Thematic Comparison of “Harrison Bergeron” & The Giver

In “Harrison Bergeron” and The Giver, the attempt to establish utopian societies is portrayed unsuccessful.  The extremely controlled societies eventually lead its citizens to seek for freedom.  “Harrison Bergeron” and The Giver are both set in future societies, where the citizens allow themselves to be controlled because the value and knowledge of freedom has become nonexistent in the societies.  However, the main characters, Harrison and Jonas, rebel against the society as soon as they get an exposure of the reality:  forced equality.  In The Giver, as Jonas telepathically received memories of things that has been eliminated from his world, such as, love, beauty, color, joy, adventure, family and animals, he made the decision to flee the community and release the past memories to everyone.  This shows that through revelations of the past, Jonas discovered his world once having freedom and choices.  Subsequently, the revelations lead to Jonas seeking change in the society to return emotion and freedom to the world.  In “Harrison Bergeron,” Vonnegut wrote, “not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well.”  This shows that once Harrison took of his Handicaps, he was able to think properly.  With his thoughts not being controlled, he chose to break the rules and do what he wasn’t allowed to do: dance without handicaps attached to his body.  The societies of “Harrison Bergeron” and The Giver have failed to create an utopian society because the societies are not perfect in any way.  Consequently, as the stories progress, the man-made utopian societies gradually appear more and more dystopian.