Themes Of Harrison Bergeron

The Year of 2081: A Disturbed Dystopia Imagine it is the year 2081, where society is thriving in an undesirable society that is being controlled by a government deeming everyone equal by handicapping unique abilities.(Vonnegut) How would a person feel under these conditions? At one time or another, individuals may have felt trapped in not being able to fully express their uniqueness without the fear of humiliation. “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, highlights the causes and effects of this disturbing dystopia that regards to future happenings. Nevertheless, The short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, highlights three prominent themes that greatly influences the story such as the resulting damage of equality on the people imposed conformity

The theme of government control in order to impose conformity is very apparent in the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” through elements of communism, which are rooted from the cold war. According to standard definition, equality is defined as the state of being equal in all areas such as class hierarchy, social status, abilities etc. For instance, “And George while his intelligence was way above normal had little mental handicap radio his ear.” (Vonnegut ) Based on the evidence from the quote, If the government had seen a person with a higher IQ as a threat to their government due to their increased likelihood to use their intelligence in order to damage society. On the contrary, an individual would be inhibited to perform good deeds among the people. “A buzzer sounded in George's head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.” (Vonnegut) In this example, the society operates communist approach which thrives on supporting that of class

The government does everything in their power to stop Harrison Bergeron by forcing him to wear glasses in order to distort his vision, wearing earphones to damage his thinking, and weighing his body with inhibitors. These symbols represent key components of the creative process of an individual which include the sight or vision, the mind ,and the soul. The eyes represent vision can be used figuratively to hinder or to catapult an individual in executing creative ideas for a project. The brain is a powerful tool harnesses the ability to think, compute and brainstorm. Metaphorically, the character Harrison was forcing him to wear glasses in order to distort his vision to break the people from the repression of creativity when he escapes from jail. So, his mind was convinced that he will succeed in overthrowing the government to break everyone free from mental bondage. Lastly, the soul is where individual’s passion which allows people such as the musicians to let themselves go into ecstasy when in the creative