Society In Harrison Bergeron, By Kurt Vonnegut Jr

Fourteen year old Harrison Bergeron is a passionate character that symbolizes equality in society during the year of 2081. Harrison rebels against the government in a way that shows how everyone in “Harrison Bergeron” was not absolutely equal. This community and its citizens has lost its rights after the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution. Everyone was not actually equal in the story since people could not use their own intelligence, express their true beauty, and display their strengths. The citizens were scared of the United States Handicapper General and they do not have the freedom to be themselves.

In this world these objects take place and create security. “Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out a sharp noise to keep people like George from taking an unfair advantage of their brains.” From the text we are provided with information about how George can’t take advantage of his brain with the handicap radio. If handicap is a circumstance that makes progress or success difficult, that then makes the radio something that keeps people from their advantages. By this the government can take total control over the people that can cause a threat. Without the securities of these objects too keep the equality in the world, it would be to much for the government to handle. Leading back to my claim this evidence would cause danger of total equality. When something like the radio, mask, or handicap bags are taken too far as an advantage, the the government would have took total control over the people. By having the possession of a skill or talent, that then means it would cause a break of equality that would get in the way of government's goal of total equality. With that said taking over the people is an example of too much power. Power, the ability to direct or influence behavior of others would then cause the people to be more equal than they already are. Continuing on this path would cause the people to have less of a personality than what they have, without a drop of diversity it will be a danger of total

The government handicaps George’s mental abilities since they are above average, while Hazel’s mental abilities are average.

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,

The author wants to get our attention to the major differences from the present world to Harrison Bergeron’s world and examine the notable similarities in both as well. The opposition of knowledge and power versus suppression and ignorance are used by the author to satirize the society because who has the knowledge also, has the power. The more knowledge the government has and does not share it with the population, the easier is to control people and their minds. For example when Hazel watches her son die on television after performing a beautiful dance that theoretically could have brought about radical change, and instead of gaining even an ounce of understanding, she ends where she begun. When George asked her why she had tears in her eyes, her memory had already failed her, but she takes his advice to simply forget sad things, commenting that she always does.

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

Directly in the passage when the author gave us, “All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General” (Vonnegut Jr 1). This type of equality, with its handicaps and all, was because of the Handicapper General and her agents. With the word choice to describe her determination as an “unceasing vigilance”, it also hints at the fact that she may be doing this with evil intentions. It may be possible that people are not only scared of breaking the law, but they could actually be afraid of the Handicapper General herself, considering the idea that it appears she has evil intentions to dictate the United States citizens however she pleases. There is much doubt that people in this society agree with what she is doing and encourage this false equality with an exclamation from Harrison Bergeron himself, “I shall now select my Empress! Let the first woman who dares rise to her feet claim her mate and her throne”. ‘A moment passed, and then a ballerina arose, swaying like a willow’ (Vonnegut Jr 5). She seemed to get up fairly quickly, as if she was waiting for a moment like this to come by. The other ones around her most likely wanted to get up as well but because they were fearful of the consequences and steering outside the norm, they did not. People don’t want to be doing things others are not doing and due to this mob mentality, instead of fighting for their freedom or for what they believe in, they just stay put. Fear of breaking the law and being different from everyone else causes them to continue to live in dystopian

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

During the story, the author shared many political views. “Political Angles” of How to Read Literature Like a Professor it addresses the world’s realities of social and political problems. This shares similar ideas from Harrison Bergeron. For example, in Harrison Bergeron, it starts out by stating the 212th, 213th, and 214th amendments of the Constitution that made the society equal. It continues with having a Handicapper General acting in the role of the president of the United States. The Handicapper General put handicap devices on

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

Another reason why this is not a utopian, or equal, society is because the Handicapper General is higher than the other citizens and in a completely equal/utopian society, everyone would be on the same level of importance. The text shows this in the first paragraph when it says, “All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.” As indicated in the first paragraph, all of this attempted equality is because of the Handicapper General and her agents. Therefore, in the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, the result of trying to make the society a utopia is, the society is now more of a dystopia because the government, or the Handicapper General, is not letting people do the best they can or use their talents to their fullest potential. Also, if this was a completely equal society, the Handicapper General would not be above all the other

By allowing the government to pass over 200 amendments to the constitution they are tolerating their lives being run for them. Without voting against these amendments or trying to repeal them they have gotten to a point where there is now nothing they can do to go back and change things. "They were equal in every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else." These were the laws that were passed in the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the "Constitution." As of now, in 2005, our society has 27 Amendments. To think of having over 200 is unfathomable. The society is apathetic and content with being "average." They don't revolt or vote against these injustices, they accept them. "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." It is obvious that the people can remove their handicaps, they do have control over them, but they choose not to, even in private. Hazel tries to get George to take out a few of the "lead balls" because he has been "so tired lately – kind of wore out." Yet, he won't he has been programmed to obey the law by any means. By not taking off the handicaps, the society and the people in it have perpetuated the actions taken by the government and those in charge.

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