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Harrison Bergeron By Kurt Vonnegut

443 Words2 Pages

It drives innovation. Work ethic sky rockets because of it. People thrive with it. Competition is born because of it. “It” is freedom. Freedom is not equality or restrictions. Freedom is the ability to express, to live, to laugh, to learn, to be unique without the consequence of jealousy, hate, punishment. Freedom is the inequality of people. One hundred years in the future, freedom was replace with equality. Harrison Bergeron, in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron,” was forced to wear handicaps. Weight handicaps to make him as weak as the weakest person in America. Mental handicaps to make his train of thought as short as the most empty-headed person. Beauty handicaps to make him as ugly as the most grotesque person. He was equal with everybody else and he had no freedom …show more content…

A bully forces an athletic person to hide their abilities because the bully does not want to be see as inferior. A bully forces a tomgirl to dress more girly because if not the tomgirl will be excluded, forcing equality. A bully makes the intelligent act stupid so no nerd jokes can be made against them. This is what I suffered through middle school. Forced equality took away my happiness, my expressions, my unique aspects. However, like Bergeron, I was determined to change that. So I escaped and found a new school where I could rid myself of equality and have freedom. At my new school I was able to express myself without being wondering what name I will be called. Bergeron and I found our freedom. The barriers that are placed on people limit innovation, work ethic, competition because no matter how hard a person works, they will always be equal. The handicaps, the bullies, the limitations take away the freedom every person has to make a life for themselves. The differences that each person is born with push our country forward. It is inequality that

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