Conformity In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains... He began to think glimmeringly about his abnormal son....but a twenty-one-gun salute in his head stopped that... It was such a doozy that George was white and trembling, and tears stood on the rims of his red eyes. Two of of the eight ballerinas had collapsed….holding their temples” (Vonnegut 1-2).

All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th and 213th amendments of the constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General. (1) “Unceasing vigilance of agents” is a satire on government for transgressing its control over the citizens. It turns out to be a society in which the government curbs the individuality of citizens under the façade of ensuring equality. Stanley Schatt states:

A dystopia is a nonexistent place where everything is awful. Many stories written in a dystopian society tend to open up as if it was a utopia- the opposite of a dystopia. In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut the startup of the short story appears to be a utopia, and everything seems like a perfect futuristic society. However, it quickly becomes unmasked as a dystopia by the oppression and fear for this society to be “perfect” and “equal”.

The use of description and multiple plot lines demonstrates how true equality can actually be a detriment to society. Vonnegut makes it clear to the reader that if society continues in this pursuit of ultimate equality, people will lose the ability to compete and be unique, making them less individual. Society progresses today because of the skilled people who utilize their distinct talents to benefit society. If everyone has the same skills as everyone else, people are not able to cultivate their talents and in turn use them to better

Peter hides his phone and calls their principal while all this is happening. The strategy works however their principal doesn’t like the idea of students having her phone number. Feeling hopeless and out of options the boys go to Garvey for support, he tells them to fight without words, left confused and slightly angry Cole is not sure what to do. The next time the gang comes at them Cole decides to sit down because he figures that they wouldn’t fight people sitting down. Unfortunately the leader Keith doesn’t care and kicks Cole in the ribs.

The narrator longed for a brother to race, climb, and box with, but when he found out Doodle might not be able to do that, he planned his revenge: “It was bad enough having an invalid brother, but having one who possibly was not all there was unbearable, so I began to make plans to kill him by smothering him with a pillow” (Hurst 464). Before the narrator could kill him, Doodle grins up at him, startling the narrator. Doodle was underdeveloped, any excess amount of strain on his heart could kill him. In the winter of his third year, he learned to crawl.

Kurt Vonnegut develops this theme throughout the story from page 1 to page 6. Early in the story, Vonnegut describes two people, George and Hazel Bergeron, as ordinary people watching television. While watching ballerinas perform, George hears a loud and painful noise coming from his mental handicaps. At the same time, the ballerinas on television fell to the floor as a result of the noise they heard (p. 1).

The real meaning of the ballerina: Harrison Bergeron The ballerinas in the television a mystery in itself. “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, in 1961. The short story is about a new society far into the future, were people are now equal in every which way. But some people that cannot suppress there mental capability they are punish by the government, and make them feel like the people around them. One man single handily tries to fight against the system, but he meant a terrible end (Vonnegut, Jr.).

In the short story “Harrison Bergeron, equality is clearly misunderstood, therefore I disagree that everyone in the story is equal. Although everyone was suppose to be equal because of the Handicapper General, they weren't. Equal doesn’t mean everyone thinks or speaks on the same level, equal means that everyone has the same opportunity and chances as others do. The correct way to ensure equality is to encourage success and put infrastructure in place to help and motivate those who are born into situations which limit their opportunities, and in this story, the government has not done this.

Sameness allows for the cultivation of insecurity and fear in lieu of the success of others. Rather than viewing differences gifts among individuals, those who desire sameness fear not being identical with others. Sameness is uniformity; it is the printing of one piece of art, rather than several unique original pieces. A cautionary tale regarding sameness can be found in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron.” In “Harrison Bergeron,” Vonnegut crafts a dystopian future America that has concerned itself with sameness.

Even though there are billions of people that walk this Earth, everybody is their own individual with their own ideas and personalities. Because of this, it is hard to imagine a world where personality and individuality do not exist. But Ayn Rand’s Anthem does just that; she paints a society in which no one is an individual. Anthem’s society is that of conformity, which means one must be complacent with the rules and laws of his/her society. Sure one could see this as a good thing, but throughout Anthem, Ayn Rand shows that conformity is not as good as it sounds, but rather the worst way to live.

The story, Harrison Bergeron, written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was published in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine 1961. Harrison Bergeron is written in the third person omniscient because the narrator knows all things about the characters and hops around from character to character. One way that the author shows this is when the writer states, “Yup,” said George. He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They were very good- no better than anybody else would have been anyway.

Hammurabi showed no remorse for the lives of his people even though he clearly thought it was the right thing for them. He believed he was superior to every being with consideration to the "Sun God. " It left the impression on me that Hammurabi had no appreciation for life. Coming from a completely different society, these laws and morals were entirely unjust. In present day society

The severity of the issues at hand are discussed at the climax, as his very impactful quote “I also believe that in many parts of this country, and certainly in many parts of this globe, that the opposite of poverty is not wealth. I don 't believe that. I actually think, in too many places, the opposite of poverty is justice.” In this quote he points out how the poor are so deprived of justice, that on the opposite end of poverty, there is justice, because that is just how impossible it is for the poor to be served justice. He also states during the climax that his country will not be judged by how advanced the technology is, or by anything superficial, but rather by how the country treats their residents in need.

The story, Harrison Bergeron really shows the importance of diversity and for every individual to have a right to be unique. The government trying to make every thing completely fair is actually unfair to people who can 't get any excitement in a world like this. Limiting peoples thinking will also strongly slow any advances in technology, maybe even to a stop, so they might never solve some of the very important problems they face. Same with strength, if someones is in danger to an animal or a malfunctioning machine they will need to be able to escape. So really a world thats completely fair is impossible to create.