Handicap Each to His Ability

During the 1960s women were confined to one lifestyle, they were not acceptable in the public eye and were limited in their family lifestyle as well as the workplace. Women were expected to marry the traditional young marriage and then devote their time to raise the family and take care of their husband. Due to restriction women became activist and voiced their opinion to become equal in the workplace.

Author Kurt Vonnegut suggests that total equality is not something worth striving for. To obtain physical and mental equality among all citizens, the government makes beautiful people wear masks, intelligent people listen to noises that block their abilities to think, and graceful and strong people wear weights around their necks at all times. While equality may be achieved, freedom is the price to pay.

Citizens are all equal and no one is above anyone else. The setting is takes place in the future, the year of 2081. To begin with, Kurt Vonnegut uses satire to introduce the theme. In Harrison Bergeron, the author states “All equality [is] due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agent of the United States Handicapper General” (Vonnegut). Readers can tell the quote is sarcastic because the U.S doesn’t have as near as that many amendments yet. In other words, sarcasm read in the tone helps indicate the satire in the beginning of the story. Therefore, the satire in the quote, shows how the author develops the theme into the story. With this in mind, characterization is also a way the

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

Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” Kurt Vonnegut portrays Aristotle’s philosophy brilliantly in his short story “Harrison Bergeron.” The story depicts the American government in the future mandating physical handicaps in an attempt to make everyone equal. Vonnegut describes a world where no one is allowed to excel in the areas of intelligence, athletics, or beauty. Yet, the inequalities among the people shine even brighter. Vonnegut uses satire to explore the question of whether true equality can ever really exist.

When summarizing the idea of human equality as naïve cautioning that “The quest for equality is either a desire to bring everyone down to one’s level or raise oneself and everyone else up” Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and Kurt Vonnegut beliefs on equality are interrelated. Author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. criticizes America’s political system being that equality is and cherished principle in the Declaration of Independence which states that “All men are created equal”. Vonnegut suggests that if the idea of equality is taken too literally people will be forced to be equal in appearance, behavior, and achievement which is irrational and illogical. Nietzsche believed that the idea that people are equal was

Do you think society would improve if everyone was equal? Even though people may argue with me, I say that everyone isn’t truly equal in the story, Harrison Bergeron. I say this due to how people that are naturally born with above average intelligence, strength, and looks gorgeous has to wear handicaps to hide their unique abilities. Another reason is that some people are either respected or disrespected because of their special talents. Thirdly, some people in the story does not need to follow the law, even if they are a citizen of the United States, which means that everyone does not have equal rights.

In the short story, Harrison is used to showing what happens when you aren’t like the others in other words “average”. Harrison is forced to wear weights, glasses, earphones, rubber nose, and teeth caps that try to handicap him so that he is “average”. “Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a

The world Vonnegut paints is a future dystopian society, where “the year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else”.(Vonnegut) With this introduction, readers

During the early 1960s there were many examples of inequality pertaining to gender, race, and economic background. Just like Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson

Page 182/chapter 5: I learned that 1960s was the most important year for civil rights legislation. At the same time, women also fought against pay discrimination because women get less pay than men do. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made such discrimination illegal and women’s pay gradually increases to same rate as men do. I am glad women has equal pay.

The 1960s in America brought a host of movements that pushed for equality, power, and change. Each movement helped to shape and effect the other

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.

These two stories of Vonnegut’s share a common thread of fantasy, of wonder, of technology that isn’t possible in today’s world but might be some day. In other words, they are both science fiction. Maybe an extremely well-organized communist government in today’s world could technically organize the kind of handicapping system that dominates Harrison’s, but the futuristic thought-destroying technology that turns thinking men into nothing more than mediocre primitives is blessedly far off. Harrison’s abilities aren’t realistic, either: his girth is so formidable that he causes earthquakes when he walks and his will is so strong that he can actually levitate just using its sheer force. The society of Edward Wehling from “2BR02B” is also rooted

What makes you unique? Your looks? Your opinions? Your wisdom? Now, imagine living in a society where you are not allowed to stand out and you are forced to be like everyone else. The short story Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut, displays a society in which people have to adapt their qualities, such as appearance and intelligence, to fit equal standards. The reader experiences a day in the lives of George Bergeron, a man with an above average intelligence, who is forced to lower his mental capacity to the level of average people like his wife, Hazel Bergeron. The laws and standards in this society are created and controlled by an association called The United States Handicapper General. The author’s message in the book is that total equality