Preview

Different Aspects In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
382 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Different Aspects In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron
Within the story of Harrison Bergeron, there are many different aspects that Kurt Vonnegut wrote about. However, some are easier to identify compared to others. Some of the things and aspects that Vonnegut wrote about in Harrison Bergeron can be clearly identified by the words stated whereas other aspects written about take a bit of thinking about. Beginning with what was directly stated. In the year of 2081, everyone was required to be equal by the government. If some citizens were more better in ways such as stronger, more beautiful, or more intelligent, the government prevented equality by having those citizens to wear “handicaps”. An example of how we can obviously see this is when George and Hazel are watching T.V.. It is stated that,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Many advancements have happened in the United States. Most of them have had positive effects; some have had negative effects. Government intervention has strongly increased as our demographics grows in age and population. Depending on a citizen’s political views, this increased government intervention could be good for the United States, or it could be just the opposite. Few have been living with the same government their whole life, so they wouldn’t know what is legal or illegal. In Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, the future consists of a more strict United States government, strongly overpowering the citizens.…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Kurt Vonnegut Jr, story “Harrison Bergeron” everyone is programed to be equal. Rules are so meticulous, that is mandatory to follow the rules which all regard to an averagely equal life. In a dystopian society like that the protagonist, 14 year old Harrison Bergeron is a threat to his society. This is primarily a result of his natural superior characteristics that make him differ alarmingly from his fellow people in society.…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Harrison Bergeron,” author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. illustrates government control with the characters of George, Hazel Harrison Bergeron, and the society that they live in. Vonnegut Jr. directs his writing to society and people in general who want to achieve total equality, as well as those who put faith into the government when it comes to resolving serious issues. To inform his audience of the dangerous consequences that come with wanting to achieve total equality, Vonnegut Jr. presents imagery, setting, and monotone, and educates the audience on how this also leads to an over-controlled society with no motivation, joy, love, or care.…

    • 253 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever wondered what living in a dystopian society is like? Anthem and “Harrison Bergeron” both take place in a society built off equality. Everyone is expected to be the same as the next person. Rand’s Anthem and Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” are different in technology but similar in equality.…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Our world is far from perfect and because our world is far from perfect, We have seen what perfection could actually be. In these examples, it’s clear that living in a perfect society does not lead to happiness. The Giver, a book by Lois Lowry is about a young boy’s travels through a ‘perfect’ society in the United States sometime in the future. The people there have grown accustomed to a lack of choice in life. Their government has gone to the extent of removing winter and color from everyone in order to make everything and everyone the same. ‘Harrison Bergeron’ is a short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. In this world, anyone who excels in any aspect of life is forced to wear a handicap. For example, someone stronger than the weakest person in the human race will be weighed down by extra weights. Someone smarter than the least intelligent person is required to wear an earpiece that will distract their train of thought to keep them from thinking. This world is one where everyone is equally incapable. Anyone who…

    • 1529 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The "Harrison Bergeron" story written, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., is a portrayal of a much imagined world where equality exists among all people. It is a seemingly nice notion, but at what price? Equality comes to the people from an amendment to the constitution, enforced by the government's right to control all human intelligence, strength and ability. Although the story was written in 1961, the author projects the time period to the year 2081. It is with single-mindedness that the government attempts to achieve its goal of handicapping the American society. Told from third person point of view, this story gives us an account from the outside looking in.…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Would you rather live in a world, where everything is equal? Every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is dimmer, uglier, weaker, and slower that anyone else, sounds good right? Non the less a world where the beauty is cast away by a mask so it won’t be distracting, the strong would be chained up in handicap and the intelligent has to wear huge ear muffs that sends loud signals to interrupt any thoughts of intelligent. In the short story, “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. that world exists of the year 2081. In that world Kurt Vonnegut, portrays the danger of total equality.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    "If I tried to get away with it, then other people 'd get away with it-and soon we 'd be right back to the dark ages again…" This statement by George Bergeron sums up Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 's short story in one line. "Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical story of a futuristic United States in the year 2081, where all individuals are made equal regardless of what their natural born characteristics were. In order to achieve this society needed to be made equal, and controlled.…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In "Harrison Bergeron," Vonnegut proposes that overall equality is not a striving idea, as many believe, but a false goal that risks both execution and results. To obtain physical and mental equality among all Americans, the government in the story of Vonnegut tortures its citizens. Angels must wear ugly masks or despise themselves, intelligent people must listen to the obstructive noise that hinders their ability to think, and the brave and powerful must wear the weight around his neck. They are at every hour of the day. Emphasis requires equality to enter into citizens who begin to mute themselves or hide their unique features. Some behave this way because they have accomplished the goal of the government and others they're fear of the government…

    • 172 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever forgot something very important that could’ve changed your life? In Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron, equality is forced upon the citizens by the government. Everyone is forced to wear handicaps that make everyone “equal”. The government, strictly enforces these handicaps. If someone were to take a handicap off, such as a lead ball hanging from their neck, it would be 2 years in prison and a $2,000 fine. In Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron, he shows the government is so corrupt that they will do anything to keep their power.…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 2081, society may advance in technology. People may finally cure cancer. However, these goals cannot be met in a dystopian society. In a world where there is oppressive societal control, no one will ever have the right to think outside of the box. Everyone will be forced into an unnaturally equal society where curing cancer is too abnormal to be accepted with open arms. Kurt Vonnegut wrote “Harrison Bergeron,” in which people are forced to wear handicap harnesses in order to diminish any differences one possesses to another. An article states, “... the sports term handicap. It refers to a way to even up a game so that good, average, and poor players can compete as equals” (What If Everyone Were The Same?). Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wrote the story with the belief that while people may think an equalized utopian American society is ideal, it resembles more of a dystopia due to its depravity in/of keeping an oppressive government pleased.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Harrison Bergeron” the government makes a world where everyone is equal to each other. This story shows that too much equality can cause a great deal of conflict. By putting numerous types of handicaps on Harrison, he got so tired of being equal to everyone around him he lashed out on the…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the flaws in Harrison Bergeron is that they wanted everybody to be “equal” when that is not possible. They wanted everyone to have average intelligence, people who had a better then averaged were gave a handicap in there that is sent sound to them. They did not even want people to look better than each other, people who did have natural beauty had to wear masks “they were burdened with sash weights and bags with birdshots and faces were masked”. In today, all people are supposed to be equal when…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if everyone was legally forced into the governments opinion of equality? In Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s short story "Harrison Bergeron", it is the year 2081 and the government has altered society to be mentally, physically and socially equal. The beautiful people are covered with hideous masks, the intelligent people wear ear pieces that let off loud obnoxious sounds at random to throw off there thought process and the strong people wear weights to be equal to the weaker people. The society is not equal because no one can truly be changed unless they want to be. Putting a handicap on an intelligent person does not make him or her equal to an average person, because he or she is still intelligent and if the whole society where really equal everyone would have handicaps not just the beautiful, strong, and intelligent people.…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wool

    • 602 Words
    • 2 Pages

    George Bergeron, one of the main characters in‘Harrison Bergeron’is an unusual character. He resents having his handicaps on, but finds them necessary in today’s society. Hazel Bergeron asks him why he doesn’t just“Make a little hole in the bottom of the bag and just take out a few of them lead balls”. And he replies with first off saying“Two years in prison and a two thousand dollar fine for every ball I took out”. This seems resentful, and that he despises the law. But he then says“Then other people’d get away with it-and pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else.”His view on the government regimen of this fictional world is almost authoritarian. He doesn’t know any different to what he has now, and his handicaps are simply a part of him now. The totalitarian government has manipulated this society’s history to seem bad, and as a result the people know no different and cannot know any different because of the lack of knowledge.…

    • 602 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays