Have you ever wanted things to become equal? The story “Harrison Bergeron” makes up a fictional world in the year 2081 where everyone in society is equal. If somebody was above average, they would give that person handicaps to make everyone just as equal as them. However, I believe that everyone in the story wasn’t all truly equal. Not everyone is wearing a handicap and not everyone get to show off their talents.
To begin with, not everyone is wearing handicaps. For example, George had to wear handicaps. The handicaps he wore were earpieces, which interrupted his thoughts, and weights, which weighed him down. Even though he had to wear handicaps, his wife didn’t. To add on, some ballerinas were forced to wear masks because of how good looking they looked. Some people also had to wear weights because they were so athletic and strong. This is significant because it tells us how even if you are above average you still must wear a handicap. For things in society to be equal, everyone must wear handicaps. If only some people didn't wear it, it would be extremely unfair and not equal for the people who do. If everyone had handicaps
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everything would be equal, but not all are wearing it. While some people might argue that the handicaps are meant for making above average people average, you must consider the fact that not everyone is wearing one. It would be very unequal for the people who do wear them since the people who are average aren’t wearing them. As a result, the handicaps don’t make the people truly equal. Secondly, most people don’t have the exact things as other people.
Examples of this is when some people get to become new reporters, while others become ballerina or a musician. This could lead to get paid differently or have different experiences than others. This is significant because it tells us about how everyone have different jobs and experiences. In addition, people about have experiences with a camera more than another person because of their job. Also, because they have different jobs, they could get paid differently, which could lead to people to become richer than others. That isn’t equal in society. However, some people might say that the people who have jobs are handicapped. This is wrong since some people aren't handicapped and it only affects groups. In the end, the people in “Harrison Bergeron” aren’t truly
equal. Third of all, some people have different disorders than others. For example, the new reporters had reading/talking disorders. Other people like the ballerina didn’t have any. In fact the ballerina was above average since they had to wear a mask. This is important since it tell us how some people have different disorders than others. The news reporters had talking/reading disorders, while the other people like Harrison didn't have one. While some people might argue that the handicaps made everyone even but it didn’t. There was no handicap that made people have talking/reading disorders. In closing not everyone have the exact same thing and no one was truly equal with each other. In conclusion, the people aren’t truly equal in the story “Harrison Bergeron” This clearly illustrates that the people in the story had disabilities or disorders while some didn’t. This made everything unequal and unfair for everyone else. Also some people even had different jobs than everyone else. Ultimately, the people were not all truly equal in the story “Harrison Bergeron”
At the first glance, an image of the society portrayed in the “Harrison Bergeron” short will put the reader at a halt. This short story depicts a nation that has made the world a place of pure equality. “They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” (Vonnegut). The government had completely taken over the nation and its people. There were handicaps for those who had advantages over anyone else. Power was non-existent in this land. Mainly because all of it belonged to the government. If there was ever a time to see the imbalance of power it would be now. This story is not only a fictitious short to entertain the reader. This Short is a warning to the world providing a view of the consequences of power. “Ironically, no one really benefits from these misguided attempts to enforce equality” (Themes and Construction: "Harrison Bergeron"). Even on the television programs, beautiful women with handicaps placed on their faces. “They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.” (Vonnegut). An elaborate handicap had been placed over the whole country and the public was fine with it! Power causes more than a hardship if not detected. It ruins lives. The people of this short will never know what it means to be
Moreover, within the text, the significance of symbolism is apparent as there are indications of the presence of different handicaps. Notably, those with above average physical attributes and above average intelligence are required by law to wear handicaps. Thus, the application and enforcement of handicaps are metaphors for sameness, because individuals with advantageous traits are limited and refrained from using their bodies and brains to their maximum abilities, for that is considered to be unfair to those who does not possess the same level of capability. Several main examples of handicaps includes “...47 pounds of birdshot… ear radios… spectacles intended to make [one] not only half blind but to [provide] whanging headaches”. Therefore, the intensity of the handicaps is a sign of the government’s seriousness in the field of administering disabilities onto their own citizens. Unfortunately, in order to maintain the sickly “equality”, the people are stripped off of their freedom. When announcers are unable to speak properly, and ballerinas are unable to dance properly, and musicians unable to perform properly, and people are unable to formulate thoughts properly — it is not a matter of equality, but a matter how low society
Handicaps can be defined as a hinderance that gives a disadvantage. In the story Harrison Bergeron, handicaps are given to anyone considered to be pretty, smart, and out of the ordinary. Masks are worn so beauty is hidden, an ear piece prevents intelligent thought, and the extraordinary are chained up.
Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” Kurt Vonnegut portrays Aristotle’s philosophy brilliantly in his short story “Harrison Bergeron.” The story depicts the American government in the future mandating physical handicaps in an attempt to make everyone equal. Vonnegut describes a world where no one is allowed to excel in the areas of intelligence, athletics, or beauty. Yet, the inequalities among the people shine even brighter. Vonnegut uses satire to explore the question of whether true equality can ever really exist.
The society that Vonnegut has created takes equality to a level most of us cannot comprehend. "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. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else." Equality is a great thing that the world should embrace; complete equality though is another issue. In a world of absolute equality, every human would be looked upon nothing more or less than the person beside him or her. Vonnegut highlights these issues of how equality can be taken to the extreme with the handicaps. The handicaps are brutal and seem almost primitive or medieval. Bags filled with lead balls that are attached around Georges neck, or the masks that the ballerinas are forced to wear. The goal is to try and manipulate the population in such way that humans will produce children that are all relativity average and the
In Harrison Bergeron story, the people are made equal by debilitating the ones who seem to have higher abilities and th...
In this story everyone has specially designed gear which is used to equalize everyone's status. The main characters are a couple who have different abilities. One is smarter but athletically declined and the other is physically inclined but holds less intelligence. They are both watching a television show when a news broadcast comes on. During the broadcast, Harrison comes in and take off his handicapping gear. Wanting to overtake the government he decides to harass the news cast but in result he is killed by another handicapped individual. This makes the couple understand and realize the truth about the idea of equality and how it would be broken if handicapping wasn't used anymore. “we judge every difference we have onto one another.” “ First being an specific color, then gender, and even now financial stability.” These characters live in a world where they are forced to be equal. Equality in this story is portrayed as being unfair, forced, and
Physical handicaps, for instance, does not lower the worth of that person compared to anyone else. For example, it is not fully revealed that Edna Poppy is blind until well into The Bean Trees. There are hints here and there presented throughout the novel, but Taylor Greer and Lou Ann Ruiz have no idea of her disability. Mind you, they weren’t assessing her to find out if there was anything wrong with her either. It isn’t exposed until Edna is alone at the grocery store without Virgie, who usually assists her around. Taylor notices Edna in the store and approaches her, only to learn that Edna had no idea if she had picked up limes, or lemons. It is then that Taylor notices her white cane, and realizes that her dreamy, glossy gaze that hovers above head makes sense now. In this moment she comes to understand why Virgie always announces everyone’s name that is in a room when they enter. After learning of Edna’s disability, Lou Ann and Taylor admit they are shocked. They had no idea. Edna just assumed they knew, and took it as a compliment when they confessed they did not. It is truly a breathtaking moment, symbolizing that not everyone in society is here to judge. There is still acceptance regardless of differences. It is important to focus on who a person is inside, rather than the outer shell, which is much too easy to judge. That is how an amateur seeks satisfaction; by amusing themselves through pointing out other’s
For instance, relating to the employment, there were two obvious hierarchical differences between the black and the white, and women and men. According to Kimberle (2015), in the late 1970, the employment opportunities for black people and women were still in the straitened circumstance, furthermore, even if there were chances for them, “... the black job were men’s job, and the women’s job were only for whites.” (Kimberle Cranshaw 2015). In other words, there was no opportunity for the black women. In this case, the unjust discriminatory treatment for black women simply resulted from their intersected identities as a “black” and “woman” both were marginalized in the society. In regard to this, however, the important point is that people did not analyze the cause of this situation through considering it from the both racial and sexual sides simultaneously. People ignored the experience of the others, and categorized the black women based on their sex as a “woman”. In other words, people, especially who were in the privileged position, just neglected the subtle “differences” of others, and they stretched the rules to their own advantages. Relating to these “differences”, Audre Lorde (1984: 115) explains that “ But we have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals. As a result, those differences have been misnamed and misused in the
“The narrator of the story Harrison Bergeron definitions’ of America’s equality begins not by positing a future equality as much as exposing the misunderstanding of it in the past and the present” (Hattenhauer). The story Harrison Bergeron has two meanings: too much equality and too much inequality. Too much equality is expressed through the Handicap General, Diana Glampers, as she wants everyone to be equal because she envies the talented and beautiful. However, “it is not fair to the productive, the risk taking, or the hard working, to deprive them of what they have produced, merely to make them equal to others who have worked less, taken less risk, and produced less” (Moore). This society would never work because “no one who has lived very long can think that all men are equal in physical, prowess, mental capacity, willingness to work or save, to assume leadership, to design or invent new products or processes, to get votes, to preach sermons, to play the violin, or even to make love” (Even Fingerprints Differ). In any society one should not have the power to make people equal for each “were endowed by our creator” (Moore). In a society where there is too much inequality, or a potential dictatorship- Harrison Bergeron, society would fail as well. Kurt Vonnegut wrote Harrison Bergeron in order to show the world that we cannot take away talent or
To make sure that every person wears their handicaps, there are harsh punishments enforced to people that do not wear their handicaps. An example of that is, "Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out." (Vonnegut). This is what would happen if George Bergeron took out the weight balls in his handicaps. These balls make the person weaker, by putting more weight on the person. That was an example of a harsh punishment, because there would be an extremely cruel, and unreasonable fine that is put towards the people who do not wear their handicaps. Another violent punishment that involved control is, "To achieve physical and mental equality among all Americans, the government in Vonnegut's story tortures it's citizens."(sparknotes.com). This is what the government does to people to enforce total equality: torture. That is how far they went in control. When people did not follow order, they get tortured, sometimes even until death. These punishments are all because of Diana Moon Glampers, the handicapper general. She made it so these punishments would happen, when people take off their handicaps. Without these strict restrictions, then people would take off their handicaps. So she is forced to act this way towards the people to bring about order. In conclusion, in order to achieve total equality, the government controls the people of America, by using
It is the year 2081. Because of Amendments 211, 212, and 213 to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is stupider, uglier, weaker, or slower than anyone else. The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced.
In Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut we see how equality isn’t always a good thing. People have things called “handicaps” that reduce their intelligence and physical abilities if they are above average. This is a mistake because if people are not allowed to think for themselves then
In other words, he is implying with the phrase “Handicapper General” that the concept of social equality has become so extreme and convoluted that people in this dystopian world are forced to be “handicapped” if they have special physical and intellectual attributes or advantageous genetic traits. Interestingly, Vonnegut has creatively inverted through his story the real life concept of how modern society assigns special advantages to handicapped and disabled people. At the same time, he turns the concept of equality into a futuristic nightmare scenario that has huge implications for characters in the
Equality is defined as the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities. Based on this definition one may say that the society portrayed in the story of “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is equal but when taking a closer inspection, it is evident that it is far from equal. In this society there was one in control, the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glamper. She regulated life in a way for all of those under her control by assigning the common people various handicaps that would make the victims average, by her standards. While those in this deranged world believed they were all equal they failed to recognize the fact that people that were more superior in physic or intelligence where handicapped the most, that the Handicapper General bared all the power, and that they are brainwashed and forced to believe that