Harrison Bergeron Analysis

The kind of sociopolitical, socioeconomic, and sociocultural criticism that Vonnegut was making about "the America of his time" is of liberalism. Predominantly in the 1960s, the ideas of civil equality and liberty along with help from a mixed economy and social justice was the basic principle of liberalism at work. With the war in Vietnam social movements like the civil rights, women movements, counterculture movement, and LGBTQ ( lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning individuals/identities) movements show how the government would become more proactive in the lives of the people. The idea of equality for all reigned over America, Vonnegut's interpretation of this equality seems like a type of warning. "Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General." (Vonnegut 1) These initial lines that begin the story are reminiscent of a figurative jab to the politician makers during that time. Bluntly calling out the Constitution and "vigilance of agents", Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" is an extreme

Another novel Vonnegut wrote during the time of the Vietnam War was Slaughter House 5 or The Children's Crusade. As an anti-war book, it is the mental breakdown of how war trauma affects an individual's mind. The novel reflects most of Vonnegut's own personal experience in war, during World War 1 in the Dresden bombing and in the Battle of the Bulge. There is a psychoanalytical criticism of Vonnegut's Ego trying to keep the balance of sanity and insanity as the Vietnam War events bring back unsettling memories. Or as a historical criticism comparing the events of and events leading to both wars and