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Examples Of Dystopia In Harrison Bergeron

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A dystopia is a nonexistent place where everything is awful. Many stories written in a dystopian society tend to open up as if it was a utopia- the opposite of a dystopia. In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut the startup of the short story appears to be a utopia, and everything seems like a perfect futuristic society. However, it quickly becomes unmasked as a dystopia by the oppression and fear for this society to be “perfect” and “equal”.
"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." (Par 1). The start gives off the impression of a utopian society. Everyone wants one hundred percent equality, so this is the perfect society, right? The handicapper general creates "equality" by handicapping the qualities that manufacture …show more content…

In “Harrison Bergeron”, the characters are fearful and oppressed by the conditions of their lives. George Bergeron is smarter than average, therefore he has to wear a radio in his ear to scatter his thoughts once they became too in depth or too different (Par 3). The intense noises can get so severe that they leave George in a trembling mess without any remembrance of what he was thinking about before (Par 21). Everyone’s talents are oppressed by their handicaps. For instance, the ballerinas on the TV are weighed down with “sashweights and bags of birdshot” so they would be just as talented as the rest, or not pleasant at all (Par 10). Even when a ballerina went to read the bulletin on TV for the announcer, she squawked to hide her “unfair” voice (Par 42). George and Hazel aren’t even allowed to feel any remorse for losing Harrison years ago or even when they watch him get shot on TV due to their handicaps (or in Hazel’s case, just being her) distracting them and disposing of their thoughts (Par 82). Of course, this all goes back to the attempt to recreate everyone as

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One common afternoon in the year of 2081, when everyone was equal, Hazel and George Bergeron were in their lovely living room watching television. Suddenly, a news reporter with a severe speech impediment came on. After trying many times to say, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” he handed it off to a ballerina who read, “Harrison Bergeron, age 14, has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.” However, in this short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut uses irony, shift and mood, and allusion to illustrated haw society would be if everyone was under the law of equality.

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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.

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Harrison and his ballerina are the ones who are trying to make a stand, but not everyone can be like that, so Vonnegut made George Bergeron. He lives a very sad life, but who wouldn’t be sad all the time when forced to wear heavy weights and have an ear-piercing radio in their ear. His wife tries to talk him into taking some of the weights off, but he is so whipped by the government that he refuses to do so. George follows all the rules and submits to the government completely and he is that man that no one wants to be, the man that sits on the sidelines and watches the world go to hell little by little and doesn’t give a second thought about what will happen to him or the people around him.

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In his short story Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut uses an astounding amount of powerful imagery and diction to create the perfect scenes of the dystopian reality he creates. Throughout his use of imagery, Vonnegut creates scenes palpably imagined by readers. He uses underlying humor to lighten scenes of the morbid and macabre nature of the future where being different can be a death sentence. The future that is created in totality by Vonnegut is a dire scene created to be filled with a pastiche of people strung with handicaps to make them to be exactly the same as the “perfectly average citizen.” Vonnegut’s tone throughout is both dreary towards the bizarre and twisted dystopia that makes everyone equal, but is also somewhat insulting to those who do not bear handicaps due to being lacking both mentally and physically.

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