Examples Of Social Injustice In Harrison Bergeron

In the short story Harrison Bergeron social injustice lies at the heart of the conflict. Vonnegut paints the picture of what seems like equality but it’s not. Throughout this satirical and dystopian story the author tries to convey how society forces people to lose their individuality, yet depicts how some individuals try to rebel to it. Vonnegut highlights this aspect by attributing to each character of the story a handicap with which they are forced to cohabit obliging everybody to be equal and how television can be utilized for persuasion. Harrison Bergeron is set in 2081 in the United States. In order to earn physical and mental equality among the citizens, the government tortures them by assigning them handicaps. For example, the beautiful had to wear ugly masks to cover their faces, the intelligent had to listen to piercing music to avoid them from thinking and the graceful or strong had to wear weights. Everybody respected the law some because they were afraid of the consequences, some other surrendered to the laws and some others started to break down and

Television is used as sedative and a mean for relaxation, in fact Vonnegut makes constant use of it in the story. For example, an important scene portrays George and Hazel watching the ballerinas dance on the screen. Television is important because it is also used as a mean of propaganda. Also the ballerinas need to carry weights and this can be a form of propaganda because it shows how also people who can be considered role models accept the handicaps. Television is also used to alert the viewers on who is trying to rebel to the laws. An example is when Harrison’s picture is shown on the screen and the government sends out a warning about him. Television is utilized to intimidate the audience to what could happen if they broke the law making the state of terror with which they cohabit even