Carter I

Jordan Carter

Mrs. Weaver

LNG 312

9 March 2011

Who am “I”?

Imagine being a part of a society in which individuals are not allowed to think or act on

their own terms. This is actually why the stories “Harrison Bergeron”, Anthem, and Gattaca

resemble each other in a very strong way. Each story provides a strong understanding of how the

world has failed to realize the consequences of having no freedom. Each main characters signal

the message that they are individual and that they should not be told what they should be, such as

when they will die or what their life mandate or job will be. Ayn Rand the author of Anthem,

Kurt Vonnegut, the author of “Harrison Bergeron”, and Andrew Niccole, the producer of

Gattaca all try convey that we should not keep our talents latent, that we should speak out and

try to stand out.

Harrison, Equality, and Vincent struggle to become individuals in their societies. The

message resonates in each story is individualism: the principle or beliefs in independent thoughts

are actions. The stories all have their beliefs in common because they all try to tell everyone

what they will be for life. An example of individualism is when Equality say’s Equality stated

that“We are all in one and one in all”. I think equality was trying to say that he is with his

brothers all the way because their society made him believe that there is no such thing as I and

that he is not going to betray his people and neither will they. Just like Equality’s people,

Harrisons people are handicapped, but not in a mental way a physical way. In relation to
 Carter I

Equalities people the people of Harrison’s society are also controlled by their leaders or dictators

as we could say. Harrison’s society are handicapped because the dictators do not want the people

to be different. They don’t want some of the people to be more athletic than others. Vincent

states “We have discrimination down to a science.” These are the words of Vincent the main

character of Gattaca. I think that Vincent is trying to say that his society started to discriminate

so much that they actually genetically engineered their citizens and told them what they would

be, when they would die ect… All three characters have a lot of courage to go to these extents.

All three of these societies discriminate their people in a similar way. Again I use this

quote “We have discrimination down to a science” Because it is sting that they genetically

engineer their people to fit a certain description. Another good quote is when Vincent says “I am

not Jerome I am Vincent.” His society discriminates so much they it forces Vincent to try to be

someone he’s not. Equality said he wanted to be in the house of scholars so he can learn but he

was made to be a street sweeper. This shows that Equality was forced to do something or be

something he did not want to be. In all three stories all three characters were something they did

not choose to be so this shows how they discriminate.

Harrison, Equality, and Vincent all showed that they were not scared to be themselves

and took a stand for their society. Each character displayed great heroism. Harrison stated that he

was going to be emperor from now on and he started to snatch off everyone handicaps and take a

stand. This showed us that if Harrison could be individual that we can also. Equality stated “I

will not serve for my brother neither will they serve for me.” Equality showed that he will not

accept the fact of no individuality. Vincent also would not keep his talents latent either “ I will

not be genetically engineered for their sake.” He also took a great stand.
 Carter I

All of these text give a great understanding that we should not be kept down by the

militant people of our society. The final thoughts for the reader is that we should all keep our

selves individual and not turn into latent world. We should want to be a great individual society.