Why do you think Harrison Bergeron's age is 14?

[sazad100]

So Ms.Boyd brought up this one question in class that why is Harrison Bergeron's age is 14?

I think that Kurt Vonnegut gave his age 14 because he was targetting to the younger generation like us. May be he wants us to make our own decisions and learn to make the right choices. He wants us to have the freedom to make decisions and choices to make our own life better.

So this is what I think what about you guys?

[ExtremelyExtremeExtremist]

Harrison's Bergeron is 14 years old because that is the typical age where we are not aware of politics and think that rebellion is a good way to overthrow bad government.
Vonnegut is also saying that leaders shouldn't be young because older people know better than younger ones.

[brandonina]

Well, I'm not quite sure why he really characterized Harrison Bergeron as a 14 year old but I believe the actual purpose is to tell us how some young people tend to make inconsiderate decisions. Harrison Bergeron goes out the stage and says "I am the Emperor" out loud, which is an unacceptable behavior. There's a big possibility that he didn't really consider the consequences of himself being the emperor even if he failed to. He might have been unaware of the fact that communism passes on and that his actions don't change anything in the end. If he was older, though, he might have made a smarter decision of controlling himself from becoming another cruel leader who would eventually be overthrown.

I think this was what Kurt Vonnegut tried to convey that age matters.

[sorn]

I'm not quite sure also but for me, I think at the age of 14, its the time where we make mistakes and the age where we want to try new things because we want to discover who we really are. So we tend to do stupid stuff sometimes. It also target that, the "new generation" children's will be the one who changes the way our society works in the future. Kids will change/adjust the rules that "adults" had created because they have more knowledge, and has higher ability to do something due to the development of our world.

[lukejoo1092]

I think he made him 14 years old for a different reason. I think he was wanting to show how adults are so dull minded while children are filled with imagination.

Adults aren't as creative as children are. They have experienced too many things that they expect these results to happen even though they never tried anything. They get afraid or lazy to attempt things so they just go on without doing anything.

Children on the other hand are filled with imagination. What if? How about? Why? They are always filled with these questions that motivate them into finding the answers. Sometimes, the answers might be exactly what adults would have predicted. Other times, however, the results might turn out to be something unexpected.

Harrison's parents didn't care much about being equal again because they were afraid of the negative outcomes they were told about and believe that their current society is perfect. They have no curiosity nor doubts about it. But Harrison doubts it. Although he desires to take control of the society for himself, he believes that the current society is wrong and it should be changed. No other adult would have had the idea to oppose the government because they don't find a reason to do so. Children might do so since they would question why the government is like what it is now.

So I believe that Vonnegut wanted to point out how adults become thick headed, not perceiving the other possibilities while how children are creative and pursue what they want to know more about. How children are doing things that are more worth living for.

[nadiraamalina]

I think Vonnegut wanted Harrison to be right in between adulthood and childhood. As a fourteen year old, Harrison still has the idealism and open-mindedness of a child with the freedom and abilities recently granted with adulthood. As a young adult, he won't be so prone to childish mood swings, but his mind is still fresh and hasn't been dulled by the responsibilities of adulthood. He will also have the strength and athletic prowess of youth.
Also, his young age is meant to represent the next generation, as Ms. Boyd said.
I'd also like to add that children are more curious than adults. Harrison, being a very young adult might still retain that curiosity. I think that curiosity is a very powerful weapon that can be used against the government. By making everyone equal, they also stamp out curiosity. Had Harrison survived, he could've rallied the other teenagers and young adults up and together, investigated the problems with their government.

[dwsuh1]

I personally thaought author made it 14 since 14 is like age of teenagers being in puberty. Or author just choose age of 14 telling how yong kids are very rebelious know days and how they try to be ruler of everyone.

[jisu25]

I am going to have to agree with Stephen with the thoughts that Harrison is fourteen because in that age, puberity occurs to humans. If you guys think a few years ago or even now, weren't you guys sometimes even a little bit against your family sometimes.

[james]

Im not quite sure about the reason why the author characterized harrison burgeron as the age of 14 but I think age 14 is the age when people are having trouble about there identity.. or having problems as a fresh-teenagers? or as a "young blood" the author maybe is trying to show readers that they can change the future and change the things that the adults can't ever attempted to do. As it shows in the story, while Harrison Burgeron is going against the government even though he's only 14, other adults, who maybe don't like the law, don't even try to do the things what Harrison have done. Maybe it's because of those handicaps. But, I really think that there's more than just Harrison Burgeron who's smart and strong that doesn't want to follow the law

[munisa]

As everyone else mentioned this already, I think that the author made Harrison Bergeron 14 because that is the age of which we do stupid things without thinking about the consequences, that's just how it works.

[irin]

I think his age is 14 because young people has alot of imagination and young people make alot of mistake and they time is they are in puberty so they are tring to against with adult.

[sergeyfen]

I think that kids of age of fourteen are pretty irresponsible and author wanted to show it out. Everytime and every kid wants to look mature and very powerful but it never happens. Author illustrated how such behavior could have been gone wrong if it really happened in our lives. Finnaly he wanted to show that kids should think before doing something.

[yeajinchoi]

I'm not quiet sure why but I think Harrison's age was set to 14 to exaggerate how unacceptable his actions were. Being 14 years old is the period in our lives when most adults forgive and understand teens for their curious actions. But in the story, Harrison, although he was 14, his sudden declare of being an emperor was not on the scale of being okay. Also Harrison's young age and the government's harsh punishment on him also demonstrates how cold-hearten and cruel our government is capable of being.

[woojongpark]

I have similar opinion with Daniel. Fourteen, hmm... I think 14 is a bridge that connects child and teenager. When people are 14, they start to be aware of society and environment they are in, but do not actually ponder too deeply about it. Therefore, they cannot make very wise decisions sometimes. Harrison was one of these people. He made a rather rash decision, and was killed eventually. I think what Kurt Vonnegut is trying to say is people, especially us, should think before we make decisions.

[bilal15]

i think vonnegut target the younger generation because the new generation which is us are more talented and have more knowledge than the adults and we have the ability to change the society but sometimes new generation does mistakes so i think vonnegut is referring that 14 is the age where people do mistakes because they are a child and an adult.