Fahrenheit 451 Equality Essay

Why is equality impossible? In both Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† by Kurt Vonnegut, the government’s try to suppress freedom by calling it equality. Both the characters, Guy Montag and Harrison Bergeron try to oppose their government’s idea of equality. They show that there will always be individuals who rebel, are not the same, and try to start their own society to fight against the government. In these readings, both authors, Bradbury and Vonnegut, suggest that equality is unattainable because there will constantly be individuals that challenge the idea of people being the same in everyway possible. Even as the government concealed knowledge in both readings, individuals rebelled in order to obtain knowledge. Harrison Bergeron challenged the government, all while he wore a tremendous pair of earphones that mentally handicaps intelligent people. Nonetheless he refused to sit still and live his life like everyone else in the world. Instead he wanted to be emperor of the world and fought until his death trying to achieve his vision. Harrison proclaims on television, â€Å"‘I am the emperor! †¦ Do you hear? I am the emperor†¦ Even as I stand here†¦ crippled, hobbled, sickened- I am a greater ruler than any man who ever lived! ’†(Vonnegut 3). Despite the fact that Harrison is only fourteen years old and carried three hundred pounds, he rebelled against the government on account that he loathed the world he currently is in. This shows that even if the government forces people into being equal, people will rise up and rebel against them. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag also rebelled against his government. He was not allowed to read or owned books since it was against the law. Knowing this, Guy still rebelled by smuggling books home from his fireman job. Bradbury writes, â€Å" Without looking at [the book, Guy] dropped it to the floor†¦ He kept moving his hand and dropping books on the floor†¦When he was done he looked down upon some twenty books lying at his wife’s feet† (65-66). Though Guy was a fireman and books for a living, he began to doubt and rebel against his government’s idea of equality. As the government burnt books, citizens that normally obeyed the law began to rebel against it and collected books. This shows that even people who enforce the law might rebel against it, if they begin the doubt it. No matter how hard the governments try to suppress knowledge, everyday citizens who want knowledge will find a way to obtain it. Even in the world where everyone is allegedly equal, there will be people that are above others. In â€Å"Harrison Bergeron†, everyone in the world is the same, no one is prettier than anyone else and no one is smarter than anyone else. This is untrue because Diana Moon Glampers, the United States Handicap General, is able kill people. Vonnegut writes, â€Å" Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicap General, came into the studio with a double- barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor† (Vonnegut 4). Even though everyone is supposedly equal, the Handicap General has more power than everyone else. She holds the power of life and death in her hands because she is not the same as the other citizens. This shows that there will always be someone that has more power than the rest; thus proving that people will never be perfectly equal. In Fahrenheit 451, the government prevents any person to possess more intelligence than the rest of the population. People who try to gain more knowledge through books are sent to an asylum and their books are burnt to the ground. Montag asks, â€Å"‘ I-I’ve been thinking. About the fire last week. About the man whose library we fixed. What happened to him? ’ [Beatty answers] ‘They took him screaming off to the asylum’† (Bradbury 33). When people try to learn more than others, the government makes sure that they are removed so that no one is smarter than anyone else. Even though they send people in possession of books to an asylum, it does not stop people who want to obtain knowledge from collecting books. This shows that no matter how much the government tries to enforce equality, there will be people that strive to obtain knowledge. No matter how much censorship is used to make everyone the same, certain individuals will always have more knowledge and power than others. As people disagreed with the government’s idea of equality, they band together and form their own society. In â€Å"Harrsion Bergeron†, Harrison Burgeron wanted to start his own empire. He disagreed with the current government and wanted to rule the world. Harrison Bergeron states, â€Å"‘I am the emperor! †¦ I am a greater ruler than any man’†(Vonnegut 3). This shows that Harrison Burgeron wants to create his own world. He opposes the government’s law and plans on creating a different society before he was shot down. Harrsison Bergeron shows that even in the most controlled world, humans who want difference will try to make their own world. When Guy Montag ran away from the society he knew, he encountered a group of people that opposed the way the government works. This group thought that books and knowledge are important unlike the government. Granger says, â€Å"‘We’ll pass the books on to our children, by word of mouth, and let our children wait, in turn, on the other people’† (Bradbury 153). Granger and his group felt that books are important and that individual knowledge is more important than everyone being perfectly equal. They thought that the world is not ready for their knowledge. By having their own group with different ideas from the government’s, they have started a society where people can appreciate books instead of burning them. They have created a society that directly contradicts what he government is trying to accomplish. When people do not agree with the government, they will band together and form a society hoping to overthrow the law. Equality is an unachievable idea due to the fact that there are people who will rebel, be smarter or more powerful than others, and people that band together to form their own ideal society. The more a government forces their citizens to be equal, the more likely people will oppose what the government is doing. In both â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† and Fahrenheit 451, the government tries to censor the amount of freedom and knowledge every individual has, by calling it equality, but people had still rebelled against the government. Both stories show that equality is a truly impossible because certain individuals will always challenge what equality truly is.