What will the world be like in about a hundred years? Kurt Vonnegut, JR. describes his ideas about the future in his short story titled “Harrison Bergeron.” “Harrison Bergeron” is a story that takes place in the U.S. in 2081. It is a satire about a futuristic dystopian world where the government tries to make everyone equal. Looking closely at how Vonnegut develops his characters, setting, and theme in the story will give a deeper understanding of the satire and what the author is making fun of. The characters in “Harrison Bergeron” are the biggest part of the satire. In the story all of the characters have some kind of handicap that keeps them from being better than everyone else. George Bergeron, one of the main characters in the story, has to wear a radio handicap in his ear that makes a noise every 20 seconds to …show more content…
Vonnegut uses a futuristic world to show what the world would be like many years later if society continued on the path it was on. “The years was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution's, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General” (5). Vonnegut uses this futuristic world to influence the readers by making them think about their own world and how they think. In the story the government is trying to create a society where everyone is equal and no one is different. This influences readers to think about how people compete with each other for everything and how everyone is striving to be the best. Vonnegut wants readers to compare this world to their own world and think about what their world will become if they continue on the path they are on. The setting leads into the theme of the