If you are reading this, then you have probably felt insufficient or pathetic compared to someone else’s outstanding qualities or interesting skills. Many times we think about what our lives would be like if we were all completely equal to one another. We would never have to feel lonely or imperfect. Vonnegut does a wonderful job of portraying this idea in his disillusioned and satirical work entitled “Harrison Bergeron”, Vonnegut’s characterization of George, Hazel, and Harrison develop the theme that a failure to allow exceptional people to display their natural gifts leads to a lack of inspiration and the ultimate destruction of society.
George is a perfect example of this theme because he is not able to live his life freely. George is
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unable to show his personality because he is sad and confused. He has to wear a handicapper radio in his ear because of his extreme intelligence. The radio prevents him from using his mental gifts which does not allow him to be the brilliant thinker that he could be. “It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very hard...And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear” (Vonnegut 11-14). George and Hazel can’t think about anything very hard so they don’t remember their son being taken away from them. As mentioned above, George’s intelligence is above normal so he has a handicap radio which makes him not be able to remember things or have an original thought. This illustrates the theme because an extremely tragic event has occurred and George is not able to think about it. He is intelligent and society will not allow him to display his natural gifts, so they make him forget. “...To keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (Vonnegut 17). Society doesn’t want anyone to be better than anyone else. They give them handicap radios so everyone will be equal. This represents the theme because George can’t take advantage of his brain, therefore he is not able to display his intelligence. If people are not able to use their gifts then how can society improve? If you try to control the intelligent people they could try to change and be exceptional. This could result in the destruction of the society. Some people might say that giving George handicaps would be better because people would be equal. Their would be no competition or jealousy, or a need to be better than anyone else. But you can’t control what people are and their personality. If you try to change them, or make them average, then you would not be allowing them to reach their full potential. George’s character shows that by not allowing people to be themselves, and be extraordinary, you are taking away their natural gifts which can lead to a destruction of society. Hazel is also a perfect example of this theme because she is average. The society she lives in doesn’t push her to be better. She is not able to be her best self or excel in life because they are pulling her back. “Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts” (Vonnegut 12). This quote represents this theme because Hazel only has average intelligence. She is not able to think about anything very hard or determine if it is good or bad. The government does not allow her to grow or improve. They just want her to stay completely average so everyone can be equal. How is she supposed to make the world a better place, or just simply help others, if all she can do is sit there and watch tv? “There were tears on Hazel’s cheeks, but she’d forgotten for the moment what they were about” (Vonnegut 18-19). Hazel is not able to remember why she had been crying. She had been watching a beautiful performance on tv but has no recollection of it. She will have no memory of it. Her son had also been taken away from her and she doesn’t remember. This so called “better” society has taken away her only son and she has no idea. All of those memories of him as a child, all of the love that she once had of him, are gone forever. All they want is for everyone to be average so they can be equal. But how is it fair or even right, that an already average person is given such a sad life, without even knowing it. Some people in this society could think that it is perfect. That they enjoy the fact that they don’t have to compete or feel jealous towards someone. But that could just be one opinion. This society does not allow the people to have a choice. They are forced to live in this extreme equality where they can’t use their natural gifts for good. Hazel’s character expresses the fact that this society is corrupt, the people have no inspiration or a drive to succeed, and there needs to be a change. Similarly, Harrison is also a very good example of this theme.
He is an exceptional person with many natural gifts. The society he lives in will not let him be himself. They take him away from his family and his life to put him in prison for no wrong doing. He is being punished just simply for being different. “He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous” (Vonnegut 106-107). Harrison’s inspiration to be involved sports or use his intelligence to help people is taken away from him. He is also only considered dangerous because the society he lives in has discriminated and beaten him and thrown him in jail for being different. He is just simply upset and angry at the people who are mistreating him. If he is a genius then he should go to good school and become a doctor, not be sent to prison for being himself. This represents the theme because they don’t allow him to use his natural gifts. His gifts and intelligence and his extraordinary talents are all trapped in jail with him, unable to reach their purpose. “Even as i stand here...crippled, hobbled, sickened - I am a greater ruler than any man who ever lived! No watch me become what i can become!” (Vonnegut 145-147). Harrison has escaped from jail and want’s to show the world that they are wrong. He wants to be able to be the best that he can be, but he is not able to because this society has decided that he is different and unequal, therefore he has to be put away. Harrison knows that he is better than the people running this government. This represents the theme because Harrison knows that this society is wrong; that everyone should not have to be pulled down because they are better or more extraordinary. Someone might say that it is a good thing that he is being kept in jail because he is too intelligent and extremely dangerous. It might be true that he could have the upper hand in many situations because of his intelligence, but he is certainly not
dangerous. He only seems so scary and demanding when he enters the theatre because he was trapped in jail for no substantial reasoning. He needed to make a point that this society is very backwards in their thinking and that there needs to be a change. Harrison’s character shows an example of someone extraordinary who is treated very poorly in the society that he lives in. People should not be taken for granted or punished for using their own natural gifts or simply being themselves. In conclusion, the theme of Harrison Bergeron can be summarized by the idea that a failure to allow exceptional people to display their natural gifts leads to a lack of inspiration and the ultimate destruction of society. Other people’s qualities and skills sometimes make us feel like we're not as good or not worth it. Sometimes we think that if we were all equal our lives would be better; there would be no competition; we wouldn’t have to worry about being imperfect or different. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. does a spectacular job of portraying this theme in his ironic and cynical story entitled “Harrison Bergeron.”
Authors in the 1900s created short stories by writing short books that they could sell for quick cash. This is how the genre of short stories came about. As more and more stories were published, shorts became very popular because they were so short. Many people loved the idea that they could finish an entire story in one sitting. As the stories became more popular, Kurt Vonnegut, a short story writer, developed a list of 8 rules that make a perfect short story. He executes his rules in his short stories giving many examples of what the standard for short story writing should be.
……………Most of the numerous and very disparate urban utopias imagined since antiquity, claim more or less a social justice combining equality, fairness, and freedom. However the methods invented to reach this social justice often lead to more binding law, sometimes up to the absurd, that limited the abilities and capacities of the citizens. Thus, behind the mask of an ideal equality, is concealed in fact, a tremendous social injustice. In “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut’s shows us the consequences of sacrificing freedom for perfect equality by using the story of an excessive utopia to demonstrate that a society in which total equality exists, is not only oppressive, but also static and inefficient. Vonnegut exemplifies the image of fairness
In the story “Harrison Bergeron” a live broadcast is interrupted by Harrison Bergeron [George’s son] himself, freeing the people listening of their society and dancing away with a talented ballerina: “And then, in an explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang! Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the laws of gravity and the laws of motion as well.” (Vonnegut 4). Once the government’s boundaries of full equality were taken away for a quick moment Harrison and a ballerina were able to excel, be free, and cross boundaries of science. Because these people were no longer held from showing their talent they were able to improve their skill after years of no improvement. Without being able to show talents to the people around one there is no competition, but without that competition one can not improve or express joy from what they are doing. For example, in today’s society if computer brands stopped competing to have the best and newest product our technology would not advance at all, nor would the computer engineer’s mind and skill. Competition creates many forms of external motivation and with that taken away
Being unique is a necessary part of life. People are told starting as children that they need to be themselves. They are told to do what they love and love what they do. What if the world didn’t allow this? Kurt Vonnegut ponders the idea of a life in which the government enforces complete equality. “Harrison Bergeron” takes place in a future society that hinders people with skills to make everyone equal. This society makes everyone worse instead of better. Complete equality has too many issues for it to be viable. Equality should be for all in the eyes of the law. However, complete equality should not be pursued because taking away the differences between people is a clear mistake.
The most important theme that we can easily notice in the story is the lack of freedom, which is extremely significant to the American ideals, and Harrison demonstrates it as his escapes from jail, remove his handicaps, and influence others around him. In order to have a completely equal society in Harrison Bergeron’s world, people cannot choose what they want to take part in or what they are good at because if a person is above average in anything, even appearance, they are handicapped. These brain and body devices are implanted in an effort to make everyone equal. However, instead of raising everyone up to the better level, the government chooses instead to lower people to the lowest common level of human thought and action, which means that people with beautiful faces wear masks. Also, people with above average intelligence wear a device that gives a soul-shattering piercing noise directly into the ear to destroy any train of thought. Larger and stronger people have bags of buckshot padlocked a...
Harrison doesn’t want to be forced into this way of society, so he fights against the government. He’s strong enough and smart enough to fight against them so he does. With Harrison being as smart and strong as he is, it makes it harder for the Handicap Generals to control him. “Nobody had ever born heavier handicaps” (Vonnegut 3), even the Handicap Generals were surprised at how Harrison so effortlessly
Each person has different characteristics about them that give them their own identity and that should not be changed. In the story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, the main character, Harrison Bergeron is known as a threat to society. He is very intelligent, handsome, and athletic. In 2081, every person in the United States is equal. The government has taken over and has required everyone to wear handicaps to make them less smart, less pretty, less strong, and many other things. At the beginning of the story they mention a husband and wife, George and Hazel Bergeron, and they have a son, Harrison, who gets taken away because of his perfections. Later in the story, Hazel and George are watching ballerinas on television, when the program is interrupted by breaking news. They inform the viewers that Harrison has broken out of jail. The program then turns back on and Harrison appears on stage with the ballerinas. He proceeds to take off every
He wears three-hundred pounds of buckshot around his neck, glasses that make him half blind, huge headset transmitter and caps on his teeth to make him look ugly. When he breaks free of his handicaps he is seen as a threat to society because of how superior he is. The fear instilled in the government is apparent when they burst into the news studio and shoot him dead, all on live television in front of his parents. However, no one will ever remember the spectacle Harrison put on because of the twenty second memory the population has. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. uses irony, hyperbole and reversal to help readers understand that total equality cannot be achieved without dire consequences.
All of the stuff that happened in the story created a negative outcome on their lives. Harrison was freed from prison and had went to the studio where the ballerinas were dancing. On his way he tried to get most of the things off then while he was on stage declaring himself emperor and telling people to follow his rules he took off all of his physical handicaps. “I am the Emperor! cried Harrison. Do you hear? I am the Emperor! Everybody must do what I say at once.”( Vonnegut, 4) He was telling the people that the Handicapper Generals were bad and need improvement. But Leonard Mead on the other hand went against government because he went on walks unlike the people that were not going to stop watching TV. “The street was silent and long and empty, with only his shadow moving like the shadow of a hawk in mid-country.”
Set one hundred and twenty years in the future, Kurt Vonnegut’s dystopian world short story “Harrison Bergeron” is about the outcome of what happens when the government takes over due to people in society pleading for equality. Ranging from physical looks to one’s intelligence, it seems that people are continually unsatisfied with themselves when compared to others. However, there is one boy who refuses to conform to the laws set in place by the Handicapper General. Harrison Bergeron is that boy. The story tells of his capture, rebellion, and his demise due to breaking free from the laws of equality. In whole, Kurt Vonnegut wants his readers to assess the issue of equality in society before the made up world of his story turns into reality.
Kurt Vonnegut’s dystopian fiction, or a type of fiction in which the society’s attempt to create a perfect world goes very wrong, “Harrison Bergeron” was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1961. This story is about Harrison Bergeron, who is forced to diminish his abilities because they are more enhanced than everyone else’s. This short story is an allusion of a perfect society and it is maintained through totalitarian. The author expresses his theme of the dysfunctional government of utopia through his effective use of simile, irony, and symbolism. Kurt Vonnegut was one of the most influential American writers and novelists, and his writings have left a deep influence on the American Literature of the 20th century. Vonnegut is also famous for his humanist beliefs and was the honoree of the American Humanist Association. “Harrison Bergeron” is about a fictional time in the future where everyone is forced to wear handicapping devices to ensure that everyone is equal. So can true equality ever be achieved through strict governmental control?
“The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal” (Vonnegut 133). This story is called “Harrison Bergeron” and is written by Kurt Vonnegut, and includes satire of many real societies that will supposedly influence the United States. This previous quote describes that the United States was finally perfect, but it could be argued as a communistic society. It is later stated that: “All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution” (Vonnegut 133). This explains how the Unites States has transferred to a society related to communism. This is an example of satire that is used to mock communism. A second inference that can be made about this “utopian” society is also mocks the person’s need for nobody to have
When a person or group of people join a distinct opposition towards someone or something, it is discrimination. People are inadequately affected through hate and criticism because of the unique differences we each hold as human beings. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, he presents us with the mental vision of Tall Poppy Syndrome. These circumstances could negatively attribute to our government being detrimental to our future society by indoctrinating equality within the nation.
In the arguably famous short science fiction story “Harrison Bergeron”, written by Kurt Vonnegut in the year of 1961, the dystopian future world taunts the pursuit of absolute equality and the unfairness people ignored in the process of doing so in an absurd way.
Absurdity is a core theme of existentialist philosophy. One enters the world with absolute freedom, but at the same time, one is born into restrictive historical circumstances that narrow what one can do with that freedom (Six Basic Themes). Wilhelm observes many absurdities. For example, when he helps Mr. Rappaport find his way to the cigar store, he notices that old men who are rich have no practical use for the money. Tommy believes that “They don’t need therefore they have. I need, therefore I don’t have” (Bellow, 97). Wilhelm is disgusted by materialism and wishes that people didn’t care about superficial goals in life such as financial gain. To him, people only think about money. This belief creates feelings of isolation and alienation; these emotions are necessary consequences of living in the modern world (IEP). Tommy’s worldly failures further increase his sense of estrangement. He views himself as a failed student, actor, son, husband, and father. Wilhelm’s dad, Dr. Adler, represents what society admires - a hard working, wealthy doctor of medicine. He serves as a foil to Wilhelm in that his success highlights Wilhelm’s failure. Tommy knows he does not belong in modern society because he abhors its