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Harrison Bergeron
In the Future
In the future, the heroes are those who stick
to their individuality and do not let society get a hold of them.
When the individuality is taken away in any futuristic setting, the results are never positive.
-Fahrenheit 451, Feed, Harrison Bergeron.
Acting out of Character
-George and Hazel Bergeron have Harrison.
-George is above average, and has had siren noises implaned in his ear to inhibit his thoughts.
-All who are not average are given a "handicap."
-Harrison is too a genius, and put in jail.
-When he escapes, he announces to the world what is right, but is shot for his differences.
Lady Macbeth
-She begins to fall apart and not feel
so dominant anymore, but rather
helpless.
-Reverts back to the helpless and
dependent image of what woman were supposed to be like at the time.
-She dies from the "illness"
Macbeth
-Decides to conform to his wife's thoughts and kills Duncan.
-Ends up killing more after this, and
slowly loses himself.
-This results in his eventual death
as he is killed by Macduff once
Macduff realizes that Macbeth
over threw the king.
-Those are just a few examples of why being an individual is so important, and why conformity leads to the general demise of people.
-It may start off small scale, but if individuals stick to their own thoughts, and don't act against what they believe, more good can be done and a better fate can be guaranteed.
-Gang killings
-Holocaust
-Death of Nathan Price
-Many people who committed these crimes would never do this on their own, but once their ideas are amplified in a group, the results are deadly.
"All this equality was
due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution" (Vonnegut 20)
Heart of Darkness
-The darkness takes Kurtz' self away
from him. He dies because he loses his identity.
-Last words are "the horror, the horror"
-Jungle converted Kurtz back into his most primitive form, just like everything else in the Congo.
-All must be done to maintain individuality and self.
Henry David Thoreau had said that
"Conformity may dominate our lives, but there is always the chance to make a mark, to become more of an individual than a clone. Losing one's individuality and one's own mind is like dying. You are no longer yourself."
-Similar to Feed, when the government can control all that people view and all of their knowledge.
-Everyone starts developing the same glitches.
-Note how nothing acquired is ever for the better.
Actions Explained
The Question-
How does the nature of one's thought processes, whether it be to think for oneself or to follow the thoughts of others, determine the fate of that person?
-Conformity is constantly pressed upon people by all those around them.
-When an individual does not think for themselves, and falls into the easy trap of conformity, then find themselves losing their identity; or they do not notice losing anything, and blindly lose themselves.
-Many decisions made by characters can also be seen in real world scenarios.
-Psychological explanations can justify why certain people do certain actions, and how these actions determine their fate.
-An individual can conform in ways that make them do bad things, bringing forth the classic idea of how "sometimes good people do bad things." But why is this the case?
-In society, an individual can conform just like those characters in books, and lose their identity, and consequently "die" as a person.
..One will make better decisions when their mind is not polluted by the group..
Group Polarization
The Kitty Genovese Case-
-Girl was murdered outside of her apartment complex on July 7, 1935.
-37 neighbors watched through their windows, and not one called the police.
-Called each other, and if their neighbor did not call the police, the individual would not either.
-None of them thought for themselves, and it resulted in the death of another person.
-"If they don't, I won't"
-False-consensus effect-imperative to not fall into this trap.
-When individuals are in groups, they act
much more rashly than they would it they were in their own,
-Their ideas polarize, and they become much more heated about their topic.
-This explains why when people conform to group standards, they do things they normally never would have done.