ipl-logo

Examples Of Inequality In Harrison Bergeron

666 Words3 Pages

Hopelessness of Inequality In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, in the future of 2081, everyone is completely equal. The government tries their very best to enforce and does whatever it takes to get equality. The Government have an Handicap general that uses handicaps to make everyone who is over average, average. Harrison Bergeron, son of George and Hazel, doesn't agree with equality, and do whatever it takes to exceed inequality. Bergeron escapes from jail and ends up on National Television. Bergeron starts to make a scene and yells on national television, “I AM THE EMPEROR!” After all of that he pulls off all of his many handicaps and ask for an Empress, since he interrupted a ballet show he had many to choose from. When he started dancing with his empress, he finds him and his empress getting shot in the head and killed by The handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers. Vonnegut has Bergeron killed at the end of the story because he wanted to show the hopelessness of inequality. To start off with how achieving inequality is hopeless is how the government have handicaps. George has to wear a little metal radio handicap in his ear because he has above average intelligence. About every time he …show more content…

The government killed a 14 year old boy who was probably just needed help of was mentally insane! That right there shows that the government would go to the extreme measures of killing two people to just have equality. In the text it says,”It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.” The government shot and killed a fourteen year old for just challenging

Show More
Related

  • Harrison Bergeron: Equality Forces In American Society

    329 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story Harrison Bergeron, equality forces in American society. The characters Harrison and George are both handicapped by the Government to be equal with society. Harrison is taken away from his mother Hazel and father, George because he is against being handicapped to be equal. George believes it has made the world a better place than it was before. Although, George is above average I look up to him because I'm similar to him along with his intelligence, beliefs in equality, and support for the laws.

    Read More

  • Salem Witch Trial Conformity Quotes

    763 Words  | 4 Pages

    Vonnegut writes, "It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun" (Vonnegut, 6). This quote demonstrates the oppressive nature of the government's attempts to maintain order, even at the expense of the citizen's rights and freedoms. The government's actions contribute to the intellectual and emotional suppression of people, making them more susceptible to living in

    Read More

  • Harrison Bergeron Research Paper

    517 Words  | 3 Pages

    In today’s society the general attitude towards an individual is conform or be an outcast. It is seen in schools where people who do not fit into specific cliques become outcasts, the weird people. It is seen in the work place as well. People have conformed to standards set by society simply because society has said to do so. Society asks people to change themselves to fit in.

    Read More

  • Harrison Bergeron Character Development

    1000 Words  | 4 Pages

    Kurt Vonnegut, an author from Indiana, is most famous for his science fiction short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, that takes place in the future world. The characters live in a dystopian society where the government forces everyone to be equal to each other. Citizens are forced to wear handicaps and weights to make them equal to everybody else. For example, George Bergeron wears a sensor in his ear that makes noise every once in awhile to prevent him from thinking and he is also forced to wear heavy sacks full of weights across his body. By writing this story, Vonnegut was trying to exhibit that equality in everyone is nearly impossible and dangerous.

    Read More

  • What Is The Theme Of Harrison Bergeron By Kurt Vonnegut

    165 Words  | 1 Pages

    Equality is a great idea that we should strive for and achieve; however, being made equal physically and mentally by the government could be very unfair. People should still have characteristics that make us different. One can be diverse but still equal to his neighbor. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s use of point of view, conflict, and imagery in his short story “Harrison Bergeron,” illustrates how difficult living in a world where everyone is the same would be.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Individualism In Harrison Bergeron

    707 Words  | 3 Pages

    This government made everyone became handicapped so that everyone is the same and equal and no one is better than the others. Vonnegut’s view on equality is very judgemental and selective. Society these days, pressures

    Read More

  • Harrison Bergeron Literary Analysis Essay

    923 Words  | 4 Pages

    One common afternoon in the year of 2081, when everyone was equal, Hazel and George Bergeron were in their lovely living room watching television. Suddenly, a news reporter with a severe speech impediment came on. After trying many times to say, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” he handed it off to a ballerina who read, “Harrison Bergeron, age 14, has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.” However, in this short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut uses irony, shift and mood, and allusion to illustrated haw society would be if everyone was under the law of equality.

    Read More

  • Government Control In Harrison Bergeron

    1055 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, he explores this equality idea in a in 2081 setting where every man, woman, and child are on the same level of intelligence. Although in Kurt Vonnegut’s story the government is appearing to want equality, in all reality they really just want power and control. To begin the Harrison Bergeron story, George and Hazel Bergeron’s son Harrison is taken away to be put in prison. Following this, they live in a society where “nobody was smarter than anybody else”(Vonnegut 1387), everyone is forced to wear head capps and follow the governments every rule.

    Read More

  • Does The Government Have Too Much Control By Harrison Bergeron

    1078 Words  | 5 Pages

    Does the government control us? Harrison Bergeron is a short story where the authority has too much control. This story takes place in a world that has been over equalized. The year is 2081, and the government has made sure that everybody is "equal", if you are stronger, prettier, or more skilled than their set "average", they handicap and suppress these qualities.

    Read More

  • Single Paragraph Essay: Harrison Bergeron

    208 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Situational Irony In Harrison Bergeron

    660 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Utopia And Dystopian Societies

    238 Words  | 1 Pages

    The government in the story intends for a utopian society, but because of the handicaps they put on people to prevent one another from being better in any way, causes it to be a dystopian society. This

    Read More

  • People Are Not Truly Equal In Harrison Bergeron

    302 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Harrison Bergeron”, each person was not truly equal. For example, the ballerinas in the story were prettier than the maximum people, so they were required to wear masks. Hazel, the mother of Harrison, believed that the ballerinas were beautiful since her mask was extremely ugly. Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicap General, forces them to be like the public and will punish anyone who says different. Consequently a few people enjoy being the same, it is not easy, and following the Handicap General’s rules is challenging.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Equality In Harrison Bergeron

    349 Words  | 2 Pages

    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. People in this short story isn’t equal because the most intelligent people have to suffer because of the handicaps. “Every twenty minutes or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantages of their brain” (page 2).

    Read More

  • Being Equal Isn T Always Fair In Harrison Bergeron

    747 Words  | 3 Pages

    But Diana Moon glampers didn 't like that so she shot them. In addition this show how government / handicapper general isn 't being fair and how they want their people to be equal it not fair how they treat them and they not letting them use their talent they were blessed with. In all honesty the government is dumbing them down instead of making them better or

    Read More

More about Examples Of Inequality In Harrison Bergeron

Open Document