If one would to read and watch both the short story and movie version of Harrison Bergeron, they might find that the differences were more pronounced then the similarities. Some may say that the lack of similarities between the two were disappointing; however, some also may say that the differences added twist and turns throughout the movie.
Of course there were similarities even though the similarities between the two were slight, there were some. For starters, Harrison’s parents; his dad still gets shocks. In the movie, Harrison was trying to talk to his dad about the “equality” of everyone. While trying to tell his dad this, his dad got a shock sent to his brain, preventing him to remember what he was being spoken to about. His mom wasn’t so bright also; you could tell that she wasn’t so much there in conversations. The final similarity I found was that he does die in the end.
However, the amount of differences between the movie and short story were numerous. To start off, there were quite a few new characters added to the movie. In the movie, Harrison had a brother named Garth. Unlike Harrison, Garth wasn’t so bright. Another new character added was Phillipa. She was the one who recruited Harrison in to the secret services. She was also his girlfriend. In the movie, he was a part of the secret service government. In the short story, he was not; he was put in jail and later escaped. Even though in both versions Harrison dies, the way he dies it different. In the short story, he was killed by the Handicapper General; in the movie he kills himself to make a point.
The twists and turns were important. To start, even though similarities we all knew about kept us knowing what possible event might be coming up next, if the whole movie was just like that, well one it would be a very short movie, and two, it might just get redundant. The differences kept the movie going; it essentially kept everyone on their toes throughout the movie. In conclusion, even though there were many differences, the differences between the short story and movie were what kept them more interesting.
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