Tanic Werapat
Professor Rodriguez
English 1301
Essay 1
Harrison Bergeron What would happen to the world if the people were literally equal in every aspect of their lives? In the futuristic short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the world is finally living up to America’s first amendment of everyone is being created equal. In this society, the gifted, strong, and beautiful are required to wear handicaps of earphones, heavy weights, and hideous masks, respectively. With the world constantly pushing for equality among people, Vonnegut reveals a world that society is diligently working toward. Through this foreshadowing of the future, the author attempts to use Diana Moon Glampers and Harrison Bergeron as mechanisms to reveal and warn the present society about how dangers of two extremes of too equal or too unjust. According to this paragraph, “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. 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 Amendments to the Constitution, and vigilance of agents of the United States of Handicapper General.” (Vonnegut) In the beginning of the story, the reader is given a picture of the world that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, symbolically portrays the idea of fairness in a society. The character of Harrison Bergeron conveys the importance of equality and bravery. The author demonstrates that total equality is undesirable by setting the story in the future, by using satire to exaggerate how awful equality is to persuade the reader that they should think and oppose equality and by using the symbols such as handicaps and the media are also used to argue that total equality is undesirable. Harrison Bergeson is the one who represents uniqueness through his physical and mental characteristics. Harrison is no ordinary being of society because he is described as “a genius, an athlete”. The reader can obviously see that Harrison has something more to offer, yet the society is binding him down and taking away his individuality. He is the one that willing to exploit his society and have variation as being a celebration of oneself not a crime. In the story, Vonnegut uses satire to make fun of the corrupt governments and other relevant topics. In Vonnegut’s futuristic world, the people are ruled by a corrupt, communistic government. The government makes sure that everyone is equal in every aspect of their features and ways of thought. There are special government employees called handicappers that ensure everyone is following the rules to make everyone equal. If people are too smart, they must wear an earpiece that monitors their thoughts and stops them from having intelligent thoughts. People that are too skinny must carry around sacks full of lead balls to add extra weight. Beautiful or handsome faces must be hidden by ugly masks. The author uses these restrictions to show the readers of how ridiculous and restrictive some governments can be. The author also made fun of at how the governments deal with rebellious or socially unacceptable acts according to these futuristic equality laws. For example, when the government takes Harrison away from his family, they go
