Choices, Grammar, Vocabulary

Harrison Bergeron

Choices
 
Writer’s Notebook 

1. Collecting Ideas for an Essay Analyzing a Character 

Comparing characters. 

When you analyze a character, you might find it useful to compare that character with another. If you were analyzing the wise Mrs. Jones in “Thank You, M’am,” you might compare her with Roger, the boy who tried to mug her. Or you might compare a character in one story with a character in another story. Harrison Bergeron, for example, could be compared with another hero: Superman or King Arthur or Star Trek’s Captain Picard. Take notes on how you might compare Harrison Bergeron or any other character in this book with another character. Save your notes. 

Explaining a Position 

2. Why Compete? 

Even if it were possible to remove all competition from society, would such an act be a good thing? Consider the effects of such a drastic action on sports, business, and education. Present your ideas in the form of a letter to Vonnegut. Open your letter with a general statement telling what you think of Vonnegut’s satire. 

Creative Writing 

3. Made for TV 

Rewrite the story of Harrison Bergeron as a TV movie. Block out scenes for a thirty-minute show with three commercial breaks. As you write, remember the network’s policy on violence and language.

Drawing

4. The Bergerons: A Cartoon Strip 

Plan and draw a cartoon strip of this story. Draw the characters as you imagine them, with all their clunky handicaps, and put their words in speech balloons or captions. 

Grammar 

Misplaced Modifiers Are Confusing 

For clarity, careful writers place modifying phrases and clauses as close as possible to the words they modify. 

Misplaced modifiers can be funny. The comedian Groucho Marx used one in the movie Animal Crackers. “One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas,” Groucho said. “How he got in my pajamas, I’ll never know.” 

Below are three examples of how descriptions from “Harrison Bergeron” might sound if modifiers were misplaced. 

1. Two of the eight ballerinas had collapsed and were holding their temples to the studio floor. [Where should “to the studio floor” be placed?] 

2. The photograph of Harrison Bergeron jumped again and again, as though dancing to the tune of an earthquake on the screen. [Where should “on the screen” be placed?] 

3. They remained suspended in air, and they kissed each other inches below the ceiling for a long, long time. [Where should “inches below the ceiling” be placed?] 

Try It Out 

Rewrite each sentence below so that the misplaced modifier, which is underlined, appears nearer the word it modifies. 

1. George wore a mental handicap and seven pounds of bird shot in his ear. 

2. Hazel watched the TV set talking happily about nothing. 

3. Harrison stood at the center of the studio with a red rubber ball for a nose. 

4. The dancers were gunned down by Diana Moon Glampers kissing the ceiling. 

As you proofread your writing, make sure you have placed modifying phrases and clauses near the words they modify. You might want to underline modifiers and draw arrows to the words they modify. Can you make the relationship clearer? 

Vocabulary

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