Theme Of Harrison Bergeron

Imagine a world where the government takes control and nobody is unique. A world set in the future, where three amendments changed the United States and made everyone equal. People are made equal by devices that alter their thinking, appearance, and strength. Then one day, a 14-year-old called Harrison Bergeron comes along breaking his handicaps on live TV to show the beauty of regular life. Then, he is shot dead during a dance. The theme in “Harrison Bergeron” is that equality could be dangerous. In this short story, the thought of equality taints the people 's minds and they do not notice they are being controlled by the government. The author writes, “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal... Nobody was smarter than anyone else. Nobody was better looking than anyone else. Nobody was stronger or quicker

The handicaps are given to the people in the short story to symbolize fear. The author states, “ every 20 seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair Advantage of their brains” (1). The government does not want people like George and Harrison to overthrow the government. Throughout the story, Kurt Vonnegut portrays the handicaps as well, but actually there to scare people from overpowering the government. The handicaps symbolize fear if they display any of their powers such as speed, looks, and thinking they will be severely punished. In the story “Harrison Bergeron” the handicaps make people identical, but, their real plans are to bring fear and weaken them so they don 't rebel against the government. Equality could be dangerous to society because the handicaps are a way that the government controls people without them knowing also scare them with some serious consequences if they don 't follow their orders. Without diversity, the government could destroy the world, and weaken the people. Being all the same Diversity can destroy the world, and weaken