Harrison Bergeron Anlysis

Harrison Bergeron

The story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is about and egalitarian society in the future. This story presents a utopian ideal civilization in the future. It is also a dystopian text because it shows the nightmare and high cost of equality. Kurt Vonnegut's story Harrison Bergeron is a plot that centers on the issues of the total equality based on inequality, it also depends on discrimination against the "other" and accepting obedience to tradition. Total equality is the main goal of this egalitarian society.

In the year 2081, in United States everybody was equal. The government had made a plan to make all population egalitarian. "They were not only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. "All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General". (Vonnegut 200-sec. 1).The government had set standards for sameness and there were agents called the H-G to supervise that everybody will follow the equality laws.

Additionally, People were made equal by devices which brought them down to the normalcy level in the story, which is actually below-average in intelligence, strength, and ability. "They were burdened with sash weights 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. George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn't be handicapped. But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts" (Vonnegut 200-sec. 10).If people had any above the normal quality or skill was forced to wear a handicap device