Kurt Vonegut's Harrison Bergeron

798 Words2 Pages

Title

In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonegut, The government has attempted to make everyone and everything equal. They have given people who are above average intelligence a earpiece which emits loud sounds and causes them to forget what they were thinking about. If you are super strong you carry weights around. if you are pretty you were a hideous mask. These are all handicaps that they would give people. We meet two people named George and Hazel. George is above average intelligence so he has a handicap to make him equal to everyone else. The woman, Hazel, is average in every aspect. They have a son named Harrison who was taken away by the Handicapper General’s men. the Handicapper General is in charge of making sure …show more content…

George and Hazel decide to watch a ballet, and as they are watching it a new bulletin comes on warning the public that Harrison Bergeron has escaped prison. They say that he is way under handicapped and dangerous. Harrison is extremely smart , handsome, and strong. He breaks into the news studio and appears on T.V. Harrison declares himself the emperor and demands an emperess. A ballerina stands up and Harrison breaks of his weights and they dance. Diana Moonglampers, the Handicapper General, storms into the studio and shoots Harrison instantly killing him. Although this was all broadcasted on T.V. nobody seemed to notice and they go back to their average lives. In the story Kurt Vonegut kills Harrison Bergeron to show hopelessness, these support that. He believed it was hopeless to make everyone equal, he believed it was hopeless to give the government complete control, and he also believed that it was hopeless to take away peoples choices and make them average. This is why that …show more content…

The character believed that the world they lived in was equal, but it was not. Some people were still prettier than others, and some people were still smarter than others and there is nothing they could do about it. While they did have handicaps to make things more “fair”. It made the people with handicaps even more different. How would you feel if you saw someone walking down the hall with large weights tied to them or an ugly mask covering their face? Would you stare? While trying to make everyone equal they made others stand out even more. This goes to show that Kurt Vonegut killed Harrison to show hopelessness because the idea that we could have equality is impossible and hopeless. This brings me to my next point.

Another way that Kurt Vonegut shows us hopelessness is by taking away everyones choices and freedom. They do not give people choices in whether or not they have a handicap. No one has a choice in whether or not they are strong or weak, whether they are ugly or stunning. They are still forced to become average and have their choices taken away even though they had no choice in whether or not they end up with good genetics or bad genetics. What happens to those who are below average intelligence? Do they really have any choice in what happens to them? This is the second way Kurt Vonegut shows us

Show More
Related

  • Harrison Bergeron Response

    177 Words  | 1 Pages

    Harrison Bergeron is a short story that has a deep meaning to it. To begin with, the short story Harrison Bergeron was made in 1961 and is written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. The whole short story is set in the far future of 2081. 2081 is a time where everybody is finally equal and when the government finally has full control over everyone. If you aren't equal you would have to wear handicaps to limit your extraordinary strength and smarts. As the story progresses, Harrison Bergeron is trying to send a message about society.

    Read More

  • Inequality In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

    571 Words  | 2 Pages

    The short novel “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut presents a futuristic portrayal of a world where everyone is equal in every way possible. In “Harrison Bergeron,” Vonnegut displays the clear flaws in society that lead to the creation of a horrific dystopia that lacks genuine human emotions, fails to develop as a civilized community and is strictly government At the beginning of the story we are introduced to George and Hazel who are an ordinary couple that consequently suffer from handicaps. They are recalling the time when their son, Harrison Bergeron, was taken from his home by the handicapper general. It was an unhappy thought “but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard” (Vonnegut 1) due to the mental radio that separated the two from regular functioning emotions. Although Hazel was not affected by the handicap itself, it became a societal norm to act almost robot-like.

    Read More

  • Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

    485 Words  | 1 Pages

    3. In the story, what is the purpose of 'handicaps' and how do they keep people equal?

    Read More

  • Harrison Bergeron: A True Hero

    430 Words  | 1 Pages

    These handicaps not only took away their emotions, but gave them seriously horrible headaches. They gave the people something that they described as,"visions". The people would have screeches in their handicaps. Harrison Bergeron does not deserve to be known as the crazy man who jumped on the stage and ripped off his handicaps. He should be known as the brave man who was willing to take off his handicaps. Bergeron might have seemed like a threat at the moment. But he is a hero. Other people might think of him as a threat to society, but they need to read the story more carefully, because it is unreasonable to describe someone as a threat when they are just trying to be

    Read More

  • A Literary Analysis Of Harrison Bergeron

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    Harrison Bergeron is a short story that creates many images and feelings while using symbols and themes to critique aspects of our lives. In the story, the future US government implements a mandatory handicap for any citizens who is over their standards of normal. The goal of the program is to make everyone equal in physical capabilities, mental aptitude and even outward appearance. The story is focused around a husband and wife whose son, Harrison, was taken by the government because he is very strong and smart, and therefore too above normal not to be locked up. But, Harrison’s will is too great. He ends up breaking out of prison, and into a TV studio where he appears on TV. There, he removes the government’s equipment off of himself, and a dancer, before beginning to dance beautifully until they are both killed by the authorities. The author uses this story to satire

    Read More

  • Theme Of Harrison Bergeron

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    Harrison Bergeron’s mother, Hazel Bergeron, is the definition of the Handicapper General’s “normal” and model for enforced equality. Everyone must be leveled and thereby oppressed to her standards. Hazel’s husband, George Bergeron, is no exception. “‘I’d think it would be real interesting, hearing all the different sounds,’ said Hazel, a little envious. ‘All the things they think up.’” (Vonnegut 910). George suffers from his own comically ludicrous mental handicap. The fact that this incites jealousy in Hazel reaffirms the artificial equality Vonnegut ridicules. The author satirizes oppression in American society through his depictions of misery and restraint exhibited in his characters’ ordeals. “The different times that George is interrupted from thinking, and his inner monologue is cut, we have a sort of stopping his having dialogue with himself. So he can’t have a unique personality, which itself involves his worldviews” (Joodaki 71). Not being able to know oneself epitomizes

    Read More

  • Social Independence and Prejudice in Harrison Bergeron and V for Vendetta

    1417 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Harrison Bergeron story, the people are made equal by debilitating the ones who seem to have higher abilities and th...

    Read More

  • Discuss The Historical Context Of Harrison Bergeron

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Harrison Bergeron” is a short fiction written by Kurt Vonnegut, the story is set in the year 2081, and it talks about a futuristic society where all individuals are equal. No one is cleverer, beautiful or stronger than the other, and if somebody is better than the others, they find themselves compelled by The United States Handicapper General to put on what they call “handicaps” to bring down their abilities to the most basic levels as the others. Throughout the story, Vonnegut expresses a bold and vigorous political and social criticism of some historical events in the US during the 1960s such as the Cold War and Communism, television and American Culture and Civil Rights Movement.

    Read More

  • The Lack Of Equality In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    Taking a look at several of the characters in this story is a key way to see the impact that a lack of individuality can have. The first characters talked about in the story are George and Hazel Bergeron. Hazel is a very average human, but George on the other hand has several above average attributes. His intelligence is hindered by a radio that plays obnoxious sounds every few seconds. He also carried a bag of birdshot around his neck. However, the main handicap he deals with is the sounds. The transmitter destroys his ability to think and analyze events and ideas. One example is shown while they are watching the heavily handicapped and extremely average ballerinas. “George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped. But he didn’t get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts.” (Vonnegut 193) This quotation continues to show how the government is now in an all-powerful place. Anyone with the mental power to realize that the government was wrong would have a distraction that would make them abandon the thought. George and Hazel are the biggest example in the story about the heart breaking measures the government has taken against its citizens. They watch their son get taken away, are sad for a bit, and then forget about it like it was an unimportant event that happens every day. They see their son on television, notice it for a few seconds, and then due to loud noises and incompetency they forget about it. The most heartbreaking event of the story is when Harrison is shot by the Handicap General. George returns to the kitchen and notices Hazel had been crying. He questions her about it and she does not know why she cried in the first place. Vonnegut shows here how complete equality takes people away from their humanity and their ability to be human beings. Characterization plays a key role in several of the other

    Read More

  • Harrison Bergeron

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Harrison Bergeron” is a story about Big Government forcing equality on citizens by the use of handicaps; in doing so they hold everyone back from their fullest potential. The year 2081 is oppressive to say the least; people are punished for being above average in intelligence, beauty, physical abilities or any variety of capabilities. No one is supposed to be more attractive, stronger, more intelligent or quicker than anyone else. The quest for egalitarianism is faulty; people who are born gifted are hindered by ridiculous weight bags, glasses to cause blindness and headaches, ear radios that send nerve racking noises every twenty seconds courtesy of a government transmitter and hideous masks are a few objects implemented to make everyone equal. The government, in trying to even the playing field to give everyone the same, fair chance, handicapped the gifted far beyond the point of making them equal to the average citizen. In the story “Harrson Burgeron,” Hazel is developed primarily through her average intelligence, limited imagination, and empathy toward her husband as well as others to suggest the central idea that a totalitarianism government leads to the degradation of one’s humanity.

    Read More

  • Harrison Bergeron

    684 Words  | 2 Pages

    Harrison Bergeron, projected on a stage representing the conformity of a society with a system of Government based on equality for the weak, which are monitored and controlled by a dictatorial Government.

    Read More

  • Harrison Bergeron Equality

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    Vonnegut uses Harrison in this short story to display that remarkable people will protest, rebel, and work against the handicaps until this brutal system is abolished. He writes, “Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper, tore straps guaranteed to support five thousand pounds,” (Vonnegut, 5). Due to the mandated handicaps that prevent the citizens from becoming their aspirations or reaching their full potential, no competition is permitted. Without competition in any shape or form, there can be no improvement in any area of life. In this dystopia where individual disputes are non-existent because people have stopped competing with each other and cannot think for themselves, the result is a stagnant, deadpan society where universal normality is valued above all else. All innovation that requires individual thought will be halted, all critical thinking will end, and the economy will eventually collapse due to the lack of improvement. Vonnegut’s form of equality where everyone is the same will never succeed in any way because it demoralizes and dispirits the human race and stops all creativity and originality. Vonnegut wrote this story to show readers that all people should not be equal, but rather, individual strengths and weaknesses making

    Read More

  • Everyone Was Not Equal In 'Harrison Bergeron'

    933 Words  | 2 Pages

    For instance, it says,”Every twenty seconds or so the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantages of their brains.” Also it made people without abilities feel equal. This proves to the reader that it made the people in “Harrison Bergeron” not equal because it was unequal for only people with abilities to wear handicaps and not the average to. Handicaps made people unequal because now people with handicaps have a harder life than the people with no handicaps. They have a more free life rather than walking around with something preventing you to do something that you have developed. Like how George is smart, he must have developed that from studying or doing other academic things. But now he is wearing a handicap to prevent it. This makes it useless for him to think. As a final result, people maybe think that it is equal but overall looking at the story it really isn’t fair because they make people with abilities lives harder than the people with no

    Read More

  • Repressive Society in Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

    762 Words  | 2 Pages

    The most important theme that we can easily notice in the story is the lack of freedom, which is extremely significant to the American ideals, and Harrison demonstrates it as his escapes from jail, remove his handicaps, and influence others around him. In order to have a completely equal society in Harrison Bergeron’s world, people cannot choose what they want to take part in or what they are good at because if a person is above average in anything, even appearance, they are handicapped. These brain and body devices are implanted in an effort to make everyone equal. However, instead of raising everyone up to the better level, the government chooses instead to lower people to the lowest common level of human thought and action, which means that people with beautiful faces wear masks. Also, people with above average intelligence wear a device that gives a soul-shattering piercing noise directly into the ear to destroy any train of thought. Larger and stronger people have bags of buckshot padlocked a...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Harrison Bergeron

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although the comparisons are well hidden, both today’s society and the story ‘Harrison Bergeron’ share similar qualities. They both deal with equality, which leads to problems and consequences. A second similarity is the struggle of competition and trying to prevent it from occurring, which also leads to problems. Lastly, both struggle with normality, and the fact that it’s hard to accept that different is okay now.

    Read More

More about Kurt Vonegut's Harrison Bergeron

Open Document