Why Is Harrison Bergeron Against Government Control

The main conflict of the story is between Harrison Bergeron and the government. Harrison disagrees with the government’s way of controlling and handicapping society, especially since he has been given several handicaps. Harrison does not believe one should be limited, however, he 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

Harrison’s actions of can be described as heroic due to the fact that he attempted to revolutionize the society in a way that benefitted the population as a whole, not just himself. Many other people were angered and confused by the idea of handicaps, and by standing up to the government when all other people were afraid to do so, he acted in a selfless manner, a characteristic of a true hero. An example of another person doubting the intentions of the Handicap General can be seen at the beginning of the story, when George, Harrison’s father, realizes that it is unfair to place the hindrance of a handicap on a ballerina. On page 2, the text states, “George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn't be

In Vonnegut's story Harrison Bergeron went against government control by taking off his handicaps.In the story Harrison showed his rebellion when “Harrison tore straps of his handicaps harness like wet tissue paper,tore straps guaranteed to support five thousands pounds”(Vonnegut).This quote represents the refusing of government control by not obeying the government.Bradshaw made it clear that nobody willl

In Harrison’s world, everyone is said to be equal. If someone is better at something than another, the better person will receive a handicap to make him or her worse. One example is a smarter than average person would be given an earpiece transmitter as their handicap. George Bergeron is forced to wear one of these transmitters. “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” (page 99). In this society, it is illegal to remove a handicap, because doing so would give you an unfair advantage. After breaking out of captivity, Harrison Bergeron made the mistake of barging into a television station, removing his handicaps, and proclaiming ‘“I am the Emperor!”’ (page 104). He then selected a woman to be his “Empress.” “Harrison plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy. Last of all he removed her mask” (page 104). Harrison and his Empress began to dance and kiss, but the rebellion came to a quick end when “Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor” (page 105). Because of Harrison’s flaw of impulsivity, he made quick, sudden and bad decisions which led his the untimely death and the death of his unfortunate

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.

In "Harrison Bergeron", the rule of the story is that the law requires everyone to be equal. To ensure this, they gave handicaps, both physical and mental, to the citizens of the United States because they believe it will guarantee that no one would be stronger or smarter than anyone else. All of this was regulated by the United States Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers, but there was one man who seeked to rebel against these handicaps in his misson to gain control and power over everyone else. That man was none other than Harrison Bergeron, and he made it clear when he invaded the ballerina studio and exclaimed,

The main character Harrison Bergeron is the biggest, the strongest, the smartest, and for all intents and purposes the most spectacular human alive. Because Harrison is so great, they imprison him. Later he breaks free, goes on television, and forces everyone in the studio to perform music and dance to the best of they’re abilities without the handicaps they are forced to wear. After which the government swiftly comes in and kills everyone who participated. I believe Mr. Vonnegut did not simply write this story to entertain readers he was trying to make a strong political statement i.e. this is what happens when the government gets to much power, and it just so happens that is almost the definition of socialism.

Because of his actions the handicap general executes Bergeron along with his brave but futile dream. Extremities aside, I too, know what it’s like to be demeaned and singled out, like Harrison I also expressed myself emotionally, but I did it through my hair. Three days prior to my 19th birthday I decided to change my hair color to teal because I felt brave enough to make a drastic change. I expected to get strange looks, sure, it was a weird color but what I didn’t expect was to be treated so negatively by the people from my church who so warmly welcomed me back when I was “normal.” Unlike Harrison I was not physically removed from the church but emotionally I felt as though they did because no one would approach me.

The society the handicap government has created in “Harrison Bergeron” ruins itself through all the things the civilians aren’t able to do that doesn’t promote equality in every way shape or form. By giving people handicaps because of how they look, strong, athletic, and intelligent they are creating no equal rights. This is where Harrison steps up to take down the government by trying to stand up and persuade the people. There is no freedom.

Imagine a world where everyone is equal and no one is stronger, faster, or smarter than anybody. Imagine a constitution were everyone is equal. The government makes everyone equal by making everyone handicap and no one is better stronger faster are smarter than anybody.In the story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut propaganda and utopian is used to control citizens so everyone is equal due to the 211th 212th and 213th Amendments.

Every human being has a unique characteristic about themselves. In order for everyone to be mentally and physically equal, limitations on the way you think, the way you act, everything that make you human have to be placed. I wrote “Harrison Bergeron” to give my readers and the world a look into what our lives will end up in the next couple of years. The way I see it, our world is headed into fascism. In my story, George Bergeron’s intelligence was above normal therefore, he had to be handicapped with a government issued ear piece in order to be the same intellectually as everyone else.

In Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” the time period is set in the future all the way to 2081. At this time everyone in society is completely equal in every way. The more intelligent and better looking individuals had to have a handicap radio in their ear and weights around their necks, while the “average” people had nothing on them. Harrison, the main character of the story was taken by the H-G men at the age of fourteen. In the short story it shows how he is treated differently than the others and how he defied the government.

In “Harrison Bergeron” the citizens are considered equal. However the citizens are not truly equal. I disagree about everyone being truly equal in the story Harrison Bergeron, because some of them had to wear painful handicaps, and the non-handicapped people having an unfair advantage over the handicapped people.