Summary Of Harrison Bergeron

Throughout Kurt Vonnegut’s fictitious short story “Harrison Bergeron”, readers will begin to recognize why he is “known for the genre, fictional science and the literary tradition of dark satire,” (232). The reason why Vonnegut is known for these characteristics is through the unique combination of key elements found in his writings.These key elements of his point of view, tone, and themes found in his story, are essential to the makeup of a writer’s style. An author’s point of view could be considered to have the biggest impact on a short story. The reason being, point of view shows us the opinion, or feelings of the individuals involved in the text. On literarydevices.net, they define the point of view as being “...the mode of narration

As previously mentioned, if the readers were able to enter into any of the major character’s minds, they would definitely receive greater insight and background information. As the new, omniscient narrator would describe or explain character’s feelings, that he could possibly give hints to how the past was and how these ridiculous amendments became official. Now, say the story was written in a first person view of a major character. This would definitely bring immense change to the story. If the story was told from the viewpoint from a government official who came up with these amendments, it is possible that the story would then talk about how beneficial they would be to society. Whereas, written in the first person from a character who has to live through all these horrible handicaps would not only give the readers a completely new story, but also bring about reliability issues as well. Furthermore, it is easy to see that a story’s point of view is crucial to how an author portrays his

Themes are the central focus of the story or narrative. Themes express the intended lesson, conclusion, message, or point of view of the author by connecting all the parts of the story such as characters, plot, problem, setting, and event. One dominant theme for “Harrison Burgeron” is the danger of total equality. Vonnegut suggests that it is not an ideal worth striving for, as many people believe, but a mistaken goal that has a dangerous outcome. To achieve this equality among all Americans, the government in Vonnegut’s story tortures its citizens. The beautiful must wear hideous masks or disfigure themselves, the intelligent must listen to earsplitting noises, and the graceful and strong must wear weights around their necks at all hours of the day. This idea of total equality starts to get in the citizens heads and makes them live a whole new lifestyle. Some behave this way because they have internalized the government’s goals, and others because they fear that the government will punish them severely if they display any remarkable abilities. This 2081 America land becomes a land of “cowed, stupid, slow people,” (232). In the end, equality is more or less achieved, but at the cost of freedom and individual achievement. Even though there are many themes that can be pulled out of a story, an author’s style, for good or for bad, will always be affected by the theme of their