The Downfalls of Egalitarianism and Television

Imagine a horrifying world where the government has finally made every individual equal in every aspect of their lives. In the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., this is a terrifying reality. In this society, the strong are required to wear weights so they can be equal to those that are weaker, the intelligent are required to wear ear pieces that disable their thought process, and beautiful are required to cover their face with hideous masks, thus rendering their mental, physical, and social attributes equal to everyone. With a government constantly pushing for equality among all citizens, Vonnegut reveals a dystopia that society is slowly working toward. Vonnegut uses foreshadowing to reveal the future of society, Vonnegut

The government developed new laws in order to bring equality among the Americans. However, they soon became influenced to change Americans to make them all equal. The government created devices that would weaken citizens abilities, looks, or talents. If a person was smarter, more athletic or good-looking compared to the other citizens, then they would force them to wear a “handicap”. “[The ballerina] must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous.

Equality in society means everyone is the same, in personal attributes as well as public living. However, extreme measures of interpreting equality in this way destroys individuality. Imagine all people being “equal in every which way”, including intelligence, physical means, talents, and appearance. In the dystopian short story, Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut, the shift in tone, selection of details, and symbolic use of handicaps demonstrate that no society can be totally equal without the sacrifice of the individual and self expression.

The story of “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is about a dystopian future of America that forces its citizens to be completely equal. The way that they enforce the rules is by forcing the strong to wear weights and the intelligent to be given mental handicaps. The style of writing Vonnegut uses to portray his story of equality is very subtle. Vonnegut uses diction, imagery, and syntax, to help the reader understand the characters, mood, and visuals.

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,

Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” Kurt Vonnegut portrays Aristotle’s philosophy brilliantly in his short story “Harrison Bergeron.” The story depicts the American government in the future mandating physical handicaps in an attempt to make everyone equal. Vonnegut describes a world where no one is allowed to excel in the areas of intelligence, athletics, or beauty. Yet, the inequalities among the people shine even brighter. Vonnegut uses satire to explore the question of whether true equality can ever really exist.

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 short story ‘Harrison Bergeron’, Written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and the novel ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry both share a theme of forced equality and uniformity. Both stories take place in dystopian worlds. Woven throughout both of the stories are, authority is forcing egalitarianism onto citizens because they want an indefectible civilization. In the short story Harrison Bergeron, the world is ruled by Handicap General were in The Giver the world is ruled by the Elders, so that the community would be equal. But in both stories the protagonist goes against the community to break the peace and gain freedom and demonstrates how the authority always doesn’t know the best.

Kurt Vonnegut published “Harrison Bergeron” to express his thoughts of what a world with equality might look like. The setting of this takes place in front of a TV to emphasis how much is it looked to for answers. The government wants everyone the same and will go to any means necessary. In the constitution, “all men are created equal” can be found, and this short story explores the ideas of when that sentence is taken too literal. In “Harrison Bergeron,” Vonnegut paints his readers a picture illustrating the dangers of conforming three different individuals, Hazel, George, and Harrison, to the same level of expectation through the power of government control and television.

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.

Have you ever pondered over the equality of everyone? Well, if you believe that equality is important, you may want to think again. In the dystopian short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut, the author, uses satire to convey his message. Satie is something meant to make fun of or show the weakness of human nature or a particular person. Vonnegut’s message is that not everyone must be equal in every way.The character, Harrison Bergeron, wants to make everyone understand that being equal comes with a consequence, the decline of freedom and individuality, but he got shot so metaphorically the idea of freedom and individuality died with him.

Harrison Bergeron, a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., is a fictional short story based in a futuristic United States. It is a notably important time due to all of mankind finally finding themselves to be “equal” to his or her fellow man. This is only made possible by the addition of

In society, it is perceived as peculiar to act different than everyone else; to go against the norm is against the rules, in a way. In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, George and Hazel Bergeron’s son gets the ultimate punishment for wanting to be different. Breaking the chains of his “handicaps” such as weights hung around his neck and glasses with thick distorted lenses, Harrison Bergeron tried to persuade a small group at a television station to remove their handicaps as well. He had just escaped from prison and called himself the Emperor. For breaking the many laws of equality established before the current year 2081, Harrison was shot and killed instantly, right in front of his parents who were watching

“The story is a satire, a parody of an ideological society divorced from common sense reality” (Townsend). As Townsend stated Kurt Vonnegut makes a satire about society in his fictional short story Harrison Bergeron, which in their society there has been attempt of conformity through the handicaps of the people, the similarity to an authoritarian government, and the technology, whereas the people will eventually overcome.