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Harrison Bergeron: Dystopian Society

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In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the conflict between society and individuals is highlighted. This conflict is explored through a dystopian society where citizens are forced to wear handicaps to make everyone equal. The handicaps force individuals to conform to a specific standard where differences in abilities, strengths and intelligence are not accepted. “Harrison Bergeron” conveys the conflict of society versus individuals through its dystopian setting and the oppressive government’s control over the citizens. The author conveys the conflict of society versus individuals through the dystopian setting of a world where everyone is "equal." The story is set in the year 2081, when the government has implemented extreme measures to ensure that society remains equal, including handicaps and "handicap radios" that force people to experience physical and mental distractions that prevent them from thinking and achieving greatness. For example, the protagonist, Harrison Bergeron, is described as a "brilliant and handsome" individual, but he must wear a "handicap radio" and a "forty-seven-pound handicap bag" that, as the narrator states, "dragged him down and sapped his strength." This physical handicap serves as a metaphor for society's attempt to limit the potential …show more content…

For example, the Handicapper General "required that all children wear a mental handicap radio" that sends a loud noise to distract them. These rules are oppressive and limit the individuals' freedom and potential, thus forcing them to conform to the ideas of the government. Additionally, when Harrison Bergeron rebels against the oppressive government, he is taken away by the Handicapper General, showing that the government will not tolerate any acts of

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In addition this story a character name harrison bergeron who was in a jail because he tried to take off his handicap and he also tried to plot to overthrow the government. Another character named george also had to wear a handicap and every twenty seconds a transmitter would send a sharp noise to keep him from using unfair advantage of his brain. The theme of the story is being equal isn’t always fair. Body paragraph 1: These 3 paragraph will explain the theme that being equal isn 't always fair. The first piece of evidence

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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.

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Even though society under the Handicapper General is meant to be fully equal, the handicaps that are issued only serve to highlight the differences between the citizens. The handicaps are visual spectacles that are meant to hide peoples’ strengths, but instead they show exactly where some people are better than others, and by how much. For example, George is in possession of an ear radio that is supposed to make him of equal intelligence to his wife. The fact that he is smarter than her is shown through his handicap, much like how it is easy to tell that “two of the eight ballerinas” are smarter than the other six because they winced when their ear radios went off (8). Similarly, the reader is made aware of how much stronger George is than Hazel through how she remains unburdened while he has to wear “forty-seven pounds of birdshot, which was padlocked around [his] neck” (9).

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In the story "Harrison Bergeron," it tells of a dystopian world where people had to wear devices (handicaps) to make them equal, even though their perception of equality is not the same as most people would perceive it. The main characters are Hazel and George, who are Harrison's parents. They introduce themselves and explain to us how their world works. Hazel has "average" intelligence and looks, while George has a higher "intelligence," so he has to wear mental handicaps that play sounds to stop him from thinking too much. As they are watching ballerinas with physical handicaps on TV, a news report comes on and explains how Harrison has escaped from custody and " looked like a walking junkyard’(45) since he has so many handicaps due to his physical appearance and his mental capabilities.

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Harrison was born with strong masculinity, attractiveness, intelligence and society disables these attributes in order eradicate the competition. Harrison is forced to wear handicaps and was brutally murdered for his attempt to overthrow the government by exposing the harsh reality that too much equality can do more harm than good. Harrison’s struggle with society can be seen when he “[h]ad outgrown hindrances faster than the H-G men could think them up [...] whanging headaches besides”, giving a broader look on why he was outcast (Vonnegut). Harrison escapes this conformed idea of egalitarianism and tears “[the] straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper” (Vonnegut), in front of the audience and townsmen. Townspeople were also disabled and restricted from obtaining thought provoking ideas, but some knew that things weren’t quite perfect.

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Comparing and Contrasting Utopia to Harrison Bergeron Rosalie Roffler | Language Arts Per. 3 | September 11, 2016 How can two almost opposite societies have so much in common? Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s short story, Harrison Bergeron, a dystopian society, and Sir Thomas More's book, Utopia, (obviously a utopian society), have many similarities in their ideas about society, although the way they carry out their ideas is very different. Both books have almost the same basic concepts when it comes to beliefs and their ways of life. One of the beliefs that both societies have in common is that everyone should be treated equally.

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The story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is about a couple, Hazel and George Bergeron, in the distant future when all people must be equal. This equality is reached in the form of handicaps. Weights are placed on the strong and athletic people in society, masks are forced upon the beautiful, and loud noises are constantly blasted into the ears of the intelligent to prevent them from thinking. While most equality is often thought of as good, the story shows a much darker side, using the government’s forceful equalization of the people. “Harrison Bergeron” uses multiple perspectives to highlight the costs of equality paralleled in today’s society.

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Imagine, you’re living in a perfect world and everything about life is great. That is until the government takes over and schemes together a plan to make everyone equal by adding handicaps to over excelled people. By making everyone equal, the whole entire world is in sake for a dangerous situation caused by the effects from the handicap. This is what the short story “Harrison Bergeron” is based about. Some dangerous possible situations that can happen from this includes: handicap effects on the human body, total charge from the government, no entertainment and a massive breakout.

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This world is fascinated by power; anything that intel’s bossing people around or making decisions for other people, is what most people would want. The Handicaps are only used on those who are above average. In the story Harrison’s mother, Hazel, is known as a dumb, oblivious, women who does not need the handicaps because she has proven her lack of knowledge. Harrison Bergeron was a one moment a hero and the next a regular guy, hungry for power. Harrison personifies people in our world today, who would do anything for money, fame, and

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One can infer that this is why Harrison Bergeron (George’s son) rebelled against this so-called “utopian” society. Being punished for being different is what it has come down to in this story. Harrison Bergeron is, “a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous” (Vonnegut 136). Harrison has heavier handicaps than anyone else. Instead of a small ear radio, he had to wear a huge pair of earphones.

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“Harrison Bergeron” is a unique story, in the sense that it takes place in 2081 in a dystopian society where everyone is equal. No one could be smarter, better-looking, or more athletic than anyone else. They are made equal with mental handicap radios for those who are intelligent, hideous masks for those who are beautiful, and heavy weights for those who are strong. The main character of this story, Harrison Bergeron, has a conflict with the American society in 2081. The internal conflict in Harrison’s mind is that the mental and physical handicaps affect the people’s thoughts.

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