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Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1961. It is often taken at face value as a cautionary tale of the dangers of forcing equality on society. Equality is essentially achieved by government issued handicaps, which hinder people’s talents, as imposed by the amendments of the American Constitution. The protagonist, Harrison Bergeron, rejects these handicaps. He declares himself Emperor and orders others to follow him.
“Repent Harlequin Said the Tictockman” by Harlan Ellison wrote in 1965 is about a time keeping government trying to achieve complete efficiency. The 1961 science fiction short story “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., is about complete equality, disabling humanity from success. By examining elements of character analysis, tone, plot, setting, and diction, readers can see that these two dystopian stories can be compared and contrasted. “Repent Harlequin…” and “Harrison Bergeron” take place in alternate futures where the government has either taken control of everyone’s schedules or removed things that would make them unequal. Both stories are led by an antagonist and by someone who rebelled against them, but eventually, the rebellion fails and as far as we know the oppression goes on.
“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is a short story that is set in the year of 2081 when everyone is equal, due to the change of the Constitutional Amendments. The only way for everyone to be equal is to give handicaps to the talented people. The Handicapper General and her agents enforce the laws to maintain equality and prevent renegades, such as Harrison Bergeron, from taking control. George and Hazel Bergeron are watching a television program when a news bulletin suddenly interrupts, saying that Harrison Bergeron has escaped from prison. Harrison then appears on the T.V. and begins to rebel in front of everyone, but is stopped by the Handicapper General shooting him.
The story “Harrison Bergeron”, portrays what kind of world the author, Kurt Vonnegut anticipates in the future. He illustrated that people should not try to enforce equality, ultimately because it results in a dystopian society. For instance, by altering beauty, intelligence, strength and weaknesses, the government thinks that people can become more equal. As a result, “Nobody was smarter…better looking…stronger or quicker than anybody else” (Vonnegut 1). It is normal to be born different from others.
Harrison Bergeron Essay Claim: Being equal isn’t always fair. Intro: What if someone had to wear a handicap? Or what if someone had to be treated exactly like everyone else?
Harrison Bergeron was still a genius, and George Bergeron was still a smart person. The Handicapper General really didn’t make anyone equal. He just made life worse for everyone, and he attempted to take away people’s talents and strengths that God gave them. Although no one was ever truly equal in Harrison Bergeron, people still had difficult lives, and people were not able to use what God gave
What if everyone was finally equal in every which way; it sounds like heaven, right? Well as Barry Goldwater once said, “Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.” In the texts, The Giver and “Harrison Bergeron” equality is greatly misunderstood. The community in The Giver restricted color, music, feelings and more to keep anyone from being themselves, or different. The Community in “Harrison Bergeron” forced people to wear “Handicaps” to make everyone completely equal.
As our leaders look for new path to equality with socialist ideals to make everyone equal and include more government control? “On a symbolic level, Vonnegut, depicts the enforcer of constitutional equality as the “United States Handicapper General,” and the word, handicap, provides the reader with a powerful literary metaphor which is expressed through the characters in the story. In other words, he is implying with the phrase “Handicapper General” that the concept of social equality has become so extreme and convoluted that people in this dystopian world are forced to be “handicapped” if they have special physical and intellectual attributes or advantageous genetic traits”
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.
It is just as unfair if not more unfair to put a handicap on someone who has greater strengths than another. When Harrison Bergeron stood up for individuality, society shut him down. In the real world, society shuts down those who speak out for individuality by shaming them or making them outcasts. Kurt Vonnegut created a universe that put the rules of society before the life of an individual. People were willing to stand and watch another human being be killed for accepting their individuality.
Although equality is an attribute that many countries have been trying to achieve for years now, Kurt Vonnegut uses equality against the characters in Harrison Bergeron. He makes it so that every character is equal in any possible way, from how smart they are to what they look like. Because of this, everyone and everything in their society is average. The author uses a society in need of help to assist him when explaining that equality in every possible way is not always the best thing. The theme in the short story, Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut is that people do not need to be equal in every possible way but the different strengths and weaknesses in each person makes them equal.
A “Perfect” Government for a “Perfect” Society In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron”, framing, beginning and ending a story in a similar way, is used to present the unwavering, tyrannous control the government has on the futuristic society in which the story takes place. One way in which Vonnegut uses framing to present the tight, unyielding hold the government has on the people living in the year 2081, is with the detail of Hazel crying. In the beginning and end of the story, tears are streaming down Hazel’s face, but when George questions as to why she is upset, she cannot recall what prompted her tears. When George tells her that it is best to forget sad things she replies with, “‘I always do’”
People who are not equal get handicapped in a way. George and Hazel Bergeron are the parents of Harrison, who was taken away from them when he was fourteen by the Handicapper General. George and Hazel are not even sad that their son was taken away. Hazel has average intelligence so she can only think of things in short bursts. On the other
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.
No matter how many handicaps you put on someone they aren’t going to change. It’s kind of like trying to cover up beauty with a mask or make-up. Handicaps have no value in making anyone equal. Although equality is needed, no one in “Harrison Bergeron” is solely based on appearance and how smart you are. Equality is treating everyone one with the same amount of respect so therefore, no one in this short story is
