Simar1

Dusty Simar

L. Weaver

LNG 31

16 February 2011

The Men Who Defy Society

We may think the future is going to be better, but we are wrong. “Harrison Bergeron” is a

short story written by Kurt Vonnegut. It is about a fourteen year old boy who is a genius and

good looking, but his society doesn’t like that. Anthem is a novel written by Ayn Rand about a

society where the word “I” is not to be spoken but instead you say “We”. Finally in Gattaca

written and directed by Andrew Niccol tells the story of Vincent a man whose genetics stop him

from doing what he dreams of, which is going into space. He switches bodies with a man named

Jerome which lets him work his way up in the business of space travel.

His society forces him to wear thick and wavy glasses to distort his vision and give him

headaches, so he cannot think straight. He also wears huge headphones that send a sound

through his head very twenty seconds so he can’t think. One day when his parents were

watching TV and a news cast came on saying watch out for Harrison because he had broken out

of prison. He was in there for suspicions to overthrow the government. During the broadcast

there is a loud stomping and Harrison comes on to the TV and says “I am the emperor, I will

rule like none have ever ruled.” Then he chooses an “empress” which is one of the ballerinas he

rips off her handicaps and she is very beautiful. Harrison also takes off his handicaps and forces

the orchestra to play for him and the ballerina and they start dancing around. As they ate
 Simar2

dancing the handicapper general (the one who thinks of the handicaps) comes in and shoots

them both.

The novel Anthem is about a man named Equality 7-2521. He lives in a society where they

worship the word “We”. He takes the job of a street sweeper to discover the secrets of his

society. In doing this he fell in love with a girl named Liberty 5-3000 whose life mandate is to

work the fields. Eventually the two run away into the “Uncharted Forest.” While in the forest

they make bows and arrows to fend for themselves. When they got deeper into the forest after

a few days they find a house from the blackest transgression (the times that we live in now). In

the scene of the house Equality finds the unspeakable word which is “I”, then he finds the

sacred word EGO. This is where the story ends.

The final piece of literature is Gattaca. This movie is about a man named Vincent who

challenges his society’s beliefs by “borrowing” a man’s name and blood so he can go into space

and prove to his society that genetics don’t choose your fate. He almost got caught a few times

doing this. There was a murder in Gattaca and his old self was a suspect. He made it all the way

through the investigation until his brother Anton the investigator who discovers who is brother

is and challenges to an old school swimming game that they use to play as kids. Anton almost

drowns and Vincent saves him. The story ends with Vincent finally going into space.