Equal Society In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron
“When I encounter people who try to make me feel lesser than equal, I don’t argue. My equality is not up for debate, it is an implicit.” In Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut creates a seeming perfect utopian society that achieved equality in 2081. But equality comes with a price. The intelligent wear radios on their ears to stunt their thoughts, masks adorn the faces of those with beauty, and strong, able bodies bear the literal and physical weights to obstruct the appearance that they are better than those without strength, beauty, and intelligence. Vonnegut uses word choice and characterization to warn the readers of the potential drawbacks of a truly equal society in his writing. Harrison Bergeron, the main character of the story, is used to characterize the loss of humanity in a utopian society. Kurt Vonnegut uses Harrison to criticize the fact that if we are truly
…show more content…
For example, when Harrison is shown on the television screen in the Bergerons’s home, he is shown to have radios on his ears, spectacles to make him blind, and to offset his appearance, shaved his eyebrows and cover his teeth with black caps. He is covered in scrap metal to weigh him down, and as Vonnegut states, “looked like a walking junkyard” (3). This image of Harrison creates the realization that he has had his humanity and identity stripped away so the people in the city feel more equal. His ability to endure demanding hardships is implied about his character as Vonnegut describes the one man in their society that is the embodiment of rebellion. Harrison conveys the loss of humanity in this dystopian society in when Harrison Bergeron is dancing with a ballerina and Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, shoots them down without warning. Vonnegut is criticizing true equality by using this scene to
For example, when Harrison is shown on the television screen in the Bergerons’s home, he is shown to have radios on his ears, spectacles to make him blind, and to offset his appearance, shaved his eyebrows and cover his teeth with black caps. He is covered in scrap metal to weigh him down, and as Vonnegut states, “looked like a walking junkyard” (3). This image of Harrison creates the realization that he has had his humanity and identity stripped away so the people in the city feel more equal. His ability to endure demanding hardships is implied about his character as Vonnegut describes the one man in their society that is the embodiment of rebellion. Harrison conveys the loss of humanity in this dystopian society in when Harrison Bergeron is dancing with a ballerina and Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, shoots them down without warning. Vonnegut is criticizing true equality by using this scene to