The Downfalls of Egalitarianism and Television

The story of “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is about a dystopian future of America that forces its citizens to be completely equal. The way that they enforce the rules is by forcing the strong to wear weights and the intelligent to be given mental handicaps. The style of writing Vonnegut uses to portray his story of equality is very subtle. Vonnegut uses diction, imagery, and syntax, to help the reader understand the characters, mood, and visuals.

Have you ever pondered over the equality of everyone? Well, if you believe that equality is important, you may want to think again. In the dystopian short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut, the author, uses satire to convey his message. Satie is something meant to make fun of or show the weakness of human nature or a particular person. Vonnegut’s message is that not everyone must be equal in every way.The character, Harrison Bergeron, wants to make everyone understand that being equal comes with a consequence, the decline of freedom and individuality, but he got shot so metaphorically the idea of freedom and individuality died with him.

While in a modern era, masks, bags of birdshot, along with thought interruption earpiece apparatuses may never see the light of day, this story does go as far to say that when a society caters to under achievers, by taking away the strengths and abilities of those who are able to over achieve, society is in reality weakening and stunting the efficiency of its people, as well as stripping away their individual characteristics.

Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" emphasizes the balance between equality and individuality by using ethical issues inherent within the struggle for utopia and its origins. Truly, the passage shows repression and brutal punishment as representing the balance between equality and individuality. In the story, the Handicapper General enforces the equality of the society by creating handicaps such as weights for strong people, masks for the beautiful, and ear microphones to disrupt the thinking of the smart. The equality in the society in "Harrison Bergeron", however, means people cannot be themselves and contribute to their society by using their talents. Vonnegut makes the idea of equality is not always worth the cost of individuality clear to the reader when a news reader slips up.

Kurt Vonnegut published “Harrison Bergeron” to express his thoughts of what a world with equality might look like. The setting of this takes place in front of a TV to emphasis how much is it looked to for answers. The government wants everyone the same and will go to any means necessary. In the constitution, “all men are created equal” can be found, and this short story explores the ideas of when that sentence is taken too literal. In “Harrison Bergeron,” Vonnegut paints his readers a picture illustrating the dangers of conforming three different individuals, Hazel, George, and Harrison, to the same level of expectation through the power of government control and television.

In society, it is perceived as peculiar to act different than everyone else; to go against the norm is against the rules, in a way. In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, George and Hazel Bergeron’s son gets the ultimate punishment for wanting to be different. Breaking the chains of his “handicaps” such as weights hung around his neck and glasses with thick distorted lenses, Harrison Bergeron tried to persuade a small group at a television station to remove their handicaps as well. He had just escaped from prison and called himself the Emperor. For breaking the many laws of equality established before the current year 2081, Harrison was shot and killed instantly, right in front of his parents who were watching

Equality in society means everyone is the same, in personal attributes as well as public living. However, extreme measures of interpreting equality in this way destroys individuality. Imagine all people being “equal in every which way”, including intelligence, physical means, talents, and appearance. In the dystopian short story, Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut, the shift in tone, selection of details, and symbolic use of handicaps demonstrate that no society can be totally equal without the sacrifice of the individual and self expression.

Egalitarianism can be absurd and detrimental to American society. In the story, heavy weights are put on strong people, and grotesque masks are put on

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

Although the idea of making everyone equal may help some, the majority is taken back so far that it is not fair to them. Because the only way to make Harrison equal to everyone else was to kill him, it shows that entire equality is not possible. Everyone at some point does not agree with the government, so it is not Harrison’s fault for having that feeling as well. The government should not have to punish Harrison because he was born strong, handsome, and smart. The idea behind Kurt Vonnegut’s story, Harrison Bergeron, is an interesting concept that makes readers think and analyze the story they are

Picture a society, far in the future, where everyone, by government control, must be on the same level. Would this be Hell or a utopia? This is the subject of Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”. In this society, the gifted, strong, and beautiful are required to wear multiple handicaps of earphones, heavy weights, and hideous masks. In turn, these constraints leave the world equal, or arguably devoid of, from brains to brawn to beauty. With the constant push for equality among all people, Vonnegut reveals a world that society is diligently working toward. “Harrison Bergeron” is written as a form of satire with heavy irony, to demonstrate the clear difference between equity and equality in society. “Harrison Bergeron” is

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.

Noel Murray, a writer in TheWeek.com, published a nonfiction article on February 15, 2017 called, “TV’s Callous Neglect of Working - Class America”. Murray wrote this article to convey the fact that television series now don’t exemplify the realness of how most people live. To exhibit his views he uses a powerful structure, metaphors and oxymorons. Murray’s reveal that television does no unite us as one since the shows don’t even display the real daily life one may live. Murray establishes a informal tone for young adults watching television.

The short story ‘Harrison Bergeron’, Written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and the novel ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry both share a theme of forced equality and uniformity. Both stories take place in dystopian worlds. Woven throughout both of the stories are, authority is forcing egalitarianism onto citizens because they want an indefectible civilization. In the short story Harrison Bergeron, the world is ruled by Handicap General were in The Giver the world is ruled by the Elders, so that the community would be equal. But in both stories the protagonist goes against the community to break the peace and gain freedom and demonstrates how the authority always doesn’t know the best.

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,