Analysis Of Harrison Bergeron

"Harrison Bergeron", a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., tells the story about a society that has finally reached true equality; Everyone is on the same intellectual level. In order to ensure that people do not exceed a certain mental capacity, advanced members of society are given devices designed with the sole purpose of distracting them. The government makes sure that they cannot gain a mental advantage. In the beginning of the story, we learn that Hazel Bergeron 's fourteen year-old son, Harrison, was taken away by the government. "It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn 't think about it very hard." (Vonnegut 1). Although the tragic event had a severe impact on his life, George is forced to simply accept what happens in his life. He is unable question why events happen. He is simply a product of a

Vonnegut uses George to convey the idea that the government 's attempts to limit human curiosity is proving to be successful. He believes that modern society is suffering from a lack of ways to put their intelligence into practice. As a result of this restrain on people 's curiosity, society will always fail to reach their full potential. The idea that society 's emphasis on intelligence is dwindling can be found beyond the world of dystopian literature. Alice Robb, a journalist for New Republic, wrote an article on the effects of learning test-taking strategies and "Learning and Individual Differences", a scientific journal coauthored by Micael Woodley. Alice begins the article by stating that IQ scores have been steadily increasing every ten years since the beginning of the twentieth century; this increase is known as the Flynn effect. Many scientists are studying the Flynn effect in order to find out if society is truly getting more intelligent. A report published in