Harrison Bergeron Figurative Language

Too tall, too strong, too smart, too beautiful. The randomness of human nature creates a wide range of unique traits in many. It may appear unkind or unfair by favoring some and slighting others. It may even foster jealousy and resentment. Despite this, the uniqueness of nature and the endowments of some are what allow society as a whole to advance. This idea is heavily explored in the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut is an esteemed American author who authored many books and short stories during his illustrious career. In his short story “Harrison Bergeron”, he describes a society in which all the inhabitants are hyper focused on total equality and go to extremes to achieve this. Vonnegut emphasizes that enforcing

In the middle of the short story, the ballerina began to announce the news before she stopped to correct herself for her voice, which was “a warm, luminous, timeless melody” (Vonnegut 873). Due to the society in which they live in, everyone ensures that they do not possess any advantages. Because of the imposed equality expectation that is stamped into the minds of every individual, the ballerina had to stop herself to fix her voice, making it less competitive and therefore disadvantageous. Her act of correcting herself for being her true self demonstrates how equality can hinder one’s true identity. Instead of talking the way she would normally talk, the ballerina had to change it so she would be at a disadvantage, hiding her true identity from the world and forever keeping her trapped inside of her shell. Her natural-born talent, which was emphasized in the metaphor, could potentially produce beautiful music and make society more lively and bright. However, society prevents this from occurring and is unable to advance to create lovely tunes and melodies for everyone to enjoy. Moreover, towards the end of the short story, the ballerina displayed a photo of Harrison Burgeron to the world on the news bulletin, which highlighted his features and

In the world of “Harrison Bergeron '' the society craves a standardized population in order to avoid self-disparaging emotions which in turn foster competition. One way that they enforce this is the use of various handicaps, one being earpieces. One protagonist, George Bergeron is described as having a higher than average intelligence. To ensure George isn’t able to use his brain more than the rest of the population, the government forces him to wear an earpiece that plays sounds at ear splitting volume. About the earpiece, Vonnegu writes that it is “required by law” and that the loud noises are necessary to prevent “people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains,” (Vonnegut 872). The earpiece is used as a symbol to signify the discouragement of any critical thinking or advanced thought. It serves to block out any talent that may promote inequality, even if it is to their benefit. Furthermore it symbolizes how the government does not want their citizens to hear and analyze beyond the amount they deem appropriate. They do not want any sudden realizations to enlighten them. They are aware that his intelligence poses a threat to the rest of their society, because the intelligence of one can lead to the enlightenment of many. This supports the theme statement because to a society that craves equality stagnancy, progression is their enemy