Perfection In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

How far is too far? Throughout the ages, most societies have strived for their interpretation of perfection. With perfection being a very difficult thing to obtain, lots of societies have gone to the extremes in order to reach their goal. Even with the best intentions, these societies can go too far and often end up doing more harm than help. Like Adolf Hitler and his concentration camps. He felt as if he was doing the right thing and bettering Germany’s social environment, but he actually just caused a lot of problems. With believing things like, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed” (Adolf Hitler), Hitler convinced his people that he was doing good for Germany. With the past repeating itself,

as it so often does, who’s to say that in the future leaders won’t do similar things whilst trying to improve their societies? In the future, different societies will create ways to attempt to improve their social environment by the use of rather extreme means. This is, unless we learn from others’ mistakes.
In “Harrison Bergeron,” Vonnegut portrays a future America in which the social environment is improved through extreme sacrifices by the citizens.

In order to instill equality, the U.S. forces citizens to wear “handicaps”. The government began to use these handicaps in an attempt to make everyone average and equal in ability. Intelligent people must wear earpieces that emit loud sound in order to make them lose their concentration, athletic people must wear weights to make them less agile, and beautiful people must wear masks to hide their perfect features. The main character, Harrison Bergeron, is affected by far more handicaps than most citizens. His handicaps include extremely heavy weights, blacked out teeth, a red nose, and goggles to make him more average. Unlike all of the other citizens, Harrison is completely against these handicaps. Because Harrison disagrees with this extreme tactic, the government imprisons him in order to keep him from causing a rebellion. Everyone, except for Harrison,is convinced that this is for the better of the society or is afraid of the consequences of rebellion and continues to wear their handicaps. George, Harrison’s father, makes the point that if he lessens or removes his handicaps that everyone else will, which would place them back into the “Dark Ages” or life as we know it in 2017. By stating, “If I tried to get away with it,’ said George, ‘then other people’d get away with it and pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else”, George highlights the personal sacrifices that each citizen takes and the importance of those sacrifices (Vonnegut Page 3). Harrison challenges this point through removing his handicaps on live television, and in turn gets shot by the Handicapper General who keeps the citizens in check. Although these handicaps make their owners less unique, the society has accepted this hardship in order to instill equality and “improve” their

social environment. With this “improvement” making everyone basically the same, would it even be considered an improvement? Or would it just create a society of people who are more like robots?
In “By the Waters of Babylon,” Stephen Vincent Benet portrays a society in which certain places are forbidden in order to control and improve the social environment. In this society, going to the East is strictly forbidden in order to keep the citizens safe and healthy. When John tells the reader, “These are the rules and laws; they are well made”, he clarifies that the society believes that these places being forbidden improves the social environment (Benet Par. 1). The citizens believe that it is forbidden because it is said to be where spirits of gods and demons live. The only citizens allowed to venture into the East are priests and their sons, while in the East they collect metal which must be purified directly after. While most citizens are obedient and do not enter the forbidden lands, John experiences the urge to explore them. John sets out to explore these lands out of his curiosity for what lies within them. This exploration results in John learning that the lands are actually forbidden due to the nuclear radiation housed within them, not due to them being where the spirits of gods and demons live. Although fabricated, this story of why these places are forbidden keeps the citizens from exploring them. This “little white lie” softens the harsh reality of why these lands are forbidden. Instead of fearing the forbidden place, the citizens have respect for the spirits of the gods and demons and this respect keeps them away. Even though fabricating a story to explain why going to the East is forbidden is quite extreme, it improves the social environment by keeping it away from nuclear radiation and healthy overall.
In “Oryx and Crake,” Atwood portrays a future society that is sheltered from the outside world in order to improve the overall safety and social environment. Families that work for a company named OrganInc Farms live in a sheltered compound. This compound includes stores, restaurants, and neighborhoods that help to make the compound seem more normal to those living inside. These compounds are much safer than regular cities. Due to only people who work for OrganInc Farms and their families living there, there is virtually no crime. This helps citizens to feel more comfortable to go from place to place in the compound. Most citizens who live in this society enjoy it being so safe like “the good old days”. Sharon, Jimmy’s mother, believes that the society in the compound is too artificial. While others, like Jimmy’s father, feel that it is much better and safer than regular cities. Jimmy’s father explains how living sheltered improves the social environment when he explains how he perceives the environment in regular cities, “Too much hardware, too much software, too many hostile bioforms, too many weapons of every kind. And too much envy and fanaticism and bad faith” (Atwood Page 28). Although living in a secluded compound is rather severe, it improves the safety and social environment for those who work for OrganInc Farms.
In these future societies, different extreme methods were used in order to improve their social environment. Whether these attempts were successful or not, depends on the point of view. In these stories, rather than actually seeing real improvements, it seems as if the characters just want to accept the lies and tales of improvement rather than seeing the improvement for themselves. These people want to have such a perfect society, that they just blindly accept the restrictions that are said to be “improving their society”. From an outside point of view, though, their societies aren't very great. Characters like Harrison and John go against the rules set in order to show others why these rules are unnecessary. They decide to fight, rather than comply, in order to make a change in their unjust societies. While Harrison lost his life while standing up and fighting for what he believed in, John began to make a change by exposing the lie that had been told throughout his community. Without John going against the rules, his society would still be giving up their freedom and believing an arbitrary ideology. Through standing up against their “perfect” societies, these characters initiated a much needed change.