Read the excerpt from "harrison bergeron." “you been crying? ” he said to hazel. “yup,” she said. “what about? ” he said. “i forget,” she said. “something real sad on television.” “what was it? ” he said. “it’s all kind of mixed up in my mind,” said hazel. “forget sad things,” said george. “i always do,” said hazel. how does this interaction between george and hazel develop kurt vonnegut’s social criticism? it demonstrates potential problems that occur in a competitive relationship. it illustrates the need for maintaining equality in a society. it suggests that women are more emotional than men. it shows how technology can dehumanize and desensitize people.

The above interaction between George and Hazel develops Kurt Vonnegut’s social criticism as:

It shows how technology can dehumanize and desensitize people.

The story “Harrison Bergeron” By Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. tells about the year 2081. During this period many amendments were made by the constitution to demolish inequality among the US citizens. The efforts were not made to empower and raise the standards of the handicapped. Instead methods were adopted to penalize people who were gifted with superior intellect, physical beauty or strength. The normal height, weight, appearance, intelligence and strength were decided considering the handicaps and the disabled people so as to equalize the society.

People with beautiful faces were asked to wear masks to hide themselves, intelligent people were forced to wear headsets that disturbed their brains and nerves with loud noises and annoying sounds. People with good physical body have to carry sacks of bird-shots so as to weigh down. This was the way which the Americans adopted to maintain the equality among themselves.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)