Effects Of Harrison Bergeron

While the kind of equality that people strive for today is largely beneficial, extreme equality can have detrimental effects. Over the course of history, numerous struggles involving equality among minorities have arisen. From the fight for equality among different races to the ongoing struggle that women still face today, equality will always be seen as a goal for those who may be affected by it. While equality can mean more opportunities for others and prevent unjust discrimination, the fight for equality can be taken to levels that could potentially be harmful to some. This extreme equality is exaggerated in the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., where everyone in the world is governed by complete and utter equality.

Some might argue that everyone being the same would allow a more unified and peaceful society, but the effect the implementation of such totalitarian laws would have on the individual citizens would far outweigh the potential benefits. For example, in the story, Harrison's father is one of millions of intelligent people who are forced to wear handicaps to bring them down to a common level. This has a negative effect on their ability to think and communicate effectively. They are reduced to the level of everyone else, and their individuality is suppressed. Similarly, the ballerinas in the story are forced to wear handicaps to bring them down to the level of everyone else. “They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in” (Vonnegut para. 10). Here it expresses the extremes that society has implemented in the attempt to make everyone the same. The ballerinas are burdened with weights and physical deformities to force them into normality. They are no longer able to express their creativity through dance or to stand out from the crowd. They are reduced to a level far below themselves, and their individuality is

A famous quote by Milton Friedman in his book Capitalism and Freedom states that: "A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both” (Friedman 177). This quote shows how putting prioritizing equality above all else can cause the loss of freedoms for both individuals and society as a whole. In “Harrison Bergeron”, this concept is proven several times, with the most prominent example being the handicaps that talented people are required to have. “[The ballerina] must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred pound men” (Vonnegut para. 40). This emphasized the fact that a balance must be struck between the pursuit of equality and the preservation of individuality, freedom, and creativity. In the attempt to impede the grace and beauty of the ballerina, they only made her stand out more, which negates any attempt to make her indistinguishable from everyone else. This goes to show how ineffective these measures can be, even to the point of