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Situational Irony In Harrison Bergeron

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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 …show more content…

For instance, when the protagonist, Harrison escapes from jail and crashes the live ballerina broadcast Vonnegut uses situational irony. Once Harrison escapes, the reader develops a conclusion that Harrison will rebel when he says, “I am the Emperor!” When Harrison and his Empress, the ballerina “shifted their weights to their toes” the reader assumes Harrison will take over and over throw Diana Moon Glampers but, the Handicap General shoots them both dead. This is situational irony because it is the exact opposite of what is anticipated. With this scene Vonnegut is implying that equality is dangerous. The author concludes the narration with George and Hazel’s calm and ironic conversation after just watching their son, Harrison being shot dead on live television. This particular scene is ironic because in reality no parent would be calm after watching his or her own son being killed in that way. The author chooses to end the story with irony to make fun of the thought of needing equality in the world because it is just something that we cannot control. The author uses various ironic examples in the narration, Harrison Bergeron to demonstrate that an unprejudiced

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