Similarities In Kurt Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron'

“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. tells the story of a futuristic America where people who are given handicaps if they are better than other people in order to give complete equality to everyone. The main message of “Harrison Bergeron” is that everyone doesn’t have to be the same for them to be happy. In fact, when everyone is equal they are sadder because they don’t know what real life is like, and they are able to be controlled. Harrison and Phillippa demonstrate that being unique brings happiness as they take off their headbands and learn how wonderful life can be when they can express who they are.

John. C. Maxwell, a writer, and a priest, once said “There are two kinds of pride, ‘good pride’ represents our dignity and self-respect. ‘Bad’ pride is the deadly sin of superiority that reeks of conceit and arrogance” (Quotefancy). Just as there are two sides to pride there are two sides to every human trait, each trait has an advantage and a disadvantage. Being stubborn could mean working towards goals until they have been achieved, or it could mean closing one’s mind so much so they miss out on opportunities they are not looking for. John Maxwell’s paradox of traits is shown through the idea of equality in Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s “Harrison Bergeron”. In this story the society is led to believe everyone is equal because of handicaps, but

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,

Finally, people in the story, Harrison Bergeron, does not have equal rights. For instance,  Diana Moon Glampers punishes the people who doesn’t follow the law, even though Diana is a citizen of United States. This back ups my point by how if everyone was truly equal, they would have equal rights, that means Diana would not be in charge of everyone and violate other people’s rights. People may argue with me by saying Diana is suppose to make sure that no one breaks the law, I say that it would help support my claim by how it means that everybody isn’t really equal. This clarifies that everybody is not really equal, even if there is there is a law that says everyone is equal. Thus meaning, that the law doesn’t really indicate everyone is really equal by how the government needs to force a handicap on people that are above average to balance everything out.

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

When Bruce Pittman directed Harrison Bergeron in 1995, most things changed from what was originally written by Kurt Vonnegut. In the film adaptation of this short story, the director had more or less the same idea the author had. Vonnegut presents a scary view of human society in the United States of the future, in which American citizens are all uniform. This then leads to their loss of individuality, and as a result, the deformity of humanness. Both the movie and the short story share these themes; they also have a multitude of other similarities, but have just as many differences. The theme might be the same in both, yet in the story, Harrison is portrayed as a seven foot tall, athletic, fourteen year old with a godlike complex, and the

Harrison Bergeron is a story written by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut’s story is a warning to the world about the quest of equality, which is spreading all round in many nations with America on the lead. The story shows the reader how the equality issue can have negative impacts on people’s individuality, and the society. The story revolves around the protagonist, Harrison Bergeron who is an archetypical symbol that represents defiance, and individuality. He is used to represent the people who will stand up, and protest against cruel laws imposed by the state on equality, and encourage others to protest with him. Through the characterization of Harrison, George and Hazel, Vonnegut shows how the equality idea can go to the extreme. The

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.

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.

These agents who could create such advanced handicapped devices clearly possessed above average brain power. The Handicapper General herself was clearly a superior being. “Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on” (Vonnegut). She was not equal to the rest of society by any means, for she had the complete right to alter people’s lives to fit the way society had laid out for them. These agents were obviously above the citizens in power, therefore they were not truly equal. This lays a clear understanding of a highly oppressed and misled society, living under a hypocritical

Beautiful imagery laced amidst a wondrous storyline, accompanied by memorable and lovable characters are all elements pertaining to enjoyable works of fiction. Tales that keep one up late into the night forever reading just “one more page” forever propelling the intrinsic imagination for a novel enthusiast. Yet, at times there are deeper meanings hidden between the lines. Symbols, analogies, and latent parallels all connecting to real life events and situations being portrayed by the author. Using literary theory can bring a more profound understanding of the reading material at hand, as well as unique insight as to what the author was feeling or intending to portray at the time of writing.

The desire to be different in a world full of people trying to be equal, is a challenge most people have encountered. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron,” by Kurt Vonnegut, the main character, or the character which the story is based upon, lives in a futuristic society, which the government has tried to make equal. Harrison is forbidden to use his above average intelligence and physic to stand out, or to become anything more than equal to the average person. The reader becomes aware that Harrison has been imprisoned due to rebellion against the government, which controls his every move or action. Harrison escapes from prison, breaks rules, and is ultimately killed for his actions. Harrison’s character development and desire to be different

Even though many may believe that thanks to the handicaps, everyone was equal, I strongly disagree with that. The first reason I believe that the society they lived in was not equal because in the text it says “nobody had ever been born with heavier handicaps. He had outgrown hindrances faster than the H-G men could make them up.” which shows that they weren't actually equal because the handicaps didn't really work on harrison, because no matter handicaps Harrison had, he was still able to outgrow then which meant that he always had more power than everyone else no matter what handicaps they made him wear.

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

The point of view in “Harrison Bergeron” is third person with limited insight. The focal character is George Bergeron, the titular character’s father. The story is written to show two settings: the living room of George and Hazel Bergeron, and the scene they are watching on their television. This point of view helps to develop the theme by showing what we assume to be an average couple in a futuristic setting, and by establishing a societal norm for the dystopian setting. The mundane point of view contrasts nicely with the very outrageous personality of Harrison Bergeron and his theatrical antics. This point of view also gives the reader a relatively objective look into the conflict between Harrison and the United States Handicapper General. The use of George as the focal character gives the reader insight into the mind of a man who wears a mental and a physical handicap. This allows the reader to see into George’s thoughts and how they process with the mental handicap in place, “every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking advantage of their