Executions with Meanings

Francesca Saint-Fort

Professor Brookward

English 102

17 April 2013

Executions with meanings

Two different journeys taken by two different people at two different places, both with the same ending. Death is a fear that everyone has. But if a person could choose how or when to die, could that make a difference? Peyton Fahrquhar and Harrison Bergeron made it past that fear of death. “Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”, by Ambrose Bierce, talk about the journey that each of their main characters took to their deaths. Bertolt Brecht, The Mother, said, “Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life” (Death Quotes).

The way that a person lives its life can take a lot of weight off their fear of death. On one’s death bed, one can say “I’m glad I did that”, and rest in peace. In a world of equality, to excel in what one is naturally good at, can become extremely hard, or even almost impossible to do. Harrison Bergeron made a decision that led to his own execution. If the dead could talk, Bergeron would have said, after he got shot, “I’m glad I died with the feeling of freedom”.

Once death has someone cornered, that person can try to escape it. Unfortunately, most of the time, escaping death is highly unsuccessful. Peyton Fahrquhar, in his desperation of trying to mentally get away from his execution, he succeeds in escaping death. Sometimes getting away from death doesn’t mean to get away from it physically. Fahrquhar created an alternate ending to his life in his mind, while being in his delirious state right before he was executed.

Harrison Bergeron, being the close to perfection being that he was portrayed to be in the short story, made a drastic decision. He stood tall on top of that stage, while he had broken every rule in the book of society. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free” (Brainy quote). There was no freedom in...