Harrison Bergeron Media Analysis

The famous American author of the science fiction Kurt Vonnegut, was born on November 11, 1922 and died in April 11, 2007, at the age of 84, and was influenced to write science fiction when he worked for General Electric Company because in his own words “There was no avoiding it, since General Electric Company was science fiction.” In the October of 1961 Kurt Vonnegut published a short story called “Harrison Bergeron”, which has themes that are obvious to any reader, such as a utopian society where everyone is equal, the effects of that society on the people, and how the media plays a bigger role in society than people think, but many do not realize that the themes that present themselves in short story have deeper meanings.

Throughout “Harrison Bergeron”, there is an emphasises on how controlling media can be in modern times. A majority of the story is told through the television in the living room of Harrison Bergeron’s parents, Hazel and George, as they watch their own son trash a news studio and eventually die. Hazel and George’s reactions have a lack of panic while they watch the events unfold, showing that today we are numb to the to the tragic events that are told on the news because it is norm for us to see those types of things in media. The media in “Harrison Bergeron” and the media of today have controlling effects on people, telling us who to vote for, warping the way people think about a certain subject, and how to to feel about those subjects. The only difference between the our society and the “Harrison Bergeron” society is that our society is not a utopia, but some people wish it could

He shows how faulty this type of society can be and did not follow the cookie cutter of how to present this information to the public. Vonnegut is undoubtedly a wonderful author that understands the theme of what he is writing and how to write