Harrison Bergeron By Kurt Vonnegut

In "Harrison Bergeron," Harrison is taken away from his family because of his extraordinary abilities. The government places him in elaborate handicaps to ensure that he was "equal every which way" to everyone else. At the end of the story, when he rips off his handicaps "like wet tissue paper," he challenges the laws of the land created and supported by the American people and the "211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution." This makes him a danger to his society.

Even though many may believe that thanks to the handicaps, everyone was equal, I strongly disagree with that. The first reason I believe that the society they lived in was not equal because in the text it says “nobody had ever been born with heavier handicaps. He had outgrown hindrances faster than the H-G men could make them up.” which shows that they weren't actually equal because the handicaps didn't really work on harrison, because no matter handicaps Harrison had, he was still able to outgrow then which meant that he always had more power than everyone else no matter what handicaps they made him wear.

Imagine the United States in 2081, where everyone is equal by handicaps. Do you think handicaps can make a society equal? In the story “Harrison Bergeron”, it is 2081 and everyone is finally equal because of the handicapper general. These handicaps are able to prevent people from doing what they are good at so they can be average like others. I believe the society in Harrison Bergeron is not equal due to the fact that some people in the story still have advantages, even with handicaps.

The story “Harrison Bergeron” is about a society in the future where people with beauty, strength, or intelligence are given handicaps in order to decrease these abilities they were born with so they are able to be brought down to a level that would make everyone equal to each other. Due to this, one Harrison Bergeron stood against the government by removing his handicaps as to regain his freedom from them, all while being watched on television by George and Hazel Bergeron. The book “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is a story that teaches readers that you should never let anyone take away your freedom from you.

One characteristic of the human spirit it the idea of equality. Humans strive for equality through every aspect of life. In “Harrison Bergeron” the author takes the idea of equality, and takes it one step further. Everyone has handicaps so they are all of the same status. For example, George Bergeron has a mental handicap. “Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantages of their brain.” (par. 3) This shows that the people of this society believe that solely being smart is unequal to those who are not as academically strong. This quotations is just one example of the handicaps that were used in “Harrison Bergeron”. One more instance of equality is how far the authority in the story will go to achieve this equality. At the end of the story, the ones who disobeyed were

“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. tells the story of a futuristic America where people who are given handicaps if they are better than other people in order to give complete equality to everyone. The main message of “Harrison Bergeron” is that everyone doesn’t have to be the same for them to be happy. In fact, when everyone is equal they are sadder because they don’t know what real life is like, and they are able to be controlled. Harrison and Phillippa demonstrate that being unique brings happiness as they take off their headbands and learn how wonderful life can be when they can express who they are.

First of all, people with above average intelligence must wear a mental handicap radio by law. For instance, George's intelligence is way above normal, so he has a handicap radio in his ear that will make alarming noises every so often to keep him from thinking deeply. This proves that there is no equality because people like George are forced into giving up their ability to think so that the society remains “equal”. Not to mention, everyone in “Harrison Bergeron” could not work hard and strive for excellence because they are all supposed to be mediocre. I know this because in the text it states “... since the announcer, like all announcers had a serious speech impediment… the announcer tried to say, ‘Ladies and Gentleman’. He finally gave up, handed the bulletin to a ballerina to read.” The fact that they gave the jobs of announcer to a person with a

The story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. explains that people are being forced to wear handicaps to make everyone equal in every aspect. Also, a man called Harrison Bergeron was sent to prison without a trial because the government believed that he was planning to overthrow the government but later on he escapes. It also explains that Harrison goes to the TV studio where a ballerina had given the news to the public and claims that he is the Emperor of everyone. He soon told everyone that he was going to select an Empress and so, a ballerina stood up and became his Empress. Harrison and the ballerina soon started to dance and kissed. As they were dancing Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicap General, came in and shot both Harrison and the ballerina and command everyone who had their handicaps off to put them on before they too get shot.The was a what Harrison Bergeron was about.

In the short story, Harrison is used to showing what happens when you aren’t like the others in other words “average”. Harrison is forced to wear weights, glasses, earphones, rubber nose, and teeth caps that try to handicap him so that he is “average”. “Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a

Others might say that people like Harrison Bergeron are also treated like him, I say that some people that are above average is treated differently. I say this by how George, in the story, was wearing a handicap too but he was not considered a criminal and disrespected by other citizens. Therefore, everyone in the story was not equal to each other, by how they were treated differently.

Harrison Bergeron, a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, is not written for the light reader. This story of equality shows deeply of how horrid it would be to be born special, different, smarter, faster, stronger, etc, in a world where you are forced to be equal. Despite the usual connotation of the word equality, Kurt Vonnegut looks at the cost of making everyone be the same. He has shown through his words the torture you must endure in order to make you the same as everyone else, being a radio intending to scatter your thoughts, weights to weigh you down, or even a hideous, grotesque, mask used to hide your charming face. After you’ve lived with these handicaps a man, named Harrison Bergeron, trying to change how things are interrupts your show.

For instance, George is still smarter than Hazel with his handicap on. In addition, Harrison is stronger than the average people even with handicaps on. In the text, it states that Hazel could only think and remember in short bursts, while George could remember things and think longer than she can. Hazel doesn’t have any handicaps, but still has less common sense than George. Harrison is clearly strong without his handicaps, but is still very strong with them on. He can rip metal guaranteed to support 5,000 pounds. No ordinary person could rip metal even without handicaps. Some handicaps do prevent people from performing their ability too well, but other handicaps aren’t very effective meaning there is inequality both ways. Therefore, not everyone was truly equal in Harrison Bergeron.

A very unusual and new concept that 2081 uses is that they try conceal people’s intelligence, strength, and beauty while while the real world wants you to improve or express those qualities. In the beginning of 2081, its states, “The strong wore weights to make them weaker; the intelligent wore earpieces that kept them from taking unfair advantage of their brains, Even the beautiful, sometimes wore masks in situations where their beauty might simply be too distracting.” This explains how the society in 2081 brings down the intelligent, the strong, and the beautiful, preventing them to reveal any of those qualities. However, the real world rewards all of the things that the government in 2081 tries to hide. For example, in a high school graduation the school would give recognition to the valedictorian, which encourages students to do better in academics. While in 2081, they would not honor or give recognition the intelligent, instead they would try to make them more unwise, so no one would see the person’s real capabilities. The real society would never attempt to make a student more unwise like how the society in 2081 would. Our school system encourages for improvement on test scores or grades, and not disprovement. In 2081, the society has a different perspective of a handicapped person from the real world. The real world views a handicap person as someone with a disadvantage while in 2081 they view it as someone who has an advantage. In 2081, Harrison was considered, handicap even though he was a genius and strong. However, this is different to the real society because a handicap person today, would be someone with a physical or mental problem such as someone who can barely walk. This shows, that a handicapped person from 2081 would have the exact opposite skills as a handicap person in the real society. The society of 2081 would label a weak old man

Kurt Vonnegut’s unique story “Harrison Bergeron,” displays a theme which is a warning about the dangers of equality, which is equality is a hindrance to an individual’s success and society’s success, but this hindrance is ironically, unequal. In the story, Harrison and his bride are arrested for their unwillingness and inability to stay within the bounds of equality enforced by the Handicapper General. Equality hinders the success of an individual like the weights hinder the beauty and grace of the ballerinas in the story. Equality doesn’t promote everyone to be equally better, but to be unequally worse. Handicaps are no use in ensuring equality, because one’s strengths will always shine through, such as Harrison’s strength and wit, or the

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if everyone was legally forced into the governments opinion of equality? In Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s short story "Harrison Bergeron", it is the year 2081 and the government has altered society to be mentally, physically and socially equal. The beautiful people are covered with hideous masks, the intelligent people wear ear pieces that let off loud obnoxious sounds at random to throw off there thought process and the strong people wear weights to be equal to the weaker people. The society is not equal because no one can truly be changed unless they want to be. Putting a handicap on an intelligent person does not make him or her equal to an average person,