Harrison Bergeron

a) TITLE AND AUTHOR of the story

-Harrison Bergeron, written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

b) BIOGRAPHY of the author

-Vonnegut was born November 11, 1922.  He was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana.  He attended Cornell university in 1940-1942, and then got sent by the army to Carnegie Mellon university in 1943. He served for the army in Europe before getting captured and being inprisoned. After he returned from the army he married his high school girlfriend and they had 3 children. To support his family before his writing career took off he worked three jobs. He was a news paper reporter, a teacher, and a public relations imployee for general electric. In 1959 his writing career finally took off with his first book, "The Sirens of Titan." He died in 2007

c) SYMBOL: Find a picture or artwork to post with the story that symbolizes something in the story. Explain what the picture symbolizes at the top of the post.

d) RESPONSE: At the end of each of the stories, you will find a series of questions – add four of the questions to your post and answer them using complete sentences.

e) CRITICAL THINKING: For each of the stories, meet with a group of classmates and together share your answers to the following questions. After meeting with your group, post your responses (one word answers are not appropriate – explain all your responses).

i) Why do you think the author wrote the text?

-I think he wrote the text to show that humans can't be made perfect, there will always be flaws.

ii) What does the author want you to think?

-I think he wants me to think about what would happen if everyone was equal. I don't think that would've worked because we need to have some people smarter than others for a civilization t work properly.

iii) Do you belong to any of the groups in the text?

-I think I would belong to the people who rebel against the handicap.

iv) Does the story remind you of a real-life event (your own or others)?

-No it doesn't really remind me of anything. This story doesn't seem to relate to real life situations as well

v) Does the story remind you of another book or movie on a similar topic?

-It reminds me of "The Uglies" because they tried to alter society and there were still flaws.

vi) How does the story help you think about social issues and social justice?

-It makes me think that society needs different levels of intelligence to function properly, society will never be flawless. I think people should, IF ANYTHING, Make people better and not handicap them down.

vii) What action might you take from what you have learned?

-When I rule the world, I will know not to try and make everyone equal because society needs a wide variety of people.

viii) What big question has this text left you with?

-Is society ever going to be perfect?