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Theme Of Harrison Bergeron

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Is There A Destructive Side to Equality? When the topic of equality comes up in society, people often think of the human rights activists that fight to improve the lives of various minorities around the world, but can activists take it to dangerous extremes? In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., George and Hazel Bergeron live in a dystopian United States where everyone has handicaps, mental and physical, to enforce equality. While watching ballerinas on TV their son, who was taken away from them, Harrison Bergeron, took over the show and tore off his handicaps. He made himself and one of the ballerinas the emperor and empress, and without handicaps, they danced gracefully, showing everyone the significance of dance (Vonnegut …show more content…

The theme expresses the detrimental side of equality by showing how total equality dulls life, hinders national advancement, and eliminates freedom. The theme of “Harrison Bergeron” conveys how total equality deprives society of creative expression by forcing everyone to stoop down to the same level. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the ballerinas were monotonous to watch because as George stated, “They weren’t really very good-no better than anybody else would have been, anyway,” (Vonnegut 232). It was not until Harrison took over the show did the dancing radiate elegance and beauty and become a show worth watching (Vonnegut 235). People love watching shows that exhibit performers that can do things the viewers know they would not be able to do. Creative …show more content…

People might assume the rules and laws keep them safe, but that is not the case in “Harrison Bergeron”. This theme shows through George and Hazel as they converse about the idea of removing the weighted lead balls that burden them. George explains that the penalty is “Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball [he] took out,” (Vonnegut 233). Enforcing equality has become more important than the welfare of the American citizens in this story. In real life, people proceed with this theme of absolute equality in a similar fashion, to a lesser degree. For example, diversity has become a mandatory requirement, regardless of circumstances. Diversity is a beautiful thing, but it should not be more important than the quality of the individual. For instance, in a business situation, the manager’s freedom is limited in order to avoid accusations of racism. The manager should have the freedom to choose the finest worker for their company, disregarding skin color. In both George's and the hypothetical manager’s situation, equality is being forced upon them and restricting their

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220 Words | 1 Pages

The sense of limiting one's individuality and ambition in a society; handicaps imagination and civic mindedness. In the short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, the author analyzes total equality and how it affects the community. It is clear by context that the equality is not causing total happiness amongst the people. The author states through his character George, “Some things about living still weren’t quite right, though.” (299)

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204 Words | 1 Pages

Harrison Bergeron teaches the readers many different lessons through the many themes that occur in the story. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. represents how equality can be dangerous if it is applied to human qualities like intelligence or beauty. One example of Harrison Bergeron showing that equality is dangerous is, “Harrison smashed his headphones and spectacles against the wall.” This is an example of equality being dangerous because Harrison became very scary once he got all of his handicaps off and it was all because he was being deprived of his true intelligence and beauty. A second example is, “Harrison’s scrap-iron handicaps crashed to the floor.”

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208 Words | 1 Pages

Single Paragraph Essay “ Harrison Bergeron ” “ Harrison Bergeron ,” written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. focuses on equality — physically andmentally — strongly controlled by the government in the year 2081; the beautiful are forced tolook ugly, the physically skilled are required to wear weights. With these handicaps makingeveryone so equal, the world became very different, odd, and average. But the government hasno right or reason to push the whole world to be “…equal every which way.” (203) To suppress someone’s natural looks or physical talents is not only wrong to natural human rights, but it is also illegal, and for very good reason: everyone is different.

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1063 Words | 5 Pages

The Importance of Absolute Equality in “Harrison Bergeron” For hundreds of years, humanity has struggled to define equality, as well implement the concept properly into society. Slaves; prisoners of war; and even in today’s society, we still see people of color treated as lesser than their Caucasian counterparts. Interestingly enough, color is never introduced as a problem in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron”. While most people nowadays would agree that the word “equality” refers to equal opportunity, Vonnegut forces this word to the extremes, and warps its meaning into something much more controlling, to the point where it harms society more than inequality ever did.

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878 Words | 4 Pages

They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun. They leaped like deer on the moon.” (“Harrison Bergeron, 4). Both Harrison and the ballerina were filled with joy with their freedom from the handicaps, and must have enjoyed their powerful, yet brief, rebellion against the government before they were murdered. All in all, Harrison removing his handicaps shows that a government creating equality can’t prevent a

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393 Words | 2 Pages

In the story “Harrison Bergeron”, the mood in the story helps the reader to interpret the horrificness of the situation. The situation is that society is against all inequality between human beings. If the government considers you to have an unfair advantage, you get a handicapper.

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165 Words | 1 Pages

Equality is a great idea that we should strive for and achieve; however, being made equal physically and mentally by the government could be very unfair. People should still have characteristics that make us different. One can be diverse but still equal to his neighbor. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s use of point of view, conflict, and imagery in his short story “Harrison Bergeron,” illustrates how difficult living in a world where everyone is the same would be.

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153 Words | 1 Pages

I feel that the theme of the story "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut is equality in all. Even in the first sentence it says "Everybody is finally equal". Then in the third paragraph it talks about how George has to wear a government transmitter to make him think the same way as everybody else. People have to cover their faces because they are too "pretty". People have to wear glasses so they can't see the way they are supposed to.

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519 Words | 3 Pages

The story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is about a couple, Hazel and George Bergeron, in the distant future when all people must be equal. This equality is reached in the form of handicaps. Weights are placed on the strong and athletic people in society, masks are forced upon the beautiful, and loud noises are constantly blasted into the ears of the intelligent to prevent them from thinking. While most equality is often thought of as good, the story shows a much darker side, using the government’s forceful equalization of the people. “Harrison Bergeron” uses multiple perspectives to highlight the costs of equality paralleled in today’s society.

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401 Words | 2 Pages

The ballerinas even have masks to cover there faces because they were so beautiful. "She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask that she wore was hideous". In the story Harrison was smarter, stronger, and better looking than everyone. He had to be put in jail because he couldn't be made "equal". Harrison wore

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95 Words | 1 Pages

A very prominent element in Harrison Bergeron is the element of conflict. Conflict is essentially the main problem of the story, no story can go without a central conflict of the story. Some of those forms of conflict include person vs person, person vs nature, and person vs self. The main conflict of this story is person vs society which is Harrison vs the police force or how I like to see it as is Freedom vs Restriction as Harrison is fighting for freedom intentionally taking off his handicaps and doing it on live television.

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444 Words | 2 Pages

Furthermore, the character of Harrison Bergeron himself is a symbol of rebellion against society’s ideology of equality, as he is described as a person with extraordinary physical attributes, strength, and intelligence. Viewers of the story can identify this as said in the quote, “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” (3). His physical attributes, strength, and intelligence make him a symbol of rebellion against an

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660 Words | 3 Pages

In the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. relies on the use of irony to indicate where our country will stand once we have gained total equality amongst each other. The theme in “Harrison Bergeron” is that the government cannot enforce equality within the people. The author creates a fictional visualization of the future in the year 2081, where the government controls the people and tortures them in order to maintain “equal opportunity” in their world to prove why it is impossible to achieve absolute equality in the world. Vonnegut dives into a whole other level of uniformity in Harrison Bergeron by focusing on eliminating advantages in appearance, intelligence, strength, and other unique abilities rather than focusing on

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302 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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1232 Words | 5 Pages

It's important, with no equality no one wins, everyone ties. Equality will get society nowhere. No one wins the prize and gets the fame with a straight tie. In their current dystopia they have “equality”, they make everyone who is above average wear the handicaps. But that’s not fair, it’s equal

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