Harrison Bergeron Social Commentary Essay

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Social Commentary in “Harrison Bergeron” “It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard” (Vonnegut 3). Written in 1961, the classic “Harrison Bergeron” includes a meaningful story about society in the real world. The dystopian short story addresses how society might seem perfect, but deep down it has many issues that need to be solved. The story takes place in 2081, and 14 year old Harrison Bergeron is in jail for resisting the government. His parents, George and Hazel are controlled by the government with advanced technology. As shown in the quote, their thoughts are even restricted, along with the rest of the population as well. Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” critiques an illusion of a perfect society …show more content…

The government uses these to ensure that everyone in society is equal by taking away their strengths and abilities. This new technology keeps the government in control. Vonnegut writes, “And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times... Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (Vonnegut 1). The intelligent people are not singled out, however, citizens that were considered to be were punished. This applies to beautiful and athletic people as well, citizens could not indicate a person’s strengths because they were controlled or hidden. Attractive people had to wear masks to hide their beauty and even strong people had to wear weights to make them weaker. This is effective for the government because it allows them to function without rebellion from their citizens. The people of society do not have a say in what they do; which is unjust.
To sum up, Vonnegut criticizes an illusion of a utopia by punishing individuality and using technology to control society. The pressure of having a perfect society was important to be sustained. This is still a prevalent issue to this day as many nations struggle to achieve this goal. Vonnegut takes notice of the society’s lies and uses “Harrison Bergeron” to

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