Harrison Bergeron Essay

Kurt Vonneguts short story Harrison Bergeron is ab by a futuristic alliance where beauty is destroyed to create comparability. It centers around the highest onwardicial, fitly named, the prevalent odds-maker. His only role to to seek out and find to mickle who are skilled, pretty, or good at sports and forced them to hide aside these talents through masks and waits. It is through basic literary elements that Vonnegut creates and develops the theme that general conformation leads to the deformation of humanity.The short story begins in the future, The year was 2081 and Vonnegut immediately puts out the benefits of this futuristic society, stating e genuinelybody was finally equal and non just equal beforehand God but in ein truth look possible (Vonnegut, 1968, p. 7). Vonneguts description foreshadows what is to come in the novel and certainly this forced equality can only lead to a dangerous and potentially diabolically ending. Conformity and the effects of uniformity is a common theme in the bulk of science fiction literature and Vonneguts short stories are no different.However, in Harrison Bergergon not just the theme of uniformity is search but also the stripping away of humanity. This short story, the government forces every wiz to be equal nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. (Vonnegut, 1968, p. 7). Government agents force populate who are beautiful to get into ugly masks and people who are thin are forced to drop around weights. The goal of all this control is to make sure that everyone has the aforementioned(prenominal) handicaps, the same features, and the same feelings.Even odder is that smart people were forced to fracture radios which interfered with there brain functional creating a human society where everyone was levelly stupid. By eliminating the the issues, which modern society still deals with, of racism, sexism, and discriminatio n based on looks, Vonneguts future society should be healthy and happy because everyone is the same. However, in the pursuit of equality the loss of humanity as well ask place. Humanity is based on the idea of independence and individualism. The featured protagonist of this short story and namesake is Harrison Bergeron.He is a bright and friendly boy who has the most hated qualities in his society. He is intelligent, handsome, tall, and strong. Due to Harrisions features he is demand to do several(prenominal) things to compensate for all his good quality. He is subject to radio noises which pelf his concentration and focus. He has to carry hundreds of pounds of extra weight. He also accommodate to wear sun glasses which gives him a head and he has to bear with surgery fort o make him ugly. While awaiting his surgery he escapes and takes over a parole station. On air he takes off his handicaps and is revealed to society.When enters the station he is looks resembling a walking junk yard, required to wear a red rubber ball for a nose, honor his eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random ( Vonnegut, 1968, p. 21). He also meets up with a ballerina and she too casts off her imposed disabilities. When the couple dances they shrug off the law of staidness and the laws of motion as well, leaping to kiss the thirty-foot ceiling until finally they remained hang up in air inches below the ceiling, and they kissed each other for a ample, long time. It is then that Glampers enters with her shotgun (Vonnegut, 1968, p. 22).Unfortunately both are killed by the General Handicapper. As a sub plot his parents are watching the news station but once everything is said and done they can not remember what has happened due their forced handicaps. Irony is another literary machination that Vonnegut uses in this short story. Vonnegut comments on the look-ism which is apparent in American society. Vonnegut even appears cyn ical about what passes as average in America. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldnt think about anything except in short bursts (Vonnegut, 1968, p. 20).The observation on the ballerinas continues the undercutting humor They werent really very goodno better than anybody else would have been, anyway (Vonnegut, 1968, p. 20). Heavy banter emerges in the plodding Hazels missing the point, as when she sympathizes with the stuttering announcer for difficult real hard to do his best or suggests George might draw off some of his weights in the evenings. Compounding the irony she states, I think Id make a good Handicapper General. Good as anybody else, said George. The range of sounds and the comic brutality of their effect provides another credit of comedy.One of Georges winces prompts Hazel to ask the cause. Sounded like somebody bang a milk bottle with a hammer, he replies. Another sounds like a twenty-one gun salute that leaves George white and trembl ing and leaves devil of the ballerinas on the floor clutching their temples. The final one is a riveting gun. yardI could tell that one was a doozy, said Hazel. You can say that again, said George. Gee said HazelI could tell that one was a doozy. (Vonnegut, 1968, p. 41) Hazels stupid behavior and mindset symbolizes the dumbing imbibe of America.In addition the television is equally symbolic. When this book was written, the television was without delay found in every home throughout the country. It became the way that people communi molded and received news. Reading, literature, and human interaction decreased and was replaced by the mindless gabble of television shows and governmentally run news broadcasts. Hazels aversion to the old days when she could be made to feel like something the cat dragged in (Vonnegut, 1968, p. 22) obviously is not very persuasive The narration in Harrison Bergeron is also interesting.This is because the narration is third person, as if person is looking vertebral column on the events that just happened. Third person omnipresent is an interesting filling for narration because it allows the reader into the minds of all characters. For example Vonnegut reminds the readers, in third person narration Nobody can be in any way superior to anybody else, as guaranteed by the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of the agents of the United States Handicapper General (Vonnegut, 1968, p. 20). In particular, the motivations of each character which inspire their actions and words.Harrison Bergeron is a very unique short story because Vonnegut manipulates basic literary elements and creates a ridicule of American ideals and societal norms. Vonnegut is able too, in a tongue and administration manner, show how the government can create a society which lacks humanity. A government that is left uncontrolled can exert such peachy power that it can destroy what makes human unique creatures on this planet. In doing so, people become mindless and vulnerable to the governmental propaganda that tells the citizens of a society that these rules are for their own good.