Answer:
The answer to the question: Vonnegut uses satire in this excerpt by:___, would be: using words that make the reader realize that what the author actually means is totally the opposite of what the words express at their face value. It is almost as if the author himself were laughing at his own joke, expressing one thing with the words he uses, but truly meaning something totally opposite.
Explanation:
This excerpt here comes from the short story "Harrison Bergeron", from author Kurt Vonnegut. The story narrates the events that take place in the future, after apocalyptical events, when the world, and especially the United States, supposedly finally reach true equality among all people not just in physical, but also mental and emotional aspects, through the imposition of several Constitutional Amendments that make it so, especially the 211th, 212th and 213th, and also due to the due diligence of the supreme authority, the United States Handicapper General. Almost throughout the entire story irony, sarcasm and satire are used to emphazise that the words used by the author, and what he actually wants to convey, are two complete opposites. In this excerpt that becomes evident with the tone that the words give, like when the author states: "The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren´t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way." Which is denied later when we find out that people have not really reached equality, they simply have been forced, through different strategies, to look and act the same; but equality has never truly been reached. That is the irony, the satire, in all this.
