“It stops here. With me and you. It ends with us.” That is a quote from the book It Ends With Us by author Colleen Hoover who sold millions of copies worldwide. (Hoover, 361.)
This is what happens in Kurt Vonnegut Jrs. dystopian story, “Harrison Bergeron.” The government put handicaps on people so no one is better than each other. There is no more competition. Harrison, the protagonist, is different than everyone else.
In the story Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut explores the idea of total equality. His use of irony which is present for the duration of the entire story reveals the concept that equality may not be as good as it seems. The unpredictable ending, surprising situations, and shocking character reactions all serve as illustrations to help convey Vonnegut’s theme. The society Vonnegut creates is ironic because it is based off the United States-- a place which values freedom-- but in the pursuit of equality, citizens lose their freedom to be themselves. Through the creation of the handicap system above average citizens are required to wear physical and mental handicaps in order to maintain a fair playing field for all.
Being the Same Being equal by the law and being equal are two very different things. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut uses a satire to make fun of a future in which everybody is equal, in every which way. In the story, Harrison was rebelling against the government and how they handicap people, so that they are all at the same level mentally and physically. In this society, the people in the government are the only people that are not handicapped, or supposed to be handicapped, and they intend to keep it that way. They will go to great lengths to keep their overruling power as it is shown in this part of the story, “It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled
Giving people limitations in order to make everyone completely equal does not work out, and that is displayed in “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. Making people handicapped until they’re at the same level as others is demoting them in a way that shouldn’t happen: “They weren’t really very good- no better than anybody else would have been, anyways” (Vonnegut). Since the ballerinas had handicaps to make them average, nobody knows what would classify as poor dancing versus extraordinary. Everyone has the same skill level and sets, but only because they are being weighed down. Additionally, equality is wonderful when it’s incorporated in the right ways.
The short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is about a society that is controlled by the government whose sole purpose is to make everyone equal. The government is able to use their dominion to prevent insurrection opposed to them by using a sundry methods of approach. One of the tactics the government used to control the residents in their society was the use of handicaps. The function of handicaps in their society was used to prevent anyone surpassing one another trying to make everyone equal.
Equality is a great idea that we should strive for and achieve; however, being made equal physically and mentally by the government could be very unfair. People should still have characteristics that make us different. One can be diverse but still equal to his neighbor. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s use of point of view, conflict, and imagery in his short story “Harrison Bergeron,” illustrates how difficult living in a world where everyone is the same would be.
