Equality In Harrison Bergeron, By Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Equality is often viewed as an idealistic concept – something that every civilization should strive for. Especially in more liberal parts of the United States, equality is demanded for everyone. At first glace, complete equality sounds optimal, but upon closer inspection, it can have detrimental effects. This prompts the question, when does equality become problematic rather than idealistic? Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron” is the perfect example of a society that has taken equality too far, turning something that was once ideal into something dystopic. In “Harrison Bergeron,” individuality is essentially eradicated through the enforcement of normative behavior through technological means, incarceration, internalization, and corporal

Handicaps are also enforced on people above average to keep everybody the same. Unlike Hazel, who is incapable of processing and synthesizing her own opinions and thoughts, her husband, George Bergeron consists of the mental capacity to think for himself. Due to George’s advantages, he has “a little mental handicap radio in his ear – he was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter, and every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noises to keep people like George from taking an unfair advantage of their brains,” (Vonnegut Jr. 370). While Hazel is mentally unable to create a complex idea, George is physically prevented from doing such. George and everybody else with an above average intelligence is forced to endure a sharp noise every twenty seconds to keep them from generating ideas. Anyone being forced to endure this type of torture would be unable to experience any sort of peace and quiet, which is exactly what the government

An oppressive society can still thrive without the handicap technologies and jail time if the authoritative figure rules with with fear. In “Harrison Bergeron,” the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers, personally shoots and kills Harrison and his empress on live television. Vonnegut writes, “It was then that 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,” (374). It is not the fact that she kills them that makes this method of enforcement the strongest, but the fact that she kills them on live television for everybody to see. The mindless television that everyone watches may unconsciously influence them, but this action sends a direct message. Without even a slight hesitation, if anyone tries to start a rebellion, he or she will be