Give two examples from the story that show how the mood of the story becomes more serious after Harrison has been shot.

Answer and Explanation:

"Harrison Bergeron" is a short story by author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. It is set in the year of 2081, when the American government has gone to great lengths to provide social equality. People who have advantages such as beauty, strength and intelligence are forced to wear handicaps. Harrison Bergeron is a tall, strong, handsome, and intelligent 14-year-old boy who, for those reasons, is forced to wear all sorts of handicaps to make him average. Harrison, however, decides to go against the status quo. He removes the handicaps, convinces a ballerina to do the same, and they both dance, elegantly soaring, while it is all being broadcast on television. The mood at this point is of lightness, relief, happiness:

And then, in an explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang!

Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well.

They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun.

They leaped like deer on the moon.

The studio ceiling was thirty feet high, but each leap brought the dancers nearer to it.

It became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling. They kissed it.

However, the Handicapper General shoots and kills Harrison. This is the anti-climax of the story, the moment when readers are disappointed, having their hopes frustrated. The mood is now the opposite of what it had just been. Readers feel hopelessness and despair. Even Harrison's mother, who cannot understand what she has just watched due to her reduced intelligence, is sad about it:

You been crying" he said to Hazel.

"Yup," she said.

"What about?" he said.

"I forget," she said. "Something real sad on television."

the answer should be

the simple past tense of strive.

hope this !

what: when quoting a source, use the author’s words verbatim, or word-for-word. this means you shouldn’t change any grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. put quotations around the words to tell your reader where the quote begins and where it ends.

you also need to acknowledge the author. for example, if using mla format for your research paper, you should have in-text citations with the author’s name and page number listed at the end of each quote.

when: use quotations to provide concrete examples to support your claims. using direct quotations is a great way to build your credibility on the subject. it’s also a good idea to quote your source when the author states things in a powerful way. if you think he or she said it best, then use the exact words to share the ideas.

example: in the short story “a jury of her peers”, mrs. hale compares mrs. wright to her caged bird, saying “she—come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself. real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery. how—she—did—change” (glaspell).

paraphrasing

what: paraphrasing differs from quoting because you restate the passage in your own words. since you don’t use the author’s words, you don’t need to use quotation marks. however, you still need to acknowledge the author for his or her ideas.

when paraphrasing a text, you should communicate the full meaning of the text; don’t change the meaning. it can be a condensed version of the text, or it could end up being longer than the source it’s paraphrasing.

when: you use paraphrasing when you take notes, or explain a chart or diagram to someone. paraphrasing highlight the important parts of a larger text. it also allows you to simplify the ideas for your readers.

example:

original: “it was no ordinary thing that called her away–it was probably further from ordinary than anything that had ever happened in dickson county. but what her eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving: her bread all ready for mixing, half the flour sifted and half unsifted” (glaspell).

paraphrase: as mrs. hales walks around mrs. wright’s home, she notices that the kitchen is in disarray as if she was in the middle of baking bread (glaspell).