Examples Of Normality In Harrison Bergeron

Picture a society, far in the future, where everyone, by government control, must be on the same level. Would this be Hell or a utopia? This is the subject of Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”. In this society, the gifted, strong, and beautiful are required to wear multiple handicaps of earphones, heavy weights, and hideous masks. In turn, these constraints leave the world equal, or arguably devoid of, from brains to brawn to beauty. With the constant push for equality among all people, Vonnegut reveals a world that society is diligently working toward. “Harrison Bergeron” is written as a form of satire with heavy irony, to demonstrate the clear difference between equity and equality in society. “Harrison Bergeron” is

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if everyone was legally forced into the governments opinion of equality? In Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s short story "Harrison Bergeron", it is the year 2081 and the government has altered society to be mentally, physically and socially equal. The beautiful people are covered with hideous masks, the intelligent people wear ear pieces that let off loud obnoxious sounds at random to throw off there thought process and the strong people wear weights to be equal to the weaker people. The society is not equal because no one can truly be changed unless they want to be. Putting a handicap on an intelligent person does not make him or her equal to an average person,

“Harrison Bergeron”, written in 1961, is set in the year 2081. It tells the story of a future America where human equality is forced through the use of rudimentary devices that handicap above average people. The story’s baseline for average is a fairly low one, and the collective dumbing down has produced a society with almost no attention span and very little independent thought.

The story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is120 years in the future, which allows us to more easily accept some of the bizarre events that happen in the story such as when the character Harrison Bergeron is dancing with a ballerina and there is no law of gravity and motion, so they can almost touch the studio ceiling which is thirty feet high. The author emphasizes in his work themes such as freedom, mind manipulation, the American dream, and media influence, also the opposition between strength and weakness and knowledge and ignorance. The story illustrates that being equal to one another is not always the best way to live because everyone is different for a reason. Also, this is what makes everyone special in your particular way.

Kurt Vonnegut’s unique story “Harrison Bergeron,” displays a theme which is a warning about the dangers of equality, which is equality is a hindrance to an individual’s success and society’s success, but this hindrance is ironically, unequal. In the story, Harrison and his bride are arrested for their unwillingness and inability to stay within the bounds of equality enforced by the Handicapper General. Equality hinders the success of an individual like the weights hinder the beauty and grace of the ballerinas in the story. Equality doesn’t promote everyone to be equally better, but to be unequally worse. Handicaps are no use in ensuring equality, because one’s strengths will always shine through, such as Harrison’s strength and wit, or the

Harrison Bergeron is a valuable story that has underlying themes, which are very relevant in our current society. The theme of equality can be seen throughout the book, and it is the principle that is enshrined in America’s constitution now, whereby they claim that all men are equal. Kurt Vonnegut demonstrates the issue of equality in a Utopian society. Vonnegut in his story, cautions Americans on the dangers of creating a truly equalitarian society, whereby citizens go to an extent of sacrificing their freedom, and individuality to the state, to create a place where all people are equal. Vonnegut creates a society whereby, all people are made equal. The beautiful are forced to wear hideous masks to disfigure their beauty, those considered intelligent are to wear radio calls, and ear splitting noises that are supposed to impede their thinking, and the strong are forced to wear weights around their necks throughout the day. The author uses masks, and the weights as symbols to symbolize

Vonnegut sets his story in 2081, where everyone is equal. No one is smarter, more talented, stronger, or better looking. The government in his story controlled everyone and how they acted and thought with machines. Those who were smarter had a mental handicap radio’s in their ear that made a noise every so often throwing them off the train of thought. The stronger ones had to carry around weight at all times, to make them equal to the weak. Those who were beautiful had to wear mask, or were made to look less beautiful. All competition was gone. However, Vonnegut shows that trying to control everyone, so all are equal is impossible, and can lead to disastrous things. In the story, Harrison Bergeron was arrested for suspicion of overthrowing the government. He escaped jail and on the TV episode of the ballerinas, people watched him take over. He allowed himself and others to take off the equipment controlling them and everyone became an individual again. Until, the leader came in and killed Harrison and the beautiful ballerina as they were dancing. Things became equal again, but not perfect.

In the short story, the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers, enforces the laws about handicaps

Harrison Bergeron, a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, is not written for the light reader. This story of equality shows deeply of how horrid it would be to be born special, different, smarter, faster, stronger, etc, in a world where you are forced to be equal. Despite the usual connotation of the word equality, Kurt Vonnegut looks at the cost of making everyone be the same. He has shown through his words the torture you must endure in order to make you the same as everyone else, being a radio intending to scatter your thoughts, weights to weigh you down, or even a hideous, grotesque, mask used to hide your charming face. After you’ve lived with these handicaps a man, named Harrison Bergeron, trying to change how things are interrupts your show.

Conformity takes time and pressure like a rock developing. That rock is hard to break because it has become strong and heavily supported over time. In the short story, Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut uses satire to show what the world could come to if society gave the idea of conformity that time and support, and warn against it. It is the year 2081, and the government has provided the pressure through making an amendment that forces everyone to be the same. This system has become so strong that “nobody was smarter …better…stronger or quicker than anybody else” (Vonnegut). The government issues devices to counteract everything so that those born with more intelligence, more grace, more beauty, or anything that makes them better than somebody else are just like everyone else. These devices are called handicaps. These handicaps represent the conformity present. If there is no difference or variation the world is deprived of exploration and learning new

"If I tried to get away with it, then other people'd get away with it—and soon we'd be right back to the dark ages again…" This statement by George Bergeron sums up Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s short story "Harrison Bergeron" in one line. "Harrison Bergeron" is the story of a futuristic United States in the year 2081, where all individuals are made equal regardless of what their natural born characteristics were. They are made equal both mentally and physically, all to the same measure of intelligence and strength. In "Harrison Bergeron" the society has become apathetic and equally conformed because of the power of the Handicapper General, the forced use of handicaps, and the people within the society who continued to let

The 1961 short story by Kurt Vonnegut, “Harrison Bergeron,” details a dystopian future in which the mediocre and average are lionized, and the exceptional in society are marginalized and treated as though they are handicapped and/or criminal. The plot of “Harrison Bergeron” revolves around the plight of its title character, an adolescent boy who is 7’1” tall, extremely good looking, and has a genius-level I.Q., to boot. In the story, Harrison has been placed in jail in order to protect society from his exceptionality. In the society of 2081 America that Vonnegut depicts, the United States government has installed a fascist government that punishes people for falling above the norm in any instance. As the story progresses, the reader learns that Harrison’s mother is actually of below average intelligence, and this has rendered her into an “ideal citizen.” Harrison’s father, on the other hand, possesses above average intelligence and is subject to constant monitoring by the government, so as to ensure that he does not use his superior abilities to act outside of the norm, in any way. Ultimately, “Harrison Bergeron” is a Marxist critique of the late capitalist society of the twentieth century United States, which celebrates the “average” and the “mediocre,” while demonizing innovation.

Often in our society, people stifle their individuality in an attempt to fit in with others. This idea is taken a step further in both “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. These texts demonstrate different ways in which one can surrender their unique traits and how when people lack individuality, they lose aspects of themselves that make them human such as thoughts and emotions. In Vonnegut’s text, people who have talents that exceed others are required to wear handicaps so that everyone is equal. In Huxley’s text, embryos are engineered and trained after birth to be the same in adulthood. In both stories, the authors use description and dialogue to show the reader how individuality is critical to humanity because if everyone is the same eventually they become less human and start acting more like machines.

In Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron,” the author defines normal through one of his characters; however, this definition contradicts itself based on the idea that normal is established by the majority of society. The definition of normal in Vonnegut’s story is established in the character of Hazel, due to the fact that she hasn’t been given weights or any other handicaps to limit her. The author’s description of her “perfectly average intelligence” is reflected through the fact that “she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts” (299). The sense of normalcy is emphasized through her line, “Who knows better’n I do what normal is?”

A society with absolute equality is perceived by many people as a perfect society, but it isn’t always as good as it ought to be. In Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron,” the author depicts Harrison as a recalcitrant, bright 14-year-old boy who publicly defies the law that leads to a disastrous outcome. In the year 2081, everybody is finally all equal. Vonnegut compares how Harrison is unlike those other people. Harrison Bergeron may be intelligent, however, his bold act initiates a turn of events.