Harrison Bergeron Analysis Essay

In the short story Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut frustrates and binds the reader using structuring that acts similar to the earpiece sounds in the text to effectively end the reader’s thoughts before they can unfold. One way Vonnegut halts any forward analysis the reader achieves is through grammatical and structural errors in the text that are written on purpose. For example, while George is trembling from the 21 gun salute firing in his ear, supposedly “Two of of the eight ballerinas had collapsed to the studio floor, were holding their temples.” (2). This sentence has two items involving structure that pause thought, one of which being the word “of” repeated twice. The other error is half of an independent clause being improperly added to an independent clause; “Had collapsed to the studio floor,” and “were …show more content…
Such usage occurs after a ballerina issues this warning, “‘If you see this boy,’ said the ballerina, ‘do not - I repeat, do not - try to reason with him.’ There was the shriek of a door being torn from its hinges.” (4). Vonnegut takes advantage of the non-referential there’s ability to redirect the topic or change the focus; consequently, the reader - having no time to think on the urges offered by the ballerina - instead procures the shrieking sound of a door, ripping from its hinges. just like the occasional earpiece sounds, these non-referential there sentences are also scattered rather evenly throughout the entire text, suggesting how the earpieces are equivalents to the non-referential there. So when the reader begins to think an important thought, that thought is never completed because the non-referential there interrupts the thought by changing the focus. At the end of it all, Vonnegut ensnares and masters the reader’s freedom to think by structuring the story as a handicap of its