Harrison Bergeron – Equality
The idea of equality throughout Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, is what makes the story so interesting. Equality is typically talked about as a treatment, and in this short story, were able to see that completely treating people as an equal will away be a problem. Weather it’s a lack of, or too much equality.
Perfect equality’s is practically impossible. Someone will always posses stronger or better characteristics then someone else does, simply because people don’t all excel in the same areas. A dancer shouldn’t be made to wear weights to become less graceful, just as much as someone who struggles in math, shouldn’t be made to take IB Calculus. Excelling in different areas doesn’t make us unequal, it makes us human. Without someone better, it would suffice to do the minimal.
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At the binning of the novel, he makes a few cracks at the ‘perfect society’ with a few basic comments. These comments prove to us, even when they think everything is perfect, there will still be problems. The way he describes this ridiculous ‘equality’ is stated so simply and casually, as if saying something completely normal, gives us a lead in to how he feels about it. Along with the handicaps Vonnegut came up with, they’re spoken about so casually that its impossible to believe that it could possibly work to make everyone equal. While reading its easy to see how in the writing proves to us how impractical this version of equality is. If two people are hardly able to carry on a conversation, the society isn’t