Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

1. Harrison Bergeronby Kurt Vonnegut

2. WOTD • Humanist (N) – a person who practices humanism, which means that he: • Advocates human dignity and responsibility • Considers man the solution to man’s problems • Rejects supernatural and superstition Sentence: “I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I'm dead.” – Kurt Vonnegut

3. Discussion Web Reasons No Yes Are people equal in 2011?

4. Freewrite • Imagine what it would be like if everyone in the country were exactly the same and completely equal. • Jot down your ideas about what this society would look like. (Go with the grain here and pretend this is really possible.) • Share your thoughts

5. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.(1922 - 2007) • The man, the myth, the legend. This is the man who gave us Breakfast of Champions and Cat’s Cradle, among about 15 other sardonic, random, humanistic, and highly influential novels. • This is the man who survived the Dresden firebombing in WWII and went on to write Slaughterhouse Five to tell the tale. This is the man who faced so much tragedy in his life – his mother’s suicide, the death of his sister and her husband (Vonnegut raised their children), his own attempted suicide…This is the man. May he rest in peace. • Let’s read “Harrison Bergeron” so we can admire his greatness some more.

6. Discussion Web Reasons No Yes Are people equal in 2081?

7. Thoughts? Comparisons? Connections? • You know the drill. Let’s talk it out. • As Vonnegut himself penned in Breakfast of Champions, “New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.”