Étude de deux histoires ‘‘Harrison Bergeron’’ de Kurt Vonnegut et ‘‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’’ de Gabriel Garcia Marquez (document en anglais)

Difference: A Conflict

Both stories ‘‘Harrison Bergeron’’ by Kurt Vonnegut and ‘‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez treat the theme of ‘‘difference’’ in a different manner. Vonnegut focuses more on equality versus Harrison’s dissimilarity, while Marquez illustrates the theme of compassion versus cruelty when the villagers discriminate the abnormal old man with enormous wings. Those themes are represented in the actions and statements of the characters.

In the short story ‘‘Harrison Bergeron’’, members of society are living in a world of equality where there is no place for competition and freedom and no place for distinction. Diana Moon Glampers is the authority figure and she enforces egalitarianism. They are all physically and intellectually the same. People even become used to their handicap and turn out to be conformists except Harrison Bergeron. He is the character in the short story who does not accept to be like everyone else and wants to reveal everybody his real person. When Harrison Bergeron escapes from jail and removes his handicap harness and his straps that support five thousand pounds on television, he exclaims, ‘‘I am a greater ruler than any man who ever lived! Now watch me become what I can become!’’(Vonnegut). This speech signifies his rebellious nature against the rules of society. After tearing his straps, he has the feeling to become the man he always wants to be. His objective is to show everybody who watches television that nobody is naturally equal, so he snaps off the musicians’ handicaps and removes the ballerina’s mask to show her beauty. They dance like never before until Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, shows up and kills them. They are punished because they manifest their personality and their appearance without the permission. This is the reality of Diana Moon Glampers where citizens should be all equal against the reality of the main character who wants to expose his difference.

In the short story ‘‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’’, the untypical old man is treated with both compassion and cruelty. When Pelayo and Elisenda see the old man with enormous wings in their courtyard, they immediately notice that he was different. Therefore, they call a neighbor woman because they think that she knows everything about life and death, so she could see the old man. She instantly told them, ‘‘He’s an angel’’ (Marquez 525). As she pronounce this, the perception of the society changes. The day after, everybody comes to see him as if he was a circus animal. The owners of the house even decide to charge money to those who want to see the angel. Adults in the short story are not familiar with the outside world. For example, in the first days, people wanted to see him standing, so ‘‘they burned his side with an iron for branding steers’’ (Marquez 527). The manner they used to approach the old man seems like herd mentality where people are all influenced and convinced he is an angel. Everybody sees and treats him as an abnormal man except the child who is open-minded and treats him as a normal person, which is who he is.

Both stories are similar on some aspects but with different manners of presenting them. In ‘‘Harrison Bergeron’’, everybody lives their lives as average people and in the ‘‘A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’’,

...