Harrison Bergeron
How would you feel if all the things that make you, you were taken away? When reading "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, some things that stood out, were the government wanted to make everyone and everything equal. Even if that meant stripping their citizens down to the bare minimum and making sure they don't stand out in anyway. "Harrison Bergeron" is about the people of 2081 living in a world that even the slightest bit of power or beauty it is considered unfair or unequal. Harrison Bergeron shows that equality can be taken so far that people aren’t able to express who they are because if they do it's considered unequal; for example people have to have their intelligence, strength and beauty handicapped so that it makes life fair, the author develops this by using
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situational irony and foreshadowing. In Harrison Bergeron it clearly shows how the people of 2081 are robbed by society.
One of the things that some of the people are robbed of is their beauty. An example of this would be how the dancers in the story have to hide their beauty behind ugly masks. “... so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.”(300) This is exactly how they’re society stripped the dancers and everyone else who is beautiful or their beauty. There is no excuse to make someone wear a hideous mask because they are beautiful.
Another way that the people of 2081 lose their uniqueness is how they have to wear a handicapped radio attached to their ear if they are too smart. An example of this in the book would be how George has to wear one of those radios on his ear because his intelligence is above average. “ A buzzer went off in George's head. His thoughts fled in pain…” (302). Everybody with a handicapped radio knows all too well what’s it's like to be down sized and forced to be like everybody else. Why do people think its right to handicap someone just because they're smart. They have no control over how smart they
are. The people of 2081 have an unfair equality. For example, anyone who has an abnormal amount of strength has to handicapped. An example of this would be how Harrison has to wear so much scrap metal he looks like a junkyard. “...Harrison carried three hundred pounds”(302). Society thinks that anyone who is too strong for their own good needs to be handicapped. Handicapping someone one just because their strong isn’t right and shouldn’t be accepted. The people of 2081 should realized that handicapping someone just because they aren't normal or aren't average isn't right. They should know that what's makes us so unique is the differences we have and that making everyone equal is a boring lifestyle. 2081 people need to stand up for what's right and accept their difference and there flaws. Life should be about embracing others and accepting the other person's differences.
Kurt Vonnegut, a modern American writer, composed stories about fictional situations that occurred in futuristic versions of today’s world. His stories included violence, both upon oneself and one another, and characters who sought out revenge. In “2BR02B” and “Harrison Bergeron”, Vonnegut conveys physical violence most likely experienced while a prisoner of World War 2, as a way to show how war brings pain and destruction.
Harrison Bergeron is a short story that has a deep meaning to it. To begin with, the short story Harrison Bergeron was made in 1961 and is written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. The whole short story is set in the far future of 2081. 2081 is a time where everybody is finally equal and when the government finally has full control over everyone. If you aren't equal you would have to wear handicaps to limit your extraordinary strength and smarts. As the story progresses, Harrison Bergeron is trying to send a message about society.
In the story, H-G men apply handicaps such as masks, as well as bulky bags on certain individuals who were ‘above average.’ Everyone within this society has to deal with performing just like others and walking past other hideous people. Individuals who were handicapped were held back from their intelligence, creativity, and most importantly from their beauty, making everyone, no smarter, stronger, quicker, unable to see a free and graceful gesture, or be able to see a beautiful face. “‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ said the ballerina, reading the bulletin. She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred pound men.” (Vonnegut, p.103/par. 39). In the story, a ballerina, burdened with weights as well as a mask, had to perform on stage, stripped off from her gorgeous face and graceful dancing skills, making her look like an embarrassment. Though, it was obvious that she was better than all the other dancers, which clearly shows that a society that values equality leads to lack of beauty.
It was important to keep Harrison’s death being broadcasted on TV because it shows the side of the government people don’t see. If it wasn’t broadcasted then the people wouldn’t have seen how the government killed a man who was just trying to prove to the people that the handicaps weren’t helping anyone. According to the movie 2081 Harrison tries to prove that handicaps aren’t helping anyone, so he takes his handicaps off and shows the citizens what he can do without them. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” the Handicap General ends up killing Harrison and his empress causing Hazel to cry.
“Harrison Bergeron” starts with explaining the society within the story. It begins, “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way,” (Vonnegut 158). With this startlingly different introduction, Vonnegut explains that everyone is equal but does not include how during this time. As the story progresses, the reader begins to see exactly how the citizens are “equal.”
An impartial society: Utopia or Hell? What would happen to the world if the people were literally equal in every aspect of their lives? In the futuristic short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the world is finally living up to America’s first amendment of everyone being created equal. In this society, the gifted, strong, and beautiful are required to wear handicaps of earphones, heavy weights, and hideous masks, respectively. Thus, these constraints leave the world equal from brains to brawn to beauty. With the world constantly pushing for equality among people, Vonnegut reveals a world that society is diligently working toward. Through this foreshadowing of the future, Vonnegut attempts to use Diana Moon Glampers and
In conclusion, the complete freedom and absolute equality have been a goal of innumerable societies throughout human history. However, these two ideal cannot exist together in their most perfect forms because the perfect forms of either freedom or equality represent total chaos or total oppression, as we can see in “Harrison Bergeron,” the consequences of sacrificing freedom for perfect equality. The author uses the story of this imaginary perfect world where everyone is happy to demonstrate that a society in which total equality exists is not only oppressive, but also inert and unproductive. Using his futuristic scenario, the simplicity of the society, and the actions of his characters, Vonnegut makes his point of view of a repressive society. In addition, societies that try to create total equality have almost always proven to be oppressive, such as China.
Although the comparisons are well hidden, both today’s society and the story ‘Harrison Bergeron’ share similar qualities. They both deal with equality, which leads to problems and consequences. A second similarity is the struggle of competition and trying to prevent it from occurring, which also leads to problems. Lastly, both struggle with normality, and the fact that it’s hard to accept that different is okay now.
Imagine a world where the government has finally made every induvial equal in every aspect of their lives. In the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., this is a living reality. In this society, the strong, intelligent, and beautiful are required to wear handicaps of heavy weights, earphones, and masks, thus rendering their attributes equal to everyone. With a government constantly pushing for equality among all citizens, Vonnegut reveals a dystopia that society is slowly working toward. Vonnegut uses foreshadowing to reveal the future of society by using Harrison Bergeron and Diana Moon Glampers as mechanisms to reveal the horrors of allowing citizens to be too equal.
Never would I thought that we have a dystopian-like society in our world. Don’t know what a dystopia is? It is a society set in the future, typically portrayed in movies and books in, which everything is unpleasant. The novel Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut is a dystopian story of a fourteen-year-old boy named Harrison who grows up in a society that limits people’s individuality. When he is taken away from his parents, because of his strong idiosyncrasy, his parents do not even recall his presence because of the “mental handicaps” that the government forces onto them. Harrison eventually escapes from his imprisonment and tries to show others that they can get rid of the handicaps and be free. Though the government official, or Handicapper
The compelling short story Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut, is set in a future dystopian society. The plot follows an “average family” in the year 2081 after the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the constitution were added. These three laws establish the principle of equality; everyone must be equal in every aspect of life. To ensure this, the government utilizes “handicaps”, small machines or even body weights, to make certain no one person is better than anyone else. The center of the story, married couple Hazel and George, both have handicaps given to them by the Handicap General. As they are watching television one day, their incarcerated son appears on screen claiming to want to overthrow the government. Known as Harrison Bergeron, he was long ago locked up because of his in- humanlike strength and inability to be tamed by handicaps. But while broadcasted live, he proceeds to rip off his handicaps and dance around until he is shot and killed by Diana Moon, the Handicap General. The story ends with Hazel’s “average” intelligence forcing her to forget what she just witnessed, as her and George’s day goes on as normal. Completely unsettling, this story rem...
Kurt Vonnegut paints a picture of American society 120 years past 1961. Society has made a gradual change, but it is a drastic one nonetheless. After nearly two hundred amendments to the constitution, everyone is supposed to be equal in every way. “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” (232 Vonnegut). In this landscape Vonnegut shows that people will never be completely equal, and trying to force equality through controlling individuals will only create a new class system.
Does perfect mean the same? Does different mean unfair? Well in the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr this story shows multiple consequences for being the same. The story started in the future, around 2081. Everyone was forced to be equal. The smart had to scramble their thoughts, the able and athletic had to carry weights. All of this to become the same, average. This all changed when Harrison Bergeron stood up for rights. Harrison Bergeron was taken from his father, George, and his mother, Hazel. Harrison escaped prison to teach everyone about the handicaps. Harrison showed this by ripping off his handicaps and not only told the crowd about the glamour of being free, but also showed them. The author wrote this story to
“‘Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out’” wrote Vonnegut (103). This statement portraits the unjust punishment for being unhandicapped, but is this punishment better or worse than death? In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” and the movie “2081” there are many differences and similarities. One similarity is that both the short story “Harrison Bergeron” and the movie “2081” has Harrison Bergeron getting shoot. In contract with Harrison getting killed is that the short story and movie differ in the aspect on how they prove that Harrison is dead.
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.