Harrison Bergeron Critical Analysis Essay

The story “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt VOnnegut Jr. explores the idea of a perfect society. A life where you are completely oppressed to be like everyone else. A young boy known as Harrison Bergeron seeks to have change in society and for everyone to be free.

The irony is that in this reality, the government, who enforces “equality” is overpowered. In our reality, there are people who range from low to high, and some people are average. Not only is everyone average in this society, but the average for them is very low for us, as far as emotions and intelligence go.

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,

Imagine a world where an oppressive government captures what many call diversity. Where ugly is known as beauty and intelligence is insignificant. “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) This is the future that Harrison experiences, in the short story “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut. It is the year 2081 and the government handicaps every citizen with make up or weights to create equality. Where there are over than 200 amendments and the government has full control of all citizens, this is indeed against what America had been

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

The message of harrison bergeron is that total equality isn’t as good as it sounds and should not be the goal like many people think. But physical and mental equality should be what we should be striving for. What makes the story and movie different is in the movie it focuses more on Harrison and how he affects the setting. But in the movie it focuses more on harrison's parents and how the setting affects them. The message vonnegut was trying to make was hope of a possibility that the system will change, the people will come together and take control and the evil will fall. Harrison Bergeron because he wrote it so i think he'd like it more because he puts everything important into it.

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 this story a man and woman, George and Hazel Bergeron, have a son whose name is Harrison. In this futuristic world, people are meant to all be treated as equals, which is where the theme of the story comes from. It is much like the movie Equilibrium. If you are too intelligent, they dumb you down, as with George Bergeron they have an earpiece implanted that randomly makes noises in order to distract his thought process. Those who are too beautiful are made to look disfigured and those who are graceful or strong have to weight themselves down in order to have less appealing stature. Harrison had been taken away from the Bergeron parents, and when they were sat down watching television, an announcement came on

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.

"Government need supervision, just like a ten ages do, if you give them too much freedom they will get out of control and will walk over you!" - Zybejta Beta Metani'Marashi. The short story, "Harrison Bergeron" By Kurt Vonnegut is about the government in America finally making people equal in every which way -anyone who is above average in anything gets handicapped in some way-. The short story, "Test" by Theodore Thomas explains how higher authorities use their power to decide the fates of people by checking their reaction on a test individual’s take. The theme of both of these stories is to never give the government too much power, otherwise, the people will face a lot of trouble.

Many people prefer short stories to novels because short stories must immediately capture the readers’ attention and pull them into the story. Often the author resolves the conflict in a way that leaves the ending open for interpretation by the reader, thus personalizing the experience. As shown in The Top 20 Literary Quotes About Short Stories, author Lorrie Moore aptly remarked, “A short story is a love affair, a novel is a marriage. A short story is a photograph, a novel is a film.” In the present day world, it has become common for people to strive for equality; however, this could be harmful if taken too far. There would be nothing to make anyone unique, dulling the world of all its wonder. In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, the year is 2081, and everyone has been physically altered so all people possess equal abilities. The line, "all this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the constitution," tells the reader that government brought on the equality. Some people are forced to wear weights to tame their physical strength, masks to hide their beauty, and even ear devices to distract them from meaningful thought. The everlasting theme of the story is equality and control. If an outside force capable of controlling citizens’ thoughts, looks, and actions removed all autonomy, all that would remain would be the shells of those individualized people.

When you look at it, the perfect society is what Russia was looking to achieve

does the same for bodies, and weights that the physically strong must carry at all times, like