This short story reminds me of Feed. The characters in this story are completely controlled by the government and don't really think for themselves. One thing that is different from Feed and this story however is that people don't have a choice in this story while in Feed, only a majority of the population has their minds controlled. An additional similarity is the feeling I get while reading these two works-it is one of disturbance. The idea of people not remembering anything, and being completely controlled by a piece of machinery that is ultimately controlled by other men is terrifying. It takes away everything that makes a person a person and a unique person at that.
One section that I found very interesting in this reading was the very first paragraph. The first couple of sentences make the reader feel good-there is no discrimination, or prejudice between people or groups of people. As you read the rest of the paragraph however, you begin to think twice about how good equality really is. Is it necessarily a good thing that nobody is stronger or quicker than everybody else? I think Vonnegut is suggesting in his story that if full and total equality is to be reached people will have their essence taken away from them. What makes them human (their minds and ideas) will be stripped away. In addition the people who decide what is "normal" control everything. I think Vonnegut is asking his readers to reexamine what equality means and caution against extremity. I think he is also asking his readers to reevaluate technology and the dependency it is capable of producing.
After class on Friday I just wanted to make a couple of points about Vonnegut's short story. Through trying to make everyone equal in this story, they actually accentuate the differences in people. A good example of this is the ballerina's and how the beautiful ones are forced to wear an ugly mask. By wearing the ugly mask however, they are showing everyone that they are exceptionally beautiful and stand out. In class we also made a connection to the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers we read much earlier in the semester. Even though both were written in completely different time periods and by different people they are both asking the same central question-How much government control do we want? It is a question that should not go away easily. It should require thought and reflection continuously. I think Vonnegut is trying to make the distinction between equal rights and equal abilities in this short story and caution against complete equality.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading this piece of work, I also constantly had images of "Feed" going through my head. That was due to the fact, that this writing shows how technology is controlling their lives and what will happen, if this continues on.
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