Political And Social Critique Of Vonnegut's Bergeron

In “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut, and Anthem by Ayn Rand, both novelists define equality throughout the societies. According to Vonnegut’s “Harrison

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was published in 1961 and this sotry is a normal case of the author’s capability to blend science fiction and satire. It is the best useful story of regulation of absolute equality ever composed. In this paper, I will be highlighting the Harrison Bergeron as a picture of socialism and communism, considering the equality rule of the teachings to uncover the absurdity (Joodaki & Mahdiany). Harrison Bergeron tell the satire of the misconception of what equality involves. Vonnegut has written this story to tell that all people have strengths and weaknesses which make each of them uniquely individual (Gradesaver.com).

Kurt Vonnegut uses dramatic irony in ridiculous ways in “Harrison Bergeron”. Dramatic irony is when the characters in the story do not know what is going on but the reader does know. In almost every part of the story, the characters are unaware of what is really happening because of everyone being equal. The characters have accepted and embraced the idea that it is good for everyone in society to be equal in intelligence, appearance, strength and speed. George doesn’t even care that his intelligence is being controlled by the radio in his ears. Whereas Hazel likes just being average. She says in the story, “Who knows better than I do, what normal is?” Even when George and Hazel talk about using chimes as a nice Sunday sound, George mentions

“Harrison Bergeron,” written by Kurt Vonnegut at the time of the Cold War, is a short story that takes place in a future world of the year 2081 where the Handicapper General and the law force the beautiful to wear masks, the intelligent to wear earpieces that disrupt their thoughts, and the athletic to wear heavy physical restraints, so that everyone may be equal in the categories of beauty, intelligence, and athleticism; a world where the people “[are] equal in every which way.” (Vonnegut 1) What the many readers of “Harrison Bergeron” seem to misinterpret is that the entire story is an allegory to the political systems of Socialism/Communism and that Vonnegut utilizes symbols in the story that either expose the glaring flaws of left-wing politics or advance the supposedly far-superior ideology of American capitalism. In actuality, Vonnegut’s use of symbols in “Harrison Bergeron,” and the entire story itself is a satire of the common American’s ignorant misunderstandings of left-wing politics at the time of the Cold War. Vonnegut once said at a college commencement speech, “I suggest that you work for a socialist form of government … It isn 't moonbeams to talk of modest plenty for all. They have it in Sweden.” (Hattenhauer 387) Given this and many more instances where Vonnegut’s spoken word was documented in support of left-wing politics, this interpretation of Vonnegut’s intent behind the story is much more convincing.

There are many ways an author can convey the message of any story. Elements such as the Plot, Conflict, Character/Characterization, Setting, Symbolism, Narration, and Imagery are used in these ways. For example, in the In the story "Harrison Bergeron", the author Kurt Vonnegut uses the characterization, and the conflict to communicate the message to the reader that Uniformity and strict laws lead to a loss of personal freedom and individuality.

"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is a satirical short story in which Vonnegut implies, if society interprets equality literally, there would be no significance between humans. The protagonist Harrison has escaped from prison and his parents Hazel and George are watching the program he appears upon, as he insists he is an emperor and the first female to rebel will be his empress. Following this rant he discards his handicaps making him appear god like. Soon after, the Handicapper General kills the emperor and his empress with a "double-barrelled ten-gauge shotgun"(pg. 64). Harrison depicts as an exaggeration as his "appearance was Halloween and hardware"(pg. 62). The government considers him as "a genius and an athlete"(pg. 61) and "is under

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. Harrison rushed towards a studio that was, unknowingly to him, recording a ballerina performance. He ran in, interrupting the performance, and ripped off his handicaps and began proclaiming himself as emperor. One of the ballerinas stood up and Harrison removed her handicaps. They

The people of the United States fight and strive for an absolute “equal” society, but is it what’s really wanted? “Harrison Bergeron,” a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut, uses satire to describe the deficiency in our idea of a truly “equal” society. Throughout the story, Vonnegut describes the torture and discomfort the government administers among the people, and though they were “equal,” they were not balanced. Vonnegut uses characterization and word choice to warn his readers of the potential drawbacks of a truly “equal” society. He warns normalcy would become the base of thought, and people would become incapable of emotion.

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.

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.

Literature serves as a mirror to our world, when looking into it closely, it reflects even the most banal aspects of ourselves and the society we live in. Kurt Vonnegut 's Slaughterhouse Five serves as a mean of social criticism. For instance, the creation of Kilgore Trout and the different plots of his books criticize several aspects of society by the use of science fiction such as faith, economy and oil dependency. In chapter nine, Billy Pilgrim stops at a store which has several Trout books. As he reads them, the narrator introduces the resumed plot of each one. Trout uses science fiction and its different elements such as cognitive estrangement and structural fabulation in order to build a metaphor that guides the reader into thinking about an aspect of society that the author wants to criticize. This communicative piece intends to portray social criticism in the way Vonnegut does it, but taken to our reality and analyzing aspects we want to condemn. We opened the book on chapter nine and decided to write our own new plot as if Billy Pilgrim was the one reading it. We wrote the text and inserted it as part of the chapter in order to adhere it to the rest of society’s criticism seen in the book in the very best Vonnegut style.

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. Everyone was forced to be equal, or rather, identical in uniform and totalitarian manner. The story is set in the living room of the title character’s parents, George and Hazel Bergeron. They are watching a performance of ballerinas on the television. Vonnegut’s description of the ballerinas serves as an example of the uniformity of this nation: “They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in” (1961, p. 8). In this version of the United States forces Americans to be the exact same, both in intelligence and physical attributes, all for the sake of fairness. Rather than run the risk of people existing as different entities, they force them to stay the same for the sake of equality. While Vonnegut’s short story may be an extreme example of sameness, “Harrison Bergeron” displays the terrible outcome that could be caused by the concentration on sameness. Drawing back to a less extreme example, imagine the two men at the gym. Perhaps one man is naturally stronger than the other man and therefore is able to lift more weight. Sameness in this circumstance is forcing the stronger man to deny himself of progress and lift the same as the weaker man, despite his natural

can be like that, so Vonnegut made George Bergeron. He lives a very sad life, but who wouldn’t

Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” In this passage Vonnegut shows how irrational such principals can be and how impossible to achieve absolute equality unless by handicapping the brightest citizens and bringing their abilities down to level of the “average “people. The story mimics the way Americans perceived communism and Soviet Union at that point of history where schools introduced courses to students such as Communism Vs. Americanism in order to wage the propaganda war, this paranoid climate was the result of many factors, one of them is the establishment of a communist government in Cuba by the rebellious Fidel Castro with the support of the USSR .the idea of having a government based on such principles just nine miles away from the US left Americans in a state of panic

has lead to negative outcomes. This idea is explored through “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut and “The Unknown Citizen” by W.H. Auden. In these two texts conformity eliminates individuality and causes the society to be weakened.