Equality In Harrison Bergeron, By Kurt Vonnegut

Throughout history, many powerful men have strived for equality- to eliminate the people and qualities they view as imperfect. The government agency Harrison fights against in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, works for the same goal, but in a different way. Harrison Bergeron rebels against a government who handicaps the unique, the intelligent, the beautiful, and the strong. However, despite their efforts, they can not conjure up handicaps which control him. Consequently, he escapes from imprisonment and revolts. The fictional character, Harrison Bergeron, exemplifies the idea that conformity can not eradicate individuality- it can only hinder it. He has to attune to society and in the end, the handicaps hinder him but do not take aways his individuality. In fact, they enhance every aspect of him.

The story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is about a couple, Hazel and George Bergeron, in the distant future when all people must be equal. This equality is reached in the form of handicaps. Weights are placed on the strong and athletic people in society, masks are forced upon the beautiful, and loud noises are constantly blasted into the ears of the intelligent to prevent them from thinking. While most equality is often thought of as good, the story shows a much darker side, using the government’s forceful equalization of the people. “Harrison Bergeron” uses multiple perspectives to highlight the costs of equality paralleled in today’s society.

“Harrison Bergeron” is a short fiction written by Kurt Vonnegut, the story is set in the year 2081, and it talks about a futuristic society where all people are equal. No one is smarter, beautiful or stronger than the other, and if someone happens to be better than the others they find themselves compelled by The United States Handicapper General to wear what they call “handicaps” in order to bring down their abilities to the most basic levels as the others. Throughout the story, Vonnegut expresses a strong and vigorous political and social criticism of some historical events in the US during 1960s such as the Cold War and Communism, television and American Culture and Civil Rights Movement.

Imagine a world where the government takes control and nobody is unique. A world set in the future, where three amendments changed the United States and made everyone equal. People are made equal by devices that alter their thinking, appearance, and strength. Then one day, a 14-year-old called Harrison Bergeron comes along breaking his handicaps on live TV to show the beauty of regular life.

The united states has forever talked about and tried for a equal perfect society but in the story “Harrison Bergeron” it shows us that that is impossible. Nobody is equal. No one is the same we all have different specialties and different weaknesses. So the effort for making a equal society is impractical. It is impossible for an equal society. In “Harrison Bergeron” the government makes an attempt for everyone to be equal and the same in every way. This plan to make everyone equal ends up making everyone miserable. You can’t be better than anyone in any way and you are the same as everyone else. The idea of a equal society is very uncivil.

Imagine a world with complete equality. No one more skilled, more intelligent or more attractive than another. Where failure is applauded and mediocrity is the social norm. This is the world in the short story “Harrison Bergeron,” written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1961. Vonnegut illustrates the disasters of an extremely equal society through the use of satirical irony, imagery and characterization.

Harrison Bergeron Essay Claim: Being equal isn’t always fair. Intro: What if someone had to wear a handicap? Or what if someone had to be treated exactly like everyone else?

Single Paragraph Essay “ Harrison Bergeron ” “ Harrison Bergeron ,” written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. focuses on equality — physically andmentally — strongly controlled by the government in the year 2081; the beautiful are forced tolook ugly, the physically skilled are required to wear weights. With these handicaps makingeveryone so equal, the world became very different, odd, and average. But the government hasno right or reason to push the whole world to be “…equal every which way.” (203) To suppress someone’s natural looks or physical talents is not only wrong to natural human rights, but it is also illegal, and for very good reason: everyone is different.

“Harrison Bergeron” is a unique story, in the sense that it takes place in 2081 in a dystopian society where everyone is equal. No one could be smarter, better-looking, or more athletic than anyone else. They are made equal with mental handicap radios for those who are intelligent, hideous masks for those who are beautiful, and heavy weights for those who are strong. The main character of this story, Harrison Bergeron, has a conflict with the American society in 2081. The internal conflict in Harrison’s mind is that the mental and physical handicaps affect the people’s thoughts.

In the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. relies on the use of irony to indicate where our country will stand once we have gained total equality amongst each other. The theme in “Harrison Bergeron” is that the government cannot enforce equality within the people. The author creates a fictional visualization of the future in the year 2081, where the government controls the people and tortures them in order to maintain “equal opportunity” in their world to prove why it is impossible to achieve absolute equality in the world. Vonnegut dives into a whole other level of uniformity in Harrison Bergeron by focusing on eliminating advantages in appearance, intelligence, strength, and other unique abilities rather than focusing on

In “Harrison Bergeron” people aren’t truly equal. In this short story, they took equality to the next level. Most people think that equality is everyone being treated with the same amount of respect. Appearance has nothing to do with equality in today’s society. Although looking the same and having the same level of intelligence may decrease jealousy, people shouldn’t force others to change because of this. In this short story, everything has to do with equality. No one can be more intelligent, stronger, or more attractive. Handicaps are making people unequal.

Thesis: In Kurt Vonnegut 's story, "Harrison Bergeron," symbolism, tone, and irony reveal the author 's message to the reader which is his perspective on equality. Notably, there are countless symbols in the narrative "Harrison Bergeron" all of which trace back to the theme of the story. The handicaps people are forced to wear are symbols for the control the government has over people. "George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn 't be handicapped.

Equality for All “Equality in pay has improved in the US since 1979 when women earned about 62 percent as much as men. In 2010, American women on average earned 81 percent of what their male counterparts earned” ( Highlights in the US). “Harrison Bergeron” and Anthem both are dystopian societies that tried to create equality, but end up with horrible corruption, no real equality, and incorrect portrayals of equality. In “Harrison Bergeron” the society leaders use handicaps to bring people down to the lowest level or the “average” of their society. There are similar concepts in Anthem, no one can be better than anyone, but they use shame and guilt to keep their people in line.

Title In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, everyone is finally equal in every which way. No one person is stronger, more beautiful, smarter, taller, or is just overall better than someone else. This is all thanks to the current government, who did this using weights, ugly masks, and ear pieces that let loose noises to interrupt a person’s thoughts. One man, named Harrison Bergeron, was recently arrested only to break out a few weeks later.

In Harrison Bergeron, people who are above average have to wear handicaps to make everybody equal Kurt Vonnegut used satire in Harrison Bergeron by exaggerating the people in this society in the future. One example is the handicaps that everybody who was “above average” had to wear. In this society, if you were very smart, you would have to wear a handicap in your ear that went off every 20 seconds, so he couldn’t think beyond the average human’s abilities. In this future world, the handicaps are supposed to make everybody equal. Some examples of handicaps would be weights you would wear if you are very strong, a mask if you are very pretty, spectacles with wavy lenses if you have great eyes.