Handicap Each to His Ability

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Kurt Vonnegut paints a picture of American society 120 years past 1961. Society has made a gradual change, but it is a drastic one nonetheless. After nearly two hundred amendments to the constitution, everyone is supposed to be equal in every way. “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” (232 Vonnegut). In this landscape Vonnegut shows that people will never be completely equal, and trying to force equality through controlling individuals will only create a new class system.
In the sixties, as today, equality was a frequent topic of debate. The Civil Rights movement was rapidly gaining support, as was equal pay for women, protections of voting rights for minorities and a political shift embracing many teachings of Karl Marx (Decade of Change). There was an idea that if the playing field could just be leveled, if economic or social classes could be dissolved, then everyone would be happy and successful.
Kurt Vonnegut was a socialist, many would assume this dream falls in with his beliefs. However, “Too often, [Vonnegut] warns, people assume that equality means being the same. This is simply not realistic (Labin).” Vonnegut did not believe in equality, rather he favored equal opportunity. For this reason he shows us a possible future society in which, “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” (232 Vonnegut). And this is why there are two distinct classes, average citizens with handicaps and above average citizens without handicaps. Additionally, there are two more less obvious classes, the below average citizens and the agents of the handicap ge...

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... equal opportunity before the law and in society, but his idea was equal opportunity to succeed. He felt “it [was] the exceptional people who improved society” (Labin). Harrison Bergeron is his frightening caricature of what society would become if people continue with the absurd equalization ideas of the sixties.

Works Cited

“Decades of Change - 1960-1980.” Outline of U.S. History. U.S. Department of State. 2011. Web.
1 Apr. 2014
Labin, Linda. “Harrison Bergeron.” Masterplots II: Short Stories, Revised Edition Jan. 2004. 1-2
Literary Reference Center. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.
Mowery, Carl. “Harrison Bergeron.” Short Stories for Students. 2002. Literary Resource Center.
Web. 1 Apr. 2014.
Vonnegut, Kurt. “Harrison Bergeron.” Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and
Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New Jersey: Pearson, 2013. 232-236. Print.

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