Idan LavianDaniel GomesEnglish 101 sec. JBUB Number: 50087728Any writer who wants to gain the audience’s attention through writing must use rhetorical strategies to persuade his audience. The usage of rhetorical strategies can be associated with past experiences and beliefs .The writer’s background and belief system will influence his/her power of writing. Kurt Vonnegut, a civil rights activist, was a skeptic satire writer who believed in equality of human dignity. Due to his skeptical nature, he was cognizant of what could happen if human equality would be applied to human ability is. Using rhetorical strategies such as irony, simile, and exaggeration in his story, Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut tries to show his audience that the concept of equality of ability would be ridiculous.Simile is the first strategy Vonnegut uses. He illustrates equality of ability throughthe lens of skepticism. For example, when the mental handicap radio transmits sound in the story, a sound like a car crash is heard. George, who is subject to the disturbing sounds of the handicapping device in his ear, is then unable to concentrate on his thoughts. This is because “ every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.” Another sound George hears is “ like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer”. We are told, “ His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.” Vonnegut is effectively employing similes to vividly describe the horrors Georgeexperienced. We clearly see the government trying to prevent any opposition, at any cost.These similes show the danger, under the fictional regime, of having rebellious thoughts against equality. Vonnegut is trying to predict the mistake society could make if equality is pursued in all areas. Civil rights activists must proceed with caution, so as to prevent any radical attitudes towards equality. This demonstrates to the readers through logos thatif plain equality would take over society, this dystopia will occur.Vonnegut therefore effectively shows his audience, the civil rights activists, that when trying to approach equality, they must understand the difference between equality of rights and equality of abilities. Civil rights are essentially human rights. When civil rights are granted, everyone has a level playing field to apply their abilitiesAs a result of his skepticism, Vonnegut is concerned that people will conclude thatequality of ability is the same as equality of rights. Vonnegut describing the equality of ability using irony demonstrates this. The constitution of the government in the story states, that any individual who has an ability that is better than average must become average. The government executes these laws by applying to every gifted person, handicapping devices and harnesses to make them average. Instead of technology helpingpeople’s needs, in this story technology works backward, limiting people’s abilities instead of helping. The radio device was meant “to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.” And glasses that “ were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.” The devices and harnesses that were meant to handicap people are shown to give everyone equal ability but takes away their civil rights. Once equality of ability is implemented, it will automatically negate the rights of a person to live to the best of his or her ability.Along with illustrating logically why literal interpretations of equality will lead to a future dystopia, Vonnegut also uses powerful imagery to express dystopia. At the point when Harrison is considered equal to any other person, his image is “ Halloween and hardware” and “ he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lens.” Those devices were meant to suppress his natural abilities, which also simultaneously took away his personal rights.After taking all his harnesses from his body, Harrison “ revealed a man that wouldhave awed Thor, the god of thunder.” and he “reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun.” with his empress. At that moment he was not equal to society in ability, rather he was accomplishing an expression of his potential. The inevitable result is that, “Diana Moon Glampers, the handicapper general, came into the studio with a double barreled ten gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.” Her reason for such violence was Harrison’s revolt against the laws of equal ability. She took away his life fortrying to live to the best of his ability. Using this imagery, Vonnegut is saying that equality of ability should not be welcomed to a society because this will lead to automaticexclusion of equality of opportunity. It should then be understood that not all kinds of equality are good for society, only certain ones.The logic and images Vonnegut is using are complemented by pathos. He is claiming that when equality comes into play, people will lose their emotion. This lack of emotion is demonstrated by George’s lack of emotion when his son was sent to jail. The reason George could not think about it was that, “ it was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very hard.” and “ George, while his intelligence was wayabove normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear.” Even when he could identify and empathize with Harrison, “ the realization was blasted from his mind instantly by the sound of an automobile collision in his head.” When Hazel forgot what she was crying about, George tells her “ that’s my girl”, instead of wondering what she could be crying about. Basic empathy and familial feelings are absent, which is emotionally ironic. HenceVonnegut is showing his audience that complete equality of ability can take away people’s feelings normal towards one another. Vonnegut is worried that forcing equality in all areas may lead to a lack of emotion in depth, even toward relatives. This shows the audience on an emotional level, that equality of ability should not be considered a goal ofsociety.These rhetorical strategies integrate Vonnegut’s idea of extreme equality of ability.From his skeptical point of view, Vonnegut suggests to his audience that the concept of equality of ability could lead to