Government Power In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

Cody Carrier

English MWF 9am

5 September 2016

In 1961 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wrote a story called “Harrison Bergeron”. Vonnegut is trying to show that more government power means a worse life. His entire story is about the government controlling everyone. The government has eliminated any and all uniqueness from society by planting these radios in people’s ears if they were above average on the intelligence scale.

“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 213 th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.” Equality is something our world strives for and has since the beginning of time. Whether it is a battle of sexes or a battle against race it never seems to end. Voggenut writes about the future, 2081, and he states, “they weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every

In Vonnegut’s story he tells how the government finds a way to control intelligence so no one can rise above, no one can prove to do the impossible, basically being enslaved by the government. “George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear”. The law requires people with above average intelligence to wear these devices that are tuned to a government transmitter. These send off a sharp noise to keep the people wearing them from “taking unfair advantage of their brains”, or in other words think for themselves. The government is so afraid that the people have what it takes to overpower and outsmart them that this is the only way to keep them from realizing their full potential. George’s son Harrison who is murdered on live television for breaking free of this government control because he dared to use his gifts and