Equality In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

There is a fine line between aiming for an equal society and a society becoming of a conformist nature, with a lack of diversity. Having too much freedom can lead to anarchy and to lack of basic structure, which is essentially why a stable government is needed. However, society must aim to customize equality to the individual, rather than keep a basic standard as to what “equality” must exactly be. With regulated, forced “equality”, It is easy for a society to become similar to the Dystopian society seen in “Harrison Bergeron”. This story portrays what could potentially occur when the battle for equality gets out of control, bordering the lines of discrimination. It teaches us this through a distressful, yet realistic glimpse into what our

It’s set in the future, 2081 to be exact, and he tells us that in this time everyone is finally “equal”. “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) We can also assume that this story takes place in the United States because of the Amendments. These amendments made sure everyone was equal by the cost of making sure no one was smarter or stronger than anyone else. They did this by having those with higher intelligence carry radios in their ear that transmit sharp sounds which impair them from the ability to have consistent thoughts. For those who were more physically advanced, they were to wear heavy weights to keep them down and equal to others. Due to these handicaps everyone became “equal”, but at what cost exactly? At the cost of sacrificing all individualism and self motivated success, and stripping those who were inherently of higher ability of their abilities. “Trying to ignore that fact results in a society that ends up discouraging people from fulfilling their potential. There is an analogy here to the artificial economic equality enforced under communism. Artificial economic equality treats everyone as though they were equally productive. And this has the effect of discouraging anyone from being productive, as there is no

He is taken from his parents at the young age of 14 by government men for taking off his handicaps. As the story progresses, its as if Hazel and George have forgotten all about their son, and most likely have due to their lack of intelligence. The next we hear of Harrison is in a breaking news report, “‘Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen,’ she said in a grackle squawk, ‘has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.’”. Dangerous to only the government and the Handicap association, his oppressors. Harrison is not only physically remarkable, standing at seven feet tall and wearing some of the heaviest seen handicaps, but a genius as well. Shortly after the report, Harrison is heard breaking in. Harrison goes on to perform a wonderfully beautiful dance with one of the ballerinas, without limitations, or handicaps. With such grace and elegance, the two show the audience and the viewers what greatness is possible without the handicaps. “There is no natural way to divide the creation of advantages by talent into the legitimate and the illegitimate, along lines that could correspond to a psychologically plausible division between personal and impersonal motivation. All that can be done is to