Harrison Bergeron Total Equality

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The thought of total equality amongst all humans may sound appealing at first thought. The author of the short story “Harrison Bergeron” explains how total equality is not only unappealing, but can actually be dangerous and not at all what people would imagine the “perfect life” would be. The story is set in the future, the year 2081, where the government had added amendments to the constitution in order to create equality between everyone. The characters in the story demonstrate tactics used by the government to put everyone on an equal level. In the story total equality does take place, because people have given up their appearance, behavior, and achievements for balance between everyone. Physical appearance of the characters is very descriptive. The United States handicapping general, Diana Moon Glampers, ordered beautiful people to wear masks to cover their faces like the ballerina announcer. Diana also required the stronger than the average man to wear bags of weights in an effort to bring him down. In some cases, as in Harrison’s, she would go to the extreme by making him wear thick glasses which would give him headaches and basically blind him. “The H-G men required that he wear at all times a red rubber ball for a nose, keep his eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even white teeth …show more content…

“Harrison Bergeron” proves that it may not be the answer everyone envisioned. Although Vonnegut pushes the limit to the extreme level with this story, it is obvious that this still wouldn’t fix problems in America. Taking away a persons freedom and individuality is a high price for anyone to pay if the result for equality means having a government that controls everything and everyone. It would be nice to have a lot of money and a lot of the finer things that some people possess, however being in control of my own destiny means more than any monetary or material

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