ipl-logo

How Does Harrison Bergeron Create A Perfect Society

983 Words4 Pages

Harrison Bergeron When society thinks about the Olympics, society tends to think about the competition. Society sits at their televisions and watches each rival show off their best abilities. Olympians want to show the world that they are the best physically, and mentally. Their goal is to win, to beat the other competitors that threaten their abilities, but how would the Olympics work if every competitor was equal to one another. If everyone had the same agility, strength, body type, and confidence what would the outcome be? Today’s society is molded by the uniqueness and individuality of one’s self. The idea that total equality can generate a perfect society is explored in Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron,” in which the strong …show more content…

Hazel and George Bergeron are the parents fourteen year old fugitive, Harrison Bergeron. George, was a man whose “intelligence was above normal, and had a little mental handicap in his ear” (1). George is a perfect example of what the government is fighting against. He is intelligent and strong, which is why the government weighs him down with physical and mental handicaps that halt him from letting his own individual and controversial thoughts develop. The government is afraid of individuals like George who will threaten their power over society. Hazel, on the other hand “has perfectly average intelligence” and did not have any physical or mental handicaps which illustrates that she is the perfect representation of the equality the government wants to enforce. Hazel herself says “who knows better than I do what normal is” (2). Hazel does not have a mindset of her own and is unable to recognize the adversities that George had to endure due to his natural abilities. Hazel even finds George’s challenging handicaps “interesting” and would have liked to “hear all the different sounds”(2). Vonnegut uses the characters of Hazel and George to illustrate the reasons why the government formed the equal and communistic society that they live in. Vonnegut’s society was formed to cater to individuals like Hazel who do not have much to contribute to society. Individuals like George Bergeron, who are stronger physically and mentally, are weighed down so as to be kept at the same level as those who are not as capable as them. Vonnegut demonstrates that this is the main problem of creating an equal communistic society; instead of handicapping richer, stronger, and smarter individuals, societies should help the weak to reach

Show More
Related
289 Words | 2 Pages

In the short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut the main message or propaganda is that all the people are all the same no one was treated different. Vonnegut appeals to the audience through ethos and uses the rhetorical devices and literary devices of hyperbole and understatement to support the propaganda. The propaganda (message) in the short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut is that all people are created equal and nobody should be treated differently. “All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution”.

Read More
714 Words | 3 Pages

Comparing and contrasting 2081 to Harrison Bergeron Admit it, one time you were bored or sat down with nothing to do and couldn’t help but imagine how life would be if everyone was equal, don’t even try denying it, you’ve thought of that at least once in your life, but as any good writer would do, they’d write their thoughts down and turn it into a story, that’s exactly what Kurt Vonnegut did. Just imagine living a life where no one gets compared to others in any way. We all wish for a society like that, but Kurt showed us how equality can negatively affect our society. But that’s not the our main idea in this essay, our main idea is to highlight the comparisons and contrasts between the story “Harrison Bergeron” and the movie version “2081”. To begin with, Both the story and the movie had the same introduction/ Opening; “Everybody was finally equal.

Read More
185 Words | 1 Pages

Hazel, who is of average intelligence, urges George to take off his handicaps, stating that she doesn't “care if [he] is unequal to [her]” (2). This depicts the actual

Read More
513 Words | 3 Pages

In modern society, people have seen many different types of government and made movies concerning them. The question that human kind keeps on asking is how much control the government should have over the people since it affects people in all aspects: economic, political, social, environmental, and others. In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, the government in the science-fiction society controls the citizens’ freedom in order to remain in power. Kurt Vonnegut describes how the government takes over the citizens’ every move by describing the mechanisms in place such as not educating the people and the laws passed to establish control over them and to end all revolts. For example, Vonnegut describes how “the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments… [of] the Constitution… [leads] to the unceasing

Read More
707 Words | 3 Pages

Hazel said to George, “ Take the handicapped off, it 's only here so that you can relax.” George said, “If that how it was, we 're all going back to judging and comparing.” Vonnegut’s thoughts on individualism are that being individual and acting a way that is unique doesn 't fit into our society and won 't be accepted. In the story, a “rebel” decided to take of his handicapped, and to become different and be free in how he is but he was brought down and shot dead by a officer.

Read More
65 Words | 1 Pages

The story “Harrison Bergeron” conveys the conflicts between the needs and ideals of society and the realities of individuals by showing that individuals feel ruled out of society. Of course, this creates an “idealistic” society by countering out individuals. This is shown by “they were equal every which way” ( Vonnegut 101). This shows that nobody had any individuality. Therfore creating the conflict in this”utopia”.

Read More
829 Words | 4 Pages

Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron is a short story published in 1961 that I would describe as having the theme of futuristic-science-fiction. The short is set in the year 2081 where in the United States new amendments to the constitution has equalized all humans. Although, the author does not mention how this dystopia came to be and if the rest of the world has equalized all human beings, it is clear to me that in this dystopia, equality is an illusion, equality is not real. As I read this short, it became more and more evident to me that this society was strange, and when I finished the short, I was convinced that this society was conformed to act and think in the way that they do, which unfortunately, for a country in year 2081, that claims

Read More
276 Words | 2 Pages

The society in “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, attempted to make a utopian society, but resulted in a dystopian society. This society wanted everyone to be equal. No one would be better, faster, or even smarter. They tried to achieve this by handicapping everyone in the community. This eventually created a dystopian society because they had been handicapped.

Read More
475 Words | 2 Pages

Humans are created by God to be different from each other, and that is what makes everyone unique from one another. A really important message from the short story “Harrison Bergeron” is how controlling the government is, and how they are limiting people and their freedoms. In the year 2018, everyone was equal. “They were equal in every way” (133). “Nobody was smarter than anybody else.

Read More
923 Words | 4 Pages

One common afternoon in the year of 2081, when everyone was equal, Hazel and George Bergeron were in their lovely living room watching television. Suddenly, a news reporter with a severe speech impediment came on. After trying many times to say, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” he handed it off to a ballerina who read, “Harrison Bergeron, age 14, has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.” However, in this short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut uses irony, shift and mood, and allusion to illustrated haw society would be if everyone was under the law of equality.

Read More
517 Words | 3 Pages

However, people do not have to conform to the standards set by society. In Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, society forced people to be alike, in every way possible. No one person better than another. However, it shows that handicapping those who have excelled in an area of life or have greater ability than another is an injustice.

Read More
1823 Words | 8 Pages

Kurt Vonnegut uses characterization to describe how the characters act in this society. Vonnegut also uses style to show how he uses science fiction and dystopia in “Harrison Bergeron”. The theme demonstrated in “Harrison Bergeron” is equality is not meant to make one person better than another. Kurt Vonnegut in “Harrison Bergeron”, demonstrates that equality based on characteristics is not a good thing for society. Harrison Bergeron is a short story based on the year 2081, where everybody is equal.

Read More
302 Words | 2 Pages

In “Harrison Bergeron”, each person was not truly equal. For example, the ballerinas in the story were prettier than the maximum people, so they were required to wear masks. Hazel, the mother of Harrison, believed that the ballerinas were beautiful since her mask was extremely ugly. Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicap General, forces them to be like the public and will punish anyone who says different. Consequently a few people enjoy being the same, it is not easy, and following the Handicap General’s rules is challenging.

Read More
589 Words | 3 Pages

George, Hazel’s husband, has been handicapped with two things: an earphone that administers a sound every 20 seconds and a handicap bag filled with forty-seven pounds of birdshot. While this might be a lot, George continues to follow the law. “Two years in prison and a two thousand dollar fine for every ball I take out… I don’t call that a bargain” (40). Hazel fails at convincing her husband to rest his handicaps because George fears the government and their capabilities. This being said, Vonnegut uses characterization to display George’s loss of the will to fight.

Read More
1055 Words | 5 Pages

Government Control Everyone has felt smarter or maybe not so smart, due to others intelligence once in their lifetime. In a world full of different people this can happen often. However, what if there were a world where everyone was equal? No person was smarter than the other, and everyone had the same level of intelligence. In the movie, Harrison Bergeron, he is a very gifted boy who is against a “government” that makes the entire society equal by handicapping the more gifted, down to the level of the less fortunate or incapable.(Bruce “Harrison”)

Read More

More about How Does Harrison Bergeron Create A Perfect Society

Related Topics

Open Document