Kurt Vonegut's Harrison Bergeron

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In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonegut, The government has attempted to make everyone and everything equal. They have given people who are above average intelligence a earpiece which emits loud sounds and causes them to forget what they were thinking about. If you are super strong you carry weights around. if you are pretty you were a hideous mask. These are all handicaps that they would give people. We meet two people named George and Hazel. George is above average intelligence so he has a handicap to make him equal to everyone else. The woman, Hazel, is average in every aspect. They have a son named Harrison who was taken away by the Handicapper General’s men. the Handicapper General is in charge of making sure …show more content…

George and Hazel decide to watch a ballet, and as they are watching it a new bulletin comes on warning the public that Harrison Bergeron has escaped prison. They say that he is way under handicapped and dangerous. Harrison is extremely smart , handsome, and strong. He breaks into the news studio and appears on T.V. Harrison declares himself the emperor and demands an emperess. A ballerina stands up and Harrison breaks of his weights and they dance. Diana Moonglampers, the Handicapper General, storms into the studio and shoots Harrison instantly killing him. Although this was all broadcasted on T.V. nobody seemed to notice and they go back to their average lives. In the story Kurt Vonegut kills Harrison Bergeron to show hopelessness, these support that. He believed it was hopeless to make everyone equal, he believed it was hopeless to give the government complete control, and he also believed that it was hopeless to take away peoples choices and make them average. This is why that …show more content…

The character believed that the world they lived in was equal, but it was not. Some people were still prettier than others, and some people were still smarter than others and there is nothing they could do about it. While they did have handicaps to make things more “fair”. It made the people with handicaps even more different. How would you feel if you saw someone walking down the hall with large weights tied to them or an ugly mask covering their face? Would you stare? While trying to make everyone equal they made others stand out even more. This goes to show that Kurt Vonegut killed Harrison to show hopelessness because the idea that we could have equality is impossible and hopeless. This brings me to my next point.


Another way that Kurt Vonegut shows us hopelessness is by taking away everyones choices and freedom. They do not give people choices in whether or not they have a handicap. No one has a choice in whether or not they are strong or weak, whether they are ugly or stunning. They are still forced to become average and have their choices taken away even though they had no choice in whether or not they end up with good genetics or bad genetics. What happens to those who are below average intelligence? Do they really have any choice in what happens to them? This is the second way Kurt Vonegut shows us

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