Harrison Bergeron Theme

The Need to Ask Why In “Harrison Bergeron” Vonnegut uses the character Hazel to show that if people cannot question people and concepts then they will blindly follow any figure of authority. When Hazel is watching the ballerinas on the television, and her husband George hears a noise in his ear radio from questioning the dancers’ handicaps: “Hazel saw him wince. Having no mental handicap herself, she had to ask George what the latest sound had been” (Vonnegut 1). Hazel does not have the ability to think deeply about the ballerinas or the sandbags tied to them on the screen in front of them. She lacks the ability to compose thoughts asking why ballerinas are required to hide their talent along with their face. Instead, Hazel absorbs propaganda through television programs to accept what a …show more content…
If someone guides Hazel to thinking about the downfall of this society, then others like her can ponder this idea without an ear radio going off. However, people without mental handicaps cannot do this by themselves. At the very end of the story after George tells Hazel to forget sad things on television, she explains that she always does and says “Gee - I could tell that one was a doozy” (5). Hazel does not recall the mournful event that was televised for the public because of her insufficient or what their government calls “normal” memory. The general public is trained to consume media and move on from story to story in the the blink of an eye. Even today people cannot sit through a two minute video because of their constant desire for new stimulus. Most of the time people do not question it or even realize their obsession for entertainment. Because of this, the government has the upper hand in controlling people’s focus to certain news stories and events. If George could help people like Hazel question the norm, then maybe their eyes would have been opened to the truth. Maybe they could have shed some light on the “dark ages… with everybody competing against