Werewolf, Harrison Bergeron, and a Continuity of Parks

When considered together, seemingly disparate stories can sometimes actually serve to illuminate each other better than a discrete reading of any given text. With that in mind, this essay will examine the short stories "Harrison Bergeron," "The Werewolf," and "A Continuity of Parks" in conjunction with each other, specifically looking at how each story challenges the reader's assumptions with a kind of "surprise" twist at the end. In particular, the unique way in which each story reveals the reality of the situation demonstrates how different stories may accomplish the same goal using means especially relevant to that particular story, because where "Harrison Bergeron" uses the bluntness of language to shock its reader out of a reverie, "The Werewolf" adapts a well-known fairy tale as a means of subverting the reader's assumptions, and "A Continuity of Parks" uses the structure of the narrative...
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