Miyake 1

Elena Miyake
Y. Garza
English II-5
November 20, 2014
Equality
Today, among numerous people have been advocating equality, how do you think of
equality? What do you think how equality must be? Although there are several ways to think
about this term, the Declaration of Independence describes how equality must be as the
American principles of equality. Following the principles, all of the nations in the United States
are equally free to achieve their own dreams without the oppression of the government.
Compared with the principles, Harrison Bergeron and Anthem describe the equal societies in
false means, and these stories play an important role to make this issue in more thoughtful way.
Though these stories and American principles of equality, I felt that equality must mean the
rights and liberty of men to achieve their own dreams as an individual, and this is what the
United States has formed.
According to the Declaration of Independent, all persons are created equal, and they have
unalienable rights include life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. It also says everyone has right to
improve the government. These principles are what Americans learned from their colonial
period. At the period, people in the colony were suffered from the high taxes due to the
oppressive society. Through the declaration, they finally got the liberty from the oppressive
society. Today, the declaration is working for the all nations in the United States as the American
principles of equality. Although there is still a gap between the poverty and wealthy in the
United States, everyone has individual liberty and equality. We all have rights to make our life

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better by our efforts. Thus, there should not be any gaps between the individuals such as gender
and race. Thus, human rights are protected by government, and it doesnt mean oppression. Even
though we still have several problems about equality, the American government did reach to the
truly equal society.
Among numerous books which warn and mention about equality, Harrison Bergeron and
Anthem have strong sights about this term. The authors of the two stories described the stories
and their societies with a lot of ironies in order to emphasize the results of the oppressive
government which is opposite from liberty. In Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut described the
society that everyone was taken down to the same low level in order to pursue equality. Thus,
people in the society must wear handicaps to make them literally equal. As a result of this equal
society, the announcers have impediment, the dancers cant dance well, musicians cant play
instruments well and people cant think for long time. These are the ironies toward the oppressed
equal society, and the similar things happened in Anthem as well. In the novella, Rand described
the society that everyone must be in a collectivism group by rejecting individuals. As a result of
the oppressive and collectivism society, the civilization at the period has degraded. People in the
society are totally ignorance; all they did for two-hundred years is make candles. Also, the
people in the society dare not to talk to the others because everyone must agree with everyone
else; he/she knows what he/she thinks might be different from the others thoughts. In
consequences of both stories, the quality of men degraded and they lost liberty and human rights.
The oppressive governments present in the stories show the importance of individual liberty.
As we noticed from these stories, equality must not be oppressed by the society or
government. Equality must present with liberty and human rights. Thus, American society
doesnt reject or oppress individuals. We are free to think, to achieve and to decide our own life

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in the society. However, the societies illustrated by these stories reject and oppress individuals in
order to reach the equal society. People in the societies lost freedom to get happiness. They
reached to equality by oppressive government, but they could not get their own happiness as an
individual, and I believe the equal societies are totally wrong. As mentioned above, these stories
describe we need to have liberty and equality in true means in order to get equality while
showing the oppressed equal societies. They are showing we have to be equal as an individual, as
our own freedom and as our own selfish means to get our happiness without oppression of the
government.
A lot of people throughout the world used to be controlled and suffered by the oppressive
societies. The United States was also the one of these oppressive societies, but Americans
reached to the liberty and equality by their efforts. Now, we all are able to be living equally in
our society, but everyone in this world is not able to get equality and liberty yet. As we can learn
from Harrison Bergeron and Anthem, the term equality is easy to treat in false means, and it is
really hard to reach in true means for everyone. However, someday, our struggling such as what
the U.S. government is doing and our advocating for equality will get the truly equal society.