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Hiding Your Differences In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

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Everyone's different, but everyone also shares something alike with someone else. So we're all different and the same. The author of “Harrison Bergeron” named Kurt Vonnegut Jr. makes the point clear in his story. He has multiple themes but there are two very clear ones that stood out the most to me: hiding your differences and sometimes being the same isn't always the right answer. Hiding your differences is the first theme because everyone has disabilities so that nobody is better than anyone else. One of the first lines in the story is “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal.” Nobody is stronger than anyone else. Nor are they attractive, smarter, or more talented. People do the things they are not good at so that nobody has any real skills. The better you are, the more disabilities you have. “Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a mental handicap radio in his ear.” So now that everybody is equal, they think their life is good and nobody gets mistreated or treated better than anyone else. In fact, the equality is a law and you would have consequences for trying to …show more content…

Well not in Harrison Bergeron. In Harrison Bergeron, they bring out their flaws and hide their perfections, so that everyone is all equal and nobody is better or treated any better than anyone else. Whenever Harrison decides to cherish his perfections, things don't go well or expected for him. It's illegal so, nobody may be unique. And the decisions he made were very unique and bold, and that's not how it flows in his time or place. Everyone hides their differences to avoid the same tragedy that happened to Harrison whenever he showed that he was brave. People admired him. Everyone uses all these handicaps to cover up some of the blessings in their life though. It's normal for them to hide their

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