Mental Handicap Fifteen Minutes Essay - 1,843 words

Year 2081 and everyone in America is equal to one another. Nobody is smarter, better looking, stronger or quicker than anyone else. It is because of the 211 th, 212 th, and 213 th Amendments to the Constitution. It is April, Handicapper General's men take away George and Hazel Bergeron's 14 -year-old son, Harrison.


The couple are sitting watching ballerinas dance on television. George has an intelligence way above normal and is required by law to wear a little mental handicap radio in his ear, which is tuned into a government transmitter. George looks tired to Hazel so she suggests he make a little whole in the 47 -pound handicap bag to let out some lead balls. Instead, George says he doesn't want to be put in prison for doing something like that.


He said if everyone started to do that, then they'd be back to the Dark Ages where everyone was competing one another. Meanwhile, the television program was interrupted for a news bulletin. One of the ballerinas took the bulletin to read since the announcer was having trouble reading it. She said that Harrison Bergeron had escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion for plotting to overthrown the government. He is regarded as extremely dangerous for he was under-handicapped and a genius. The police photograph of Harrison was flashed on the screen.


Instead of wearing a little ear radio for mental handicap, he wore a huge pair of earphones and spectacles with thick wavy lenses. They made him half blind and gave him banging headaches. All of a sudden, Harrison entered the studio. Everyone was down on their knees, expecting to die. Harrison cried he was the Emperor and was going to rule. He tore away the handicaps, headphones and spectacles and threw them against the wall.


He said the first woman to rise to her feet would be his Empress. When one of the ballerinas arose, Harrison snatched off her mental handicap from her ear and her physical handicaps, including her mask, which then exposed a beauty. He got the musicians to play their best while he and his new woman danced. They danced first on ground and then high into the air, just below the ceiling. They kissed the ceiling and then they kissed one another.


Then came in Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun, which she fired twice, killing both harrison and his mate. The Bergeron's' television burned out and George asked his wife why she was crying. She said she forgot. George told her that it's good to always forget sad things. Stefano Roi was only 12 when he asked his father, who was a sea captain and the owner of a fine sailing ship, to take him on board as his birthday gift. He told his father that when he grows up, he would own more beautiful and bigger ships than his.


Stefano wandered around on the ship; since he's never been on one, he asked many of the sailors questions. When he had gone astern, he saw that at two or three hundred meters away, he was something in line with the ship's wake. When his father found his son, Stefano asked his father about it. His father, at first saying he saw nothing, looked through a telescope and turned pale. He told his son that he had seen a colombia. It was a mysterious shark whom only the chosen one sees.


No one can see the colombia except the victim and his blood relations. The colombia pursues him for years and years until it has succeeded in devouring him. He asks his son to promise him to never go to sea, and will always stay on land. His father sent him to study at an inland sity. When he returned home for summer vacations, he would hurry to watch the sea and always find the colombia there. The idea of a creature waiting for him day and night became a secret obsession for Stefano.


He grew up to be a man, and found a well-paying position in a store in the city. After his father died of an illness, his magnificent ship was sold by his widow. He inherited his father's fortune, and the thought of the colombia tormented him more and more. When he was almost 22 years old, he resigned from his job to move back to his native city. There he continued his father's trade. Stefano began to sail and the colombia trudged along.


He would always ask his companions whether they ever saw anything, pointing at the wake. They did not. He sailed and sailed and became so successful in his business. One day, realizing he was getting old, he wanted to face the colombia at last. He asked the crew for a small boat to be lowered into sea.


He talks to the colombia, who talks back to him. The colombia says that Stefano had made him swim so much, wasting him with fatigue. That he was misunderstood. The colombia had not pursued him around the world to devour him but to give him a pearl, which brought luck, power, love, and peace of mind to whoever possessed it.


But, it was too late. The colombia said goodbye and sank into the waters forever. Two mo ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: mental handicap, one night, fifteen minutes, colombia, small boat

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