Compare and Contrast Essay on Two Kinds, Perfect Strangers, and Harrison Bergeron

Introduction

In every story, different authors have different ways of writing styles, themes, conflicts, and characters. In most cases, the authors build a conflict in the story requiring the characters to act differently. The authors use the response of the characters to enlighten, educate, and challenge the readers on some of the things affecting the society. For instance, in fiction stories, the authors create an imaginary scenario which challenges the readers on how to solve challenges and conflicts arising in modern society. Different situations and the characters' identities play a major role in influencing how the characters respond to the challenges arising from the conflict created by the author. The paper focuses on comparing and contrasting how characters in "Perfect Strangers", "Two Kind', and "Harrison Bergeron" handle the problems associated with their identities and situations in the story.

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Comparisons

Battle for Control

In all the three stories, the characters in the stories battle to control the challenges they are facing. The battle for control is a strategy where a person refuses to be controlled by someone or a situation. Firstly, Harrison Bergeron battles to control his talents and intelligence. Vonnegut uses fiction to tell a story of 120 years later in future. During this time, every person in society is equal. At this era, nobody was supposed to be smarter, talented, or quicker than others (Vonnegut 14). Those who were found to possess intelligence and talents were required to put handicaps which limited their use of their talents or intelligence. Harrison Bergeron is one of the main characters in the story. According to the story, Bergeron is an athlete, genius, and handsome. Despite his positive capabilities, Bergeron is being punished by society by wearing extensive handicaps with the aim of achieving equality.

The conflict arises when Bergeron feels it is not right to punish people because of their talents. Bergeron's abilities were being controlled by the rules in the society which in the process of creating equality, limited the abilities of others (Vonnegut 15). In response to the challenge, Bergeron decides to fight against the oppression by the government through battling to take control of his abilities. Bergeron becomes one of the brave citizens ready to battle against oppressive punishments for his abilities. Additionally, Bergeron does not only fight for himself but for the world to understand and appreciate the full potential of other people. His actions to battle for control became intensive when he urged the musicians to remove the ballerina's handicaps and perform without them. Bergeron wanted the musicians to take control of their talents.

Battling for control is also evident in "Two Kinds" story. The main character in the story is Jing-Mei and her mother Suyuan. In the story, Amy Tan creates the conflict of the Asian and American culture. Suyuan and Jing-Mei originate from Asian culture but later migrated to America. The conflict arises because of the cultural diiofference between America and Asia.

After settling in America, Jing-Mei's mother, Suyuan, wanted to raise her daughter with respect to American culture (Tan 1). As such, Jing-Mei is forced to concentrate on material things rather than living in a self-full filling life. The story is written in a time when the American society was working tiresomely to rebuild economic growth destroyed during second world war II. Suyuan asserts that being in America, one should conform to American dream which drives you closer to materialistic success. As such, she influences her daughters' thoughts on how to view wealth and success.

Additionally, another conflict arises when Suyuan focuses to make Jing-Mei a celebrity by learning how to play the piano. However, Jing-Mei is not interested in playing the piano but the mother is forcing her because a Chinese girl just played piano on live television (Tan 2). Having been raised in Asian culture, Jing-Mei did not have the freedom to refuse her mother's control. However, the American culture allowed children the freedom to choose their own destinies.

Jing-Mei finds herself in a difficult situation because is unable to control her life.

Jing-Mei battled for control to solve the problems she faced. Jing-Mei believed that she couldn't be like someone despite her efforts. She believed she could only be herself and the only way to do that was to battle for control for her own destinies. Jing-Mei achieved that by disappointing her mother in all aspects that she did not like. Jing-Mei did not get straight A's in her education, she refused to become class president, she did not go to Stanford as her mother expected her, and finally, she dropped out of college (Tan 5). Years later, Suyuan gifts Jing-Mei with a piano during her birthday. It seemed that Suyuan finally realized she could not control her daughter's life.

In 'Perfect Strangers', Denny's parents battle for control after realizing that Denny was suffering from Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). HLHS is a fatal disease which many babies do not survive (Casil 315). One of the characters in the story is Carolyn, Denny's mother who faces the challenge of losing her baby. Carolyn realized the situation of her baby when she visited a doctor checkup. The doctor explained to Carolyn that babies born with heart defects barely lives.

In some instance, Carolyn thought of aborting the baby because she felt it was more human than the heart defect. However, Carolyn decided to battle for controlling the future of her baby by undergoing a genetic modification of the embryo (Casil 316). She did not want to accept the baby's fate despite being sick. Carolyn did not want the HLHS to take control of her baby's destiny. Carolyn underwent a series of therapies where the doctor inserted DNA into the child's heart so that it would regenerate itself. The baby started growing healthy and later was born whole without problems. Later, Carolyn realizes that Denny is a gifted child who possesses intelligence and several talents.

Contrasts

Civil Disobedience

Unlike the characters in 'Two Kinds' and 'Perfect Strangers', Harrison Bergeron uses civil disobedience to solve the challenges affecting his character in the story. Civil disobedience refers to the refusal of a citizen to obey the laws of a government or any ruling organization. Civil disobedience is also referred to as non-violent resistance. In the story, 'Harrison Bergeron" the government has enforced many amendments with the aim of achieving equality. During this era of future, equality implies that everyone is handicapped. Therefore, nobody is allowed to do better than the other.

The actions of the government to handicap everyone is an act of unfairness to its citizens. Handicapping someone does in any sense provide equality but only takes joy and freedom of the citizens. Harrison, a major character in the story, realizes that the government is oppressing the talented citizens by making them handicapped. As such Harrison faces the challenge of freeing himself together with handicapped citizens from the ruling government at the time. Harrison decides to solve the problem by practicing civil disobedience against the laws of equality imposed on talented and intelligent citizens.

Harrison becomes rebellious against the harsh rules of equality which limits him and other citizens to use their talents. At one time, Harrison urges the musicians to remove their handicaps of ballerinas and perform to their full potential. Harrisons feels that people should have the right to exercise their full potential without being controlled by laws which create unfairness against its citizens. Just like other civil disobedience leaders, Harrison is hunted by the government and jailed. However, he manages to escape prison and continues to incite people to remove their handicaps and exercise their full potential. Harrison risks everything and later his resistance against the government gets himself killed.

Science & Technology

Unlike the characters in "Two Kinds" and "Harrison Bergeron" the characters in "Perfect Strangers" uses science and technology to solve the problems and their challenging situations. After Carolyn realized her unborn baby was suffering from HLHS, she decided to solve the situation with the help of science and technology (Casil 315). Over the years, the advancement of science and technology has influenced our way of doing things. The advancement in science and technology has brought a significant difference in the field of medicine and surgery. Carolyn's doctor explains to her that children with HLHS eventually die because the heart fails to pump blood. Carolyn finds herself in a situation where she does not know on whether to abort the baby or wait for fate to take its course.

Eventually, Carolyn decides to save the baby by trying a genetic modification of the heart (Casil 316). Genetic modification is the use of science and technology to regenerate the DNA of a body organ. Carolyn agreed to undergo a series of genetic therapies to save the baby. During the therapies, the doctor inserted DNA to Denny's heart. As time progressed, the doctor noted significant improvements in the baby's condition. The embryo grew without other problems and eventually, Denny was born whole without other significant problems.

Denny was not just born healthy but also possessed intelligence and talents which mighty be caused by genetic modification he underwent before birth. In Carolyn's situation, science and technology were the best solutions to save her baby's life. Additionally, Carolyn continued to use science and technology whenever Denny had a generic implication.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the characters in Two Kinds, Perfect Strangers, and Harrison Bergeron are faced with different challenges and problems. Each character solves the problem in a different way depending on the situation created by the author. However, in all the three stories, the characters battle for control as a way of solving the challenges they are facing. In the battle for control, Jing-Mei, Harrison Bergeron, and Carolyn refuse to be controlled by the challenging situations and look for ways to control their destinies. However, each character faced a different problem thus the characters differed in how they handled some problems. For instance, Harrison Bergeron uses civil disobedience to fight against the oppressive government. On the other hand, Carolyn uses science and technology to save Denny' life

Works Cited

Casil, Amy. "Perfect Strangers". Asterling.Typepad.Com, 2006, https://asterling.typepad.com/PerfectStrangerAmyCasil.pdf. Accessed 28 Nov 2018.

Tan, Amy. "Two kinds." Rtsd.org, 1989, https://www.rtsd.org/cms/lib/PA01000218/Centricity/Domain/319/TwoKindsfulltext.pdf. Accessed 28 Nov 2018.

Vonnegut, Kurt. harrison Bergeron. Mercury Press, 1962.