Social Inequality In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

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

It is unbelievable the types of things humans would let happen to themselves and other humans just because it is the “social norm”. Things like blatant discrimination and racism, cruel and unusual punishment, unnecessary killing and slavery itself are all things that are caused by a lack of rational thinking stemming from the conformity in society.

Conformity has always been at the center of controversy. However, individuality is a virtue that has been fought for, addressed in a positive light, and at times, even encouraged in such a dark world. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut illustrates the conflict that lies within both sides of this argument, due to a human’s nature to incline to both sides.

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.

Harrison Bergeron created by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is about a perfect world where everyone is equal, or so it seem.The government has a organization called the Handicapper General for people who are smarter, faster, stronger, and more handsome to be weakened in some way to make it “fair”, their leader Diana Moon is a dictator. “Diana loaded the gun again. She aimed at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their handicaps back on.”The main protagonist Harrison Bergeron is a smart and strong person, he was so strong that he broke his handicap and he broke free from them. This shows symbolism of not conforming to society. This place is a dystopia, because it shows people trying to be fair but only hurting themselves.”A buzzer went off in George’s head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.”All text evidence comes from the story and it’s author Kurt Vonnegut. There are

The subject of “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is equality. The theme of this short story is that society should make an effort to value individuality and fairness, in which everyone receives what they need to prosper, instead of universal equality. The forms used to elevate this subject and theme are point of view, syntax, characterization, irony, and humor.

In a distant future, a country is made equal by modifying people’s beauty, strength and intellect. There is no individual in a society stronger, smarter, faster, or weaker than anyone else. The government achieves this equality by disfiguring the beautiful with repulsive masks to hide their beauty. The intelligent individuals get an earful of disturbing noises that hinders their ability to think or comprehend a conversation, and the physically strong wear pounds of metal to slow them down and impede their endurance. In this short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Vonnegut, the author gives a preview into a society that follows extreme equality that eventually becomes detrimental.

Complete equality has taken the world as we know it. Brilliant people are forced into median level thinking. Athletic people are required to restrict their robust abilities. Gorgeous people are demanded to conceal their nature beauty. This is Kurt Vonnegut’s future prediction of life in 2081. The government and the, “Handicap General” have conformed every person into complete equals by restricting their natural abilities.

“The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” Aristotle spoke these wise words. Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” exemplifies just how unjust true equality can be. Though inequality can be hard to see as an insider, it can be overwhelmingly evident from the outside looking in.

In an ideally progressive America, society should value both equality and diversity. Equality is justice. Diversity is individuality. Equality gives rights. Diversity enriches culture. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideally progressive America. As equality in our society has increased, we have viewed it as progress. However, diversity has often been a source of conflict in our society. Jealousy, confusion, anger, and so many negative emotions have arisen from our differences and slowed the progress of equality. Perhaps, diversity should just be done away with. If we can not value our diversity, should we focus entirely on equality? Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” answers that question with a solid no, we should not. Through his

In the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut creates a world where a person’s strengths are stripped from them in an attempt to make everyone equal. George Bergeron lives in a society where the government uses handicaps to suppress a person’s talents to create a competition-free world. They use ear pieces to suppress intelligence, masks to hide beauty and weights to make equal strength between people. The government has eliminated everything that could make someone different, even people’s opinions are altered because of the strong oppression. Kurt Vonnegut‘s story is a warning against extreme equalism and the consequences that may follow.

Most families go through problems and have obstacles to overcome. Regardless of race , economics, or even beliefs, families face these hardships can cause a family to become stronger or to fall apart. In Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘’Harrison Bergeron’’ a family struggles with following society’s rules. In this story the son is removed from his family because he cannot accept the rules enforced by the government. The family ‘’Harrison Bergeron’’ shares similarities and differences with my family concerning rebellion, separation, and beliefs.

Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron" exposes the harmful effects of total equality. Suggesting that equality is not always the ideal path, Vonnegut loosens the truth. For example, George Bergeron wears a "little mental handicap radio in his ear" since he is smart. His wife (Hazel) doesn't have one because she cannot realize what the government is up to. A radio transmitter that keeps on buzzing every twenty seconds is annoying and unbelievable. Yet, Vonnegut has mentioned this idea to warn us about the darkness of equality. Furthermore, George wears "forty-seven pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag." Everyone (except Diana Moon Glampers and maybe her officers) must wear this handicap. This handicap prevents them from doing hardcore

So an overview of Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is telling how in harrison bergeron everybody has to be equal and had to be equal every which way. Therefore nobody was better looking than anybody else which Diana moon glamper the handicapper general did. So there was no competition. In the dystopian literature of harrison bergeron there are numerous topics of the novel so the classifications are Family and how they were cared and then the Equalization and finally how society was in the novel and how they were treated.