Equality In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

Ashlyn Thompson

Eastern Arizona College

English 102: Written Communications

Mrs. Callie Ruiz

4/18/2023

Total Equality

"Equality of opportunity is freedom, but equality of outcome is repression" (Dick Feagler). In this quote, Feagler states that people should have equal access to all opportunities and all things. However, when these opportunity outcomes become equal, people are restrained and unable to reach their full potential. The world wishes for gender, racial equality, and equality of rights. In many cases, these are important, but total equality in our world's mental and physical aspects is impossible. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. shows this in the short story "Harrison Bergeron." Vonnegut's story exhibits what it could be like in 2081 if politicians

They face equality in every aspect of their lives, from physical to mental equality. The robust ones had weights making it so they could not move smoothly; the ones with perfect vision had glasses to give them headaches and make their vision worse; the intelligent had radios in their ears that broadcasted noises at random times in the day, causing the listener to lose focus. The Handicapper General was in charge of handing out the handicaps, and the government threw anyone who opposed the amendments or their handicaps in prison. This idea worked until Harrison Bergeron rebelled against the government. He rebelled because he did not believe it was fair that he had every handicap that others had and more. They threw him in prison, and after being there for a while, he escaped and tried to fight against the government. His escape is proof that even with handicaps, nothing can ever be fully equal, as he is still more robust and more intelligent than the guards. The extra handicaps could not even stop him from being more powerful than others in the world. The government killed him to make their society equal. Killing him was their only way of making their society equal. They took the most extreme action to convey that offering people the same things is more important than trying to put everyone down to the lowest person's

Hazel does not deal with any handicaps; the only ones she has are the ones she was born with, not the ones the government issues. Her husband has weights and a radio that plays every once in a while. Whenever it plays, she asks her husband what the sound is like this time. He tries to explain the sound to her, and she wishes to hear it herself. Hazel thinks all the different sounds would be interesting to hear, like an occasional surprise. Even though she does not deal with handicaps, she wishes she could and could hear the sounds and be similar to the others. Hazel can never understand how it feels to deal with handicaps. She can ask her husband to tell her about the sounds or to take off his weights, but she can never fully understand how it feels. Vonnegut illustrates that it is impossible to force everyone to be equal because someone will always want what others have, and Hazel is the perfect