Dystopias walk a fine line between evoking a sensation of fear and inducing a sense of futility. Descriptions of grim futures, mask dystopias basic optimism. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. takes place in the year 2081, everything is finally equal, no one is smarter, better looking, or stronger than anybody else. What good is equality when your creativity is taken away taken by weights(handicaps) and a transmitter sending horrible sounds every 20 seconds masks hiding your beauty and governments and society controlling you.
Despite all this equality, there are many signs of inequality. For example the handicaps, “"All of a sudden you look so tired," said Hazel. "Why don't you stretch out on the sofa, so's you can rest your handicap bag …show more content…
For example “¨Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.¨” (Vonnegut 1). This is important because it shows how they take away the fact that people can be smarter,creative and imagine thing think of things they take away privacy and freedom. “¨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. George winced. So did two out of the eight ballerinas.¨” This proves that in the society that they live in there's no creativity. No one is smarter or better but there's no actual equality when people have to go through pain to be ¨equal¨. Once more there is yet another inequality, beauty in this story/short film is shown in such an upsetting way, hidden by masks. “He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They weren't really very good-no better than anybody else would have been, anyway. They were burdened with sashweights and
Despite all this equality, there are many signs of inequality. For example the handicaps, “"All of a sudden you look so tired," said Hazel. "Why don't you stretch out on the sofa, so's you can rest your handicap bag …show more content…
For example “¨Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.¨” (Vonnegut 1). This is important because it shows how they take away the fact that people can be smarter,creative and imagine thing think of things they take away privacy and freedom. “¨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. George winced. So did two out of the eight ballerinas.¨” This proves that in the society that they live in there's no creativity. No one is smarter or better but there's no actual equality when people have to go through pain to be ¨equal¨. Once more there is yet another inequality, beauty in this story/short film is shown in such an upsetting way, hidden by masks. “He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They weren't really very good-no better than anybody else would have been, anyway. They were burdened with sashweights and