Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

“The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” -Aristotle. When two things are compared with different values, they do not easily come together. This relates to the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, because the government changed citizens appearances and personalities because everyone was different. Harrison Bergeron was placed in jail on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. Then, Harrison escaped jail, interrupted a television program, and removed all his handicaps. Finally, the Handicap General was afraid of what Harrison might do without his handicaps, so she shoots him. Therefore, Harrison Bergeron’s motivation of the government to remove handicaps reveals how not everyone can, and not

Handicaps were objects that limited citizens abilities, and Harrison recognized how unfair that was and was motivated to overthrow the government because of it. The intelligent ones, must have a radio in their ear that impedes their ability to think. The beautiful must disfigure themselves, and the graceful and strong must wear weights around their necks. “And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (13). Although George is intelligent, the government wants everyone to be equal, so they make citizens wear these handicaps to limit everyone's ingenuity. Furthermore, Harrison wanted to overthrow the government. “Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen,”... “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” (15). Again, Harrison was upset at the government trying to change people. Also, because he was better than other people prettier, stronger, and smarter, he was sentenced to jail. Although he was put in jail, he is determined to extinguish handicaps by eradicating the