Situational Irony In Kurt Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron'

Wesley Adams

AP Literature

Ms. Burns

October 12, 2017

Equality Has Its Limits Written by Kurt Vonnegut, “Harrison Bergeron” is about a dystopian future in which everyone is equal in every way. No one is necessarily different. Everyone is limited, but one person escapes prison, breaks the laws, and ends in a tragic death. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut uses setting, characterization, and situational irony to create the theme, equality is nearly impossible. The setting takes place in a futuristic dystopian world set in the year 2081. The setting played a major effect on the characters as each one was put at a disadvantage due to the laws set during this time. Every character had to be equal even if that meant “handicapping” a person. The physical features were hidden, the mental features were disregarded, and the emotional features were scarce. Beauty was hidden behind masks, intelligence and curiosity is disregarded and shoved away by the noise of an ear piece, and emotions were short but soon forgotten about. This changed the character’s action and motivation. The main characters forgot their son because the handicaps disabled them. However, some

The reader would expect for the handicaps to slow a person and cause a tired, weak expression, but the handicaps can do quite the opposite. “And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicaps bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred-pound men.” (Vonnegut 883) This statement is a prime example of situational irony. The handicaps are meant to equalize the ballerina, which it does, but it also demonstrates how much stronger one is from the other. Everyone develops differently, which causes an impossible feature to equalize. In trying to equalize the ballerina, the government allowed for one ballerina to carry more weight allowing everyone to see her true