “No,

there's truly nothing remarkable about the progress of Jerome Morrow... except that I am not

Jerome Morrow.” Vincent became a ‘borrowed ladder’ because he believed that even though he

was a degenerate, he could still reach his highest potential. Vincent, Harrison, and Equality all

had one thing in common, rebellion.

The rebellion I am talking about isn’t a teenager going against their parents’ wishes, but a

person who knows that the way they live is wrong and that it shouldn’t be that way. They all

overcame the obstacles necessary to fulfill their highest potentials. We, as a nation and as a

republic, should make sure that we don’t discriminate because someone wasn’t born with the

best genes. We shouldn’t make everyone feel like they are striving to be equal to their brothers.

We without question should not make someone look, be, and feel equal to the other person.

Everyone has a right to be an individual. Those rights are stated in the Constitution as life,

liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They are our natural rights, the ones we are given as soon as

we come into this world. They should never be taken away from us no matter how much we

make ourselves think otherwise.