Handicapped Citizens In Harrison Bergeron, By Kurt Vonnegut

Handicapped Citizens One can only imagine living in a community where everyone is the same. Where the norm, not being bright and beautiful, but instead being dull and average. This is something that is very prominent in both the story and the movie. The story “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut, includes many ideas about how the government is trying to control the masses of people by handicapping them with devices used as headbands. It goes through the process of explaining why the people are made average and how the government goes about making those who are intellectually more advanced more like the rest. The movie “Harrison Bergeron” will also help to further explain this point more. Although in the story, it appears everyone is made to be equal, in reality, the government is trying to control its citizens by any means they deem necessary. The story begins with a narrator setting the scene for the reader. It then continues on to introduce the idea of all the townspeople all being average, in other words, no one being smarter than the next person. This idea now raises that question of why the government is so set upon making everyone the same. In the book, the reason for the handicaps or headbands is introduced. As it is laid out in the story, the headbands were put forth for the soul purpose that “...everybody was finally equal” (Vonnegut 1387). This means that everyone was the same. That the kid next door or ones new sibling was no better at a sport or a