“Harrison Bergeron”: a Story vs a Film
While the short film, 2081, has many common similarities with its adapted version of the short story, Harrison Bergeron, they differ from each other to the point where it can change our whole view on who Harrison Bergeron is. They contrast from each other because the short film includes an unplanned scene where Harrison hid a bomb that activated the signal to reach all televisions when triggered, while the short story did not have this very important aspect at all. This is very critical because the bomb represents the most crucial act that humans use everyday: dependence.
In the story, Harrison Bergeron, the author missed what was really essential on what might have been impactful on the readers, the bomb shown in 2081. This bomb can be represent many things, but most importantly, the secret belief of it helping the lost people. In the real world, a bomb is used to help the defense side to protect its people from the offense and used to most likely end an ongoing feud. In this film, Harrison was seen as the bomb. Harrison was holding the weight of many lives that depended on him to save them and their closely, monitored lives. He wanted to end the never-ending fight between the people who had limited, restrained knowledge against the crazy and controlling government. But sadly, bombs have many negative side effects such as creating more destructive work after it is used. After it’s been used and didn’t affect the opponents at all, it will only stricken the defense’s laws even more so the same mistake wouldn’t happen again.
In the story and film, after the Handicap General killed Harrison Bergeron , upon on how the General acted in the last few seconds of the film, they could have enforced upon more harsh commands upon the clueless people so that they wouldn’t go up against the government like Harrison did. Therefore, this proves the importance and the effect of the bomb and what would happen if it were to be in the short story of Harrison Bergeron. It would change the views of the reader on Harrison instead of the violent and dangerous perspective of him that the story gives off. Such a small detail in the movie such as the bomb show two different perspectives on how the reader views Harrison.
In the end it would not make a difference as Harrison was gunned down by the Handicap General in both 2081 and Harrison Bergeron. The story Harrison Bergeron would of benefited gratefully from having the inclusion of the bomb seen in 2081. Without it both the movie and the story shed a different light on Harrison, who he is and his ultimate goal to save the handicapped forever.
