Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

In the year 2081, society is perfectly equal. Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” depicts what a government-controlled dystopian society would look like. In the story, people are brought down to a set standard to make citizens of society who are stronger, smarter, or have better looks than others are all given handicaps that limit their capabilities by making them weaker, dumber, and uglier. The main character Harrison Bergeron was taken by the government for being especially gifted with traits that would make him better than everyone. He eventually escapes and attempts to rebel which was the leading cause of his death. The Enlightenment was a time and movement when people started to value reason and logic more than traditional

The story does not align with the common belief of the Enlightenment, due to the government having more control over people and the citizen’s freedom to think for themselves. A government that has too much control and power over its people goes against the idea of a limited government that has limits and only does what’s necessary for the people’s well-being, as was believed during the time of the enlightenment. John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed in a government “limited to the public good” and that “the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom (Locke 57). Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke and Jean Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that the role of the government was to serve and protect the rights of the people while holding a limited power, but in Kurt Vonnegut’s story “Harrison

Enlightenment ideals focused more on certain basic rights such as the right to life, liberty, and property. The sole purpose was “to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule” (Locke 114). Locke explains how people should have the individual right to make decisions free from a superior power or legislative authority. In the story, the superior power or legislative authority is represented by the handicapper general Diana Moon Glamper, her job is focused on oppressing those who have the desire to be free and think for themselves. For instance, when “Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper” (Vonnegut 12). He was an individual who was done with the way things were and was done being oppressed, so he broke free and rebelled against the government to seek change and individual freedom. His eventual death also conveys the government’s oppression of the people’s free