Unequality in Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

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,

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

In the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, the government creates an oppressed society by making everybody equal. Set in 2081, the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments are added to the Constitution to create true equality. The strong are required to wear weights, the intelligent are required to wear radios that emit painful noises, and the beautiful are required to wear masks. This shows that the government is trying to create physical and mental equality by handicapping the gifted to the level of the average. This creates an oppressed society because instead of improving

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

Have you ever been told you can’t do something because you are too qualified? In Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” this is what America has turned into in 2081. Vonnegut uses characters in his story to show the effects of a truly “equal” society with what happens when they want everyone equal and what happens to some of their health. Some of the characters he uses are Harrison, George, and the ballerinas.

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

Equality is such a great thing but Vonnegut takes it to the extreme.“The rest of Harrison's appearance was Halloween and hardware.Nobody had ever worn heavier handicaps”(120)

Kurt Vonnegut wrote a short story called “Harrison Bergeron.” This story takes place in a world where everyone is one hundred percent equal through restraining anyone with an above average natural anything. It start of with the George and Hazel Bergeron watching television. Then a strong and intelligent young man named Harrison Bergeron made the choice to appear on that broadcast and speak against the handicaps before getting shot by the Handicapper General. This story shows that individuality makes perfect equality an impossibility, because human nature can 't be suppressed.

Kurt Vonnegut’s brilliant story, “Harrison Bergeron,” takes place in the year 2081. Thanks to the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments “Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else”(Vonnegut 1). Everyone seems to have equal looks and abilities but to make this happen; they have to limit people so they can be equal to other people. People with natural beauty, gifted intelligence, or high strength have to use handicaps so they can be average like anyone else. They give people mental radios, masks, and sashweights so no one will get jealous. Because of these visible handicaps, people can tell who is stronger, prettier, and smarter. In the story, they describe one of the

In “Harrison Bergeron,” it becomes clear very soon that the society depicted in the story does not favor exceptional human qualities of any kind, be they related to intelligence, physical ability, or outward appearance. For instance, as the Bergeron family watches a ballet dance recital, the manner in which they determine which dancer is the best-looking is by the “hideousness” of the mask that the dancer is forced to wear. As the excerpt reads: “’Ladies and Gentlemen,” said the ballerina, reading the bulletin. She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by the two hundred pound men” (Vonnegut n/a). When examining this passage through a Marxist theoretical lens, it becomes clear that Vonnegut is

Everyone wishes we were all equal. We wish we could all be the same, be on the same level as anyone and never have to compete with anyone. In “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut makes this wish a reality. Everyone in the story is handicapped with either weights or masks to conceal their beauty and talents. Harrison Bergeron is portrayed as a strong, but elegant man, which is the opposite of his parents who are dumbfounded by every task presented to them.

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.

For those deemed too beautiful or handsome, they would be given a horrendous mask or