Natural Gifts In Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

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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 …show more content…

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

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