Summary Of Harrison Bergeron By Kurt Vonnegut

“The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal” (Vonnegut 22). In Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s short story “Harrison Bergeron”, the author depicts a society set in the future where the gifted individuals are handicapped genetically in order to be equal among everyone. Not lifting up the ungifted individuals will prevent conflicts from occurring between the government and its citizens, this is exhibited by the forced conformity and revolting of characters.

In “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, Vonnegut expresses the dangers that could be caused in total equality. He deliberates the pain his characters have to endure through their handicaps they received from the government to assure equality in society. Vonnegut explores the dangers that total equality brings to society. Harrison’s attempt to free people of their equality is accompanied by Harrison’s parents, sitting on the couch having to deal with their handicaps while trying to focus on Harrison’s message. Equality is thrived for, however, equality undermines freedom and living.

As a tool for social commentary, oftentimes a writer will employ the use of a biting satire. Through precise writing and exaggerated concepts, Kurt Vonnegut is clearly a skilled user of satirical storytelling. As one of the most famous and widely read short literary tales of all time, Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron is certainly his best example in this genre. In Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut proposes that true equality is not an ideal worth striving for, as many people believe, but a mistaken goal that is dangerous in both implementation and consequence. To achieve physical and mental equality amongst all Americans, the government in Vonnegut's short story subjects its citizens to “handicapping” through the use of crude means, such as canvas sacks of lead balls worn to impede physical ability, or more sophisticated technology, like the miniature radio used to mentally incapacitate the intellectually adept. This has rendered the dystopian future presented both bland and uneventful through its enforcement of equality for all. Vonnegut expertly engineers his story to capture the essence of an utterly broken and depressing future. Calibrating the specific aspects of literature, Vonnegut is attune with the exact parameters he so desires for his tale. Like a true master of his craft, Vonnegut in Harrison Bergeron welds together poignant imagery, vague setting, rich symbolism, and a detached tone to build a stunning tour de force of American literature.

Vonnegut's, short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, portrays Harrison as a considerate, ignored hero but also an outsider, standing up for the people’s and his rights. Vonnegut made it clear that Harrison’s appearance and beliefs are portrayed negatively to others, while the equipment used on him and others, but also the responses from him and to the handicap generals, ballerinas, and news reporters have made them get a wrong

While reading "Harrison Bergeron," I received a feeling that total equality is an idea not worth aiming for. In the story, smart, beautiful, talented, and strong people must be tortured to be equal with everyone else. Even when George and Hazel's son dies, Harrison Bergeron, his mother, who had short memory loss, could not remember the tragic incident right after she saw what had happened on-screen. Equality is more or less achieved, but at the cost of freedom and individuality of the people. The setting of the story is not my ideal place that I had thought of. Instead, I felt a very painful and sad feeling from this story. Also, this narrative made me rethink about the future and how the time ahead could be more brutal and more grating.

In 1961 Kurt Vonnegut wrote a short story titled Harrison Bergeron. The story starts out, “The Year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way.”(Vonnegut) Forced equality is the major theme in this short story, taking many features away from the characters including, their independent thought, their individuality, and their constitutional rights. “Harrison Bergeron” takes place in the future where everyone is subjected to wearing devices, also known as handicaps, that takes away unequaled, unsurpassed characteristics of the each person, in order to make every person average and equal to one another. Two of the main characters George and Hazel Bergeron are the first example of this ruling that we see in the story. George is described as intelligent and strong and therefore is subjected to many handicaps where his wife, Hazel Bergeron is considered to be average and therefore is not subjected to any handicaps. Benjamin Reed describes Hazel as, “so average even her name is the eye color between brown and blue. Her natural mental state is equivalent to George’s natural mind.” (7) Reed later describes their son, Harrison Bergeron as, “[possessing] amazing strength, god like beauty and stature and (presumably) a piercing intelligence,” (8) all of the features that the United States Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers, is trying to make uniform and equivalent. Diana Moon Glampers has Harrison

As a result from everybody having to be equal in the story we find that there ends up being a loss of talent and beauty due to these threatening laws. Diana Moon, the handicap general represents all the ideas of fairness in this society and because of her ugliness and idiocy it lands her such a high title. Nonetheless she can easily manage the concept of turning a bright intelligent person to an average human being just as herself. Harrison Bergeron is the one character who proudly displays uniqueness of an individual. In the story he is described as a “genius and athlete”. Harrison’s physical appearance along with all the handicap’s he carries makes it easy for anyone to see he has a lot to offer, but because of his biased society it ends up depriving him from his own identity. Both side viewpoints can lead to harmful consequences. One side steals away distinctiveness, while the other takes away equality. Therefore causing an unstablelized society that shows a lack of fairness towards

The author of "Harrison Bergeron," Kurt Vonnegut emphasizes equality in an imagined dystopia future, 2081 and alters the inherent purpose of creating an equal society that forms a unified but unfair jail. Bergeron family in the text symbolizes the community and reveals different attitudes. The son, Harrison is the authority that assimilates the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glamper where corrupts the government system. The parent, George, and Hanzel are the citizens who fear of inequality and suffer to maintain the social stability. Kurt Vonnegut in "Harrison Bergeron" constructs a social form of sanctioned violence that legally destroys human identity, mentally distorts the idea of equality and physically prevents social improvements which

In the story Harrison Bergeron, the government stresses over creating a world that is equal, and it seems like their disabling people who do not need to be disabled.One examole of the goverment disabling people is with a married coupled named George and Hazel. Since George was on the smart side and new a lot, he was disabled with an ear radio( to keep you from thinking about a subject for too long). However, his wife Hazel didn’t have any disabling equipment on her because of the government calling her a normal person(someone who is balanced in everything). the author proves this by saying,” Having no mental handicap herself, she had to ask George what the latest sound had been”(page two).

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is a short story that follows the lives of Harrison, George and Hazel Bergeron, as well as the United States Handicapper General Diana Moon Gilampers. This short story takes place in the year 2081 and the American constitution has been amended to create total equality. No one is stupider, uglier, weaker, or slower than anyone else.

Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” tells a brief story of the Bergeron family. The family is torn apart and suffering under an oppressive, dystopian society in which the government puts physical limitations on people who have above-average intelligence, looks, and athletic abilities. The story’s main characters are husband and wife George and Hazel Bergeron and their son, Harrison Bergeron. Harrison is ultimately gunned down after breaking out of jail and dancing without limitations by the Handicapper General Diana Moon Glampers, responsible for enforcing the handicap laws that govern their society. Lexi Stuckey argues that Kurt Vonnegut is a strong advocate for a “homogenous society” and, in a way, endorses the execution of society rules

Written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, ‘Harrison Bergeron’ explains a society with no political justice. As the text states, “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They were equal every which way”. Nobody stood out or had the chance to be original. It was frowned upon to be prettier, stronger, or smarter. You were punished if you did exceed the normality. Life was boring for the citizens, but what was worse was their emotional and physical state because of this new civilization they lived in.

The story “Harrison Bergeron” is about individualism and government power. It takes place in 2081 where the government has supreme control over every person in the nation. People are given “handicaps” and downgraded to be equal to one another. Harrison decides to take action and tries to change things for the better. Unfortunately, this is not what happened. There ended up being a terrible consequence that no one would ever wish upon a 14 year old boy. The short story “Harrison Bergeron,” written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., teaches its readers that to much equality is not good.

Imagine living in a place where everyone is equal. No one is smarter or or faster, everyone is the same. This is what everyday life is described as in the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. Throughout the story, Vonnegut tells the reader what society would be like if everyone was average. Also, Vonnegut exaggerates what people would have to do in order to be equal, including wearing “handicaps” which deprive people of showing their strengths. These include; having to wear bags of birdshot for the strong and the beautiful being forced to wear masks to hide their faces. The theme of “Harrison Bergeron” is that total equality can have a dangerous outcome to society.

“Harrison Bergeron”and the short film 2081 have many similar elements in plot structure and characteristics. For example, “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before the law. They were equal in every which way (Vonnegut 38).” 2081 choose to incorporate the same beginning narration in the short story. This element sets up the viewer's expectations for the plot and contributes to the idea of what Vonnegut portrays as the conflict of interest in the story. Harrison does not want society to be equal and tries to overthrow the government to change that because he sees the problems with total equality in society. In addition, both the film and short story show how handicaps negatively affect society through Harrison father, George. In 2081, George is shown with a handicap that plays sharp sounds such as a pin hitting a milk bottle to impair his thought process. This detail shows how the