Handicapped When They Wear The Headgear

In “Harrison Bergeron,” mankind has created a different kind of torture for humans they have created handicaps that create loud noise to stop them from thinking too deeply and weights to slow him down and masks to make people uglier. “. . . had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. . . every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking advantage of their brains” (14-17). This technology made life miserable and dull and caused people to become oblivious to problems in their lives The author makes this story to tell his readers that being equal is not necessarily a good thing. The technology of the future is dangerous if treated without care or given to the wrong people. The authors both give warnings about the future and how we must be careful with technology and how being equal is not always good.

The year is 2081, Hazel and George Bergeron are sitting in their living room watching television. The Constitutional Amendments has made everyone equal and handicapped, so no one person is better or worse than the rest. Hazel and George watch the masked and weighted down ballerinas dance across the screen. Any time George thinks about his son, Harrison, and his arrest, the handicaps in his head go off. Fourteen year old Harrison had been

‘My God-’ said George, ‘that must be Harrison!’ The realization was blasted from his mind instantly by the sound of an automobile collision in his head” (Vonnegut 3). George’s epiphany helped him recognize the sound of his son's footsteps. When Harrison was still home George heard this noise all the time. Almost as soon as he made this realization his handicap goes off, producing a terrible, loud noise, causing him to forget his train of thought. The author uses the words “blasted” and “instantly” to help the readers understand the severity of the handicaps. He only has the epiphany that it is, in fact, his son on the TV because he was born with a very high IQ, in contrast to George’s wife who does not have a high intelligence and did not realize it was Harrison until George said so. Unfortunately, because of George’s elevated IQ, he has to have the radio handicap, which goes off and causes him to forget that he realized it was his son in the first place. The society deems these handicaps as important, because it stops people from having their own opinion which could lead to retaliation or an uprising. The epiphany that quickly faded from George’s mind demonstrates Vonnegut’s idea that one’s mental attributes will both benefit and fail them.

To what I think, this whole story can be one big Event archetype. Inside the story, everyone has to wear handicap tools and it makes people around the world have the same Intelligent Quotient: “George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear”[pg1 Harrison Bergeron]. The handicap tools do not makes the world easier to control but makes it going down because there will be no new invention that change the

The irony behind it is that if everyone is the same in intelligence and capabilities who can enforce the laws, one person is in fact higher than everyone else and that is the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers. George and Hazel’s son, Harrison, was put in jail by Diana herself for his uniqueness and wants to overthrow the government. Later on in the passage Hazel states, “I don’t care if you’re not equal to me for awhile,”(36). This is quite absurd and in ways this thought of equality has been embedded into their brains as if more of a law and customs than wants. This also reflects the irony which later on in the story their son, Harrison escapes prison and breaks all his handicaps. The ballerina describes Harrison in a very absurd and ironic way, she states, “ … He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous,” (37). Mind you Harrison is only 14, he is in fact almost a prodigy and his intelligence is a threat to the government but to enforce equality he is considered a

    For instance, people are not truly equal in the story, only the people who seem to be more skilled in some way have to wear the handicap and there is no equality if only the better person has to wear it.  To support this, the eleventh paragraph, page one of part one talks about how you have to pay $2,000 and go to jail for every lead ball taken out of the canvas bag.  This evidence defines how people who try to escape from their handicaps, like the canvas bag would have to pay and go to jail just for removing a lead ball. This means that people would have to go through this if they did the mistake of just remove a single ball, unlike someone who is average doesn’t have much strength and wouldn’t have to deal with this problem, and inconvenience of walking around with it.  Also, the fifth paragraph in part two stated that she needed to apologize for her voice.  This proves that while an average

In the story "Harrison Bergerson" the year was 2081, and everyone was now "equal". If you were born with a way above normal average of intelligence or just anything above average you were given a handicap. This would be placed in your ear and you were required to wear this at all times. This ear piece was tuned to a government transmitter and every 20 seconds or so, the transmitter would send out a sharp noise. This allowed people from using their brains and going into deep thought.

To achieve equality, the government denies it’s citizens their freedom and expression while torturing them in the process. The intelligent, strong, and beautiful are forced to hinder their attributes by wearing handicaps. Since George is considered one of the bright, he is required to wear a handicap radio in his ear: “Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (Vonnegut 1). Meanwhile, the athletic and attractive are paying for having an upper hand as well: “They were burdened with sash weights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, … something the cat drug in” (Vonnegut 1). Having an advantage is the opposite because the government realizes it is more attainable to

The Handicapper General is Diana Moon and her task is to enforce the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the people of the United States. She basically was in charge of dumbing down and disabling the people who were “above average”. If I lived in Vonnegut’s imagined society, I believe that I would’ve been handicapped in some way. They probably would have given me the body weights to wear because I play sports and I can tumble, and they also probably would’ve given me the earpiece that scrambles up your thoughts because I’m not amazingly smart, but I'm not dumb

In "Harrison Bergeron" the government, epically the Handicapper General and H-G men, requires citizens to wear handicaps which make everyone in society equal. For example, Harrison, the main character, is forced to

The differences between George Bergeron and I are striking, and we deserve a thorough investigation. We are separate in two ways: intelligence quotient and physical appearance. George lives with his wife, Hazel in an era where there’s nothing, but equality. His son, Harrison was taken away by the HG men, due to his mental and physical potential. In both story and the movie, George is shown to have handicaps and earphones, signally that he is mentally more capable of having an extremely high intelligence quotient; while I on the other hand, does have an average intelligence quotient, but not as smart or as elevated as George. “And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear.” It is not very clear that George is fairly aged in the story, but the movie says else wise. In my head, it seemed as if George was younger than the movie version of him. Through the movie, George is physically displayed as a balding, aged man with the looks of a seventy or an eighty-year-old man. George often goes into deep thought about various things that in which can get him shocked from the Government. On the other hand, I love to go into deep thought

In the story “Harrison Bergeron,” Hazel and George are trapped in a dystopian society which causes them to become indifferent and estranged from their child, Harrison. People are finally equal among each other. The Agents of the United States Handicapper General rule the society to enforce equality. For this reason, George is legally required to wear a little mental handicap radio so that he can not use his intelligence to overpower others. Hazel, on the other hand, has a perfectly average intelligence which means that she cannot think about anything except in short quick bursts. Hazel and George’s handicaps interfere with their emotions and rational thoughts which causes them to be completely oblivious and clueless when “HG men took [their] fourteen year-old son, Harrison, it was tragic, all right, but [they] couldn’t think hard about it”

I think the main theme of the story is equality. The whole reason people have the handicaps is so the more advanced people if you will, don’t have the advantage over the less fortunate ones. If you are one of the less fortunate ones like Hazel, AKA people with less than average intelligence. They don’t have any handicaps because they are already handicapped enough. The more intelligent people are given mental handicap radios to wear in their ears that make a high pitched sound every so often. This makes them equal because the intelligent people forget what they are thinking about. When Harrison is killed in the end, George forgets about it because he is distracted by the high pitched noise. Hazel probably would have forgot anyways because

In the story “Harrison Bergeron” everyone was treated equally. No one was really smarter than anyone, prettier, or stronger than anyone else. The people who were above the normal state of place had to use a handicaps to make them less different from other people. At the beginning in April, the HG men took Hazel and Georg’s son away from them. He was way above the handicap. The parents weren’t really able to think about this moment because Hazel had a an intelligence where she couldn’t really think a lot. Hazel only thought in short verse. George was an above average, so he needed handicap in his ears so he wouldn’t be able to think for a long period of time. The balleterias on the screen had to wear the same masks and weights so no one could

In this dystopian-styled story, the government wants all people to be equal by handicapping anyone with a gift or special ability – whether it be internal or external. George is one example who has to be handicapped by an ear-piece; ringing throughout the day – it prevents him from thinking too hard or for too long on anything, even while relaxing and watching TV at night. The ear piece symbolizes that even though it is meant to prevent society of thinking, George still has a few seconds to collect his thoughts and think clearly in between it ringing. As stated on page 193, “George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped”, but his earpiece went off again and he forgot all about the idea