Harrison Bergeron Essay

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Wouldn’t life just suck if there was no diversity and intelligence got you pain, strength got you weights to wear constantly, and good looks resulted in masks. “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is a short story based in the year 2081 where the government makes everyone equal with handicaps. The smart have a ear piece that sends out a sound every 20 seconds or so to scatter the person's thoughts. The strong get weights chained to their body’s. Two people named George and Hazel had a kid named Harrison. At his age of 14, he got taken away by the government, he exceeded everything including strength and intelligence. But, one day he escaped and went to the only televised tv channel and tries to start an uprising against the government. The government limits the rights of each and every person in this short story. …show more content…

He also has to where weights for his strength in an attempt to keep everyone equal. “Every 20 seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some a sharp noise to keep people like George from taking an unfair advantage over their brains” (Vonnegut 1) The people with a higher level of intelligence have to wear an earpiece that will scramble their thoughts every 20 seconds. This is bad because people with great minds and intelligence can do great things in the world, but then got shut down by the government and their equipment. “She was referring to the forty seven pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag, which was padlocked around George’s neck” (Vonnegut 2) The strong have to wear strength dependent weights on their bodies. This shows that in their world, people who take care of their bodies and/or do hard labor get punished with a locked weight. Unfortunately, he is not the only one affected by this curse of life, everyone’s affected, including a innocent

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