Harrison Bergeron Character Development

Kurt Vonnegut, an author from Indiana, is most famous for his science fiction short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, that takes place in the future world. The characters live in a dystopian society where the government forces everyone to be equal to each other. Citizens are forced to wear handicaps and weights to make them equal to everybody else. For example, George Bergeron wears a sensor in his ear that makes noise every once in awhile to prevent him from thinking and he is also forced to wear heavy sacks full of weights across his body. By writing this story, Vonnegut was trying to exhibit that equality in everyone is nearly impossible and dangerous. He uses character development in order to advance the theme by giving descriptions of the characters

His son is Harrison, although he can barely remember anything about him because of the ear handicap he has to wear that rings every so often, throwing off his concentration. He is also constrained with sashweights and bags of birdshot that make him equivalent to everyone else. His wife, Hazel, suggests that he takes off some of the heavy bags and George replies with, “If I tried to get away with it then other people’d get away with it and pretty soon we’d be right back in the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else” (41). This quote is proof that George follows the rules and he definitely doesn’t want to go back to the time when everybody was not equal. George is still an intelligent man even with the handicap going off in his ear every 20 seconds. When Harrison appears on his television screen George says, “ My God that must be Harrison!” (43). The fact that George remembered who his son was with the handicap going off proves his way above average in intelligence. Even with the handicap preventing George from being intelligent, he still is smarter than Hazel and this is a great example that equivalency in all people is

She is a very emotional woman and cares for people. Hazel cried when she sees her own son, Harrison, on television but she doesn't remember why she was crying when she is asked by George. Her below average intelligence prevents her from remembering things just like how George can’t remember things, this causes them to be equal to each other. Hazel doesn't mind going against the rules as long as nobody finds out. “Go on and rest the bag for a little while. I don’t care if you’re not equal to me for a while” (40) She also contradicts herself by saying “I’d hate it” (41) if everybody was competing against everybody else in society. Hazel sympathizes with the newscaster when he messes up on life television when she says, “That’s all right… He tried to do his best he could with what God gave him.” (41) This shows that Hazel doesn’t care about people’s flaws and cares for all