How Does Harrison Bergeron Create A Dystopian Society

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wrote about a dystopian fiction world in his 1961 short story 'Harrison Bergeron. The story speaks of an egalitarian world where equality is based on attributes like beauty, strength and intelligence rather than the equality on human rights. 'Harrison Bergeron ' is set in America in 2081 because of Amendments 211, 212 and 213 added to the Constitution in order to make sure that everyone is equal in every way. This equality is accomplished due to the diligent efforts of Diana Moon Glamper, the United States Handicapper General. She is the government official who creates handicaps that will bring the stronger or smarter members of society down to the same level as the slower members. In the opening scene fourteen-year old Harrison Bergeron is taken away from his

Author Kurt Vonnegut suggests that total equality is not something worth striving for. To obtain physical and mental equality among all citizens, the government makes beautiful people wear masks, intelligent people listen to noises that block their abilities to think, and graceful and strong people wear weights around their necks at all times. While equality may be achieved, freedom is the price to pay.

Harrison Bergeron is a valuable story that has underlying themes, which are very relevant in our current society. The theme of equality can be seen throughout the book, and it is the principle that is enshrined in America’s constitution now, whereby they claim that all men are equal. Kurt Vonnegut demonstrates the issue of equality in a Utopian society. Vonnegut in his story, cautions Americans on the dangers of creating a truly equalitarian society, whereby citizens go to an extent of sacrificing their freedom, and individuality to the state, to create a place where all people are equal. Vonnegut creates a society whereby, all people are made equal. The beautiful are forced to wear hideous masks to disfigure their beauty, those considered intelligent are to wear radio calls, and ear splitting noises that are supposed to impede their thinking, and the strong are forced to wear weights around their necks throughout the day. The author uses masks, and the weights as symbols to symbolize

The short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is a story about such an equal society that people's lives are being ruined. Harrison Bergeron fought the government to free him and his society of the handicaps that are used to create a perfectly equal world. Also, what is equality? Equality is not a good quality for a society because, there is no room for change, and no one has the motivation to continue.

Vonnegut makes use of absurd details in order to portray the negativity of the pursuit of equality. To begin, a young child is found to be extraordinary and in response ”the H-G men [take] George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-year-old son” (Vonnegut 1). It is cockamamie that the story begins with government employees physically removing a boy from his family and home. Another continuous detail in the story that is ridiculous is the use of what is known as handicaps. For example,“George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little metal handicap in his ear” (Vonnegut 1). Also, “He tried to think about the ballerinas… They were burdened with sash weights and bags of birdshot, and their face were masked” (Vonnegut 1). In this

Fictional writing can spur great thought and inspire critical analyzation of the text. In Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, this short fictional doesn’t disappoint from the idea of critical thought. Short texts can be mistaken for less effective but in all reality, this short story packs an abundant source of powerful literature. “Harrison Bergeron” outlines the idea of a dystopian society placed in the future. It touches on the concepts of an oppressive government and the underlying idea of equality in society. To achieve this idea of equality in a society, it is required of everyone to take on certain handicaps, such as radio transmitters to impair thought processing or weights to impair strength. Vonnegut creates an example of what a society

Equality they say is a state of being equal, especially in status, rights and opprtunites, But in Kurt Vonnegut story “Harrison Bergeron” equality is far from being equal. In this story, though it tries to paint an imaginary picture of a future in American society where everybody is finally equal before God and the Law, and where nobody is smatter, better, looking, stronger or quicker than anybody else, but that is actually not the case. Vonnegut, indirectly in this story re-echo’s the popular Animal Farm saying that “All animals are not equal, but some are more equal than others.” Therefore converying that in a world and society where everyone’s quest for equality is growing by the day, the possibility of achieving such is far fetched.

In the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut creates a world where a person’s strengths are stripped from them in an attempt to make everyone equal. George Bergeron lives in a society where the government uses handicaps to suppress a person’s talents to create a competition-free world. They use ear pieces to suppress intelligence, masks to hide beauty and weights to make equal strength between people. The government has eliminated everything that could make someone different, even people’s opinions are altered because of the strong oppression. Kurt Vonnegut‘s story is a warning against extreme equalism and the consequences that may follow.

A Utopian society is a word is a world that is considered perfect.unfortunately,a society that is seeking perfection usually becomes a dystopian society .A dystopian society is a society that is dehumanizing and as unpleasant as possible.harrison bergeron’s world and N.korea both shared these trait .both societies were ruled by a dictator that took away their freedom.

Since the beginning of time, humans have struggled with the idea of whether an individual is more important than society as a whole. If people should make a sacrifice to let one suffer for the greater good rather than to let all suffer. Just as there can not be happiness without sadness, individuals cannot thrive without equality and conformity from those who are unwilling to show their true potential. Although equality in opportunity is necessary for a society to thrive, it can not be brought upon after the opportunity is stripped away from the individuals who worked to achieve it. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, a fantastical tale where those who are naturally gifted are handicapped, nobody is smarter, faster or better

#3 In Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, the author argues the dangers of a world that is based on total equality. Not only does Vonnegut expose the negative results of being alike, he also shows that we desire to be different from each other.

Equality. The most sought after desire in society. Each person has the felt the disease of envy for another’s talent, wisdom, or beauty. The heart, mind and soul are never replicated between two humans. This places one’s envy as a never ending cycle. Kurt Vonnegut’s story, Harrison Bergeron, focuses on the theme that society and government aspire to make all citizens equal by restricting them and making all handicapped for the purpose of obedience only to inadvertently achieve inequality.

One piece of evidence in the text that supports this claim is when George and Hazel Bergeron are sitting on the couch, ¨ And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times.¨ This shows that George was above average intelligence and the Handicapper General became

Vonnegut creates tension in the story by creating a feud between the government and the people within the story, especially the handicaps. Equality is very well practiced and planned, the smaller, more gracious people are burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot. The beautiful, and intelligent people are given masks and government transmitters to hide their ability to be different than the rest. The characters are fully aware of everything that’s happening, but they are also aware of what would happen if they tried to end the chaos. George and Hazel’s son, Harrison is shot on live television for escaping jail, “where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government,” and taking off his (excessive) handicaps as well as

And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. . . Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people . . . from taking advantage of their brains (Vonnegut 235).” This showed in the story how the author tried to make everyone have the same intelligence.