Post-Reading March Book Clubs; 1984

Fear and false happiness in a government are both bad traps that you don’t want to fall into. I believe however that it is worse to be falsely happy because you don’t know what is happening. I will use two texts that we have read in class to help me prove my points. They are “Harrison Bergeron” and Antz.  

    “Harrison Bergeron” is an example of a fear-ruled society. Their citizens have handicaps that limit their good qualities like strength, looks, and intelligence. They might put weights on someone who has good strength because they want everyone to be equal. The citizens know about the handicaps but can’t or won’t do anything about it because of the fear. They have seen their dictator kill anybody who overthrows the government. Harrison Bergeron is no exception. He is a 14 year-old boy who is so intelligent, strong, and handsome that he has extreme handicaps. He knows what is right and after seeing his family bow to the dictator he has enough. He crashes a ballerina show and for about five minutes, shows everyone that they don’t have to follow. Then the dictator came in and shot him to show they did have to follow. But at least you can see that in a fear-ruled society there is a higher chance for overthrowing the government.

    Unlike “Harrison Bergeron”, Antz is about a colony of ants where everything is for the colony. Their jobs are decided at birth, they are either a worker or a soldier. The workers work very hard and are even used as machine equipment like a wrecking ball when needed. The soldiers are sent into battle knowing most of the time that they will die. But they do it for the colony. They believe that their world is fine and that this is how everything is supposed to be. This is very dangerous because nothing will ever be overthrown. If they think everything is fine they won’t do anything.

  In conclusion, a false happy society is worse because you don’t know anything. How are you supposed to do anything if you don’t know what is wrong?