Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

Improved Essays
In the story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, the author writes about a strict society where a hero, Harrison Bergeron, stands against it. Harrison breaks harsh rules for the people of this society who could have had the freedom and thrived for some amount of time. Harrison makes many daring actions for the people that are stuck in the strict society.
Harrison is demonstrated to everyone that he is the only one who can save society because of the danger he displays. For example, the news broadcaster clearly illustrates Harrison as extremely talented. “...where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous” Page 41 (lines

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Harrison Bergeron and American Documents “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, is a short story which takes place in the year 2081 in a "perfectly equal world. " This story was made as a way to interpret the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. The ideas that were interpreted from the bill of rights and the declaration in this story were put in a way that often messes with our other rights or does not look at every aspect of the right affected. The story's main idea is the sense that everybody is finally "equal," so much so that anybody who is better than anybody else is put into restraints that weigh them down or make them look worse.…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Similarly, in “HB,” written by Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron breaks free and reveals his identity. Harrison is one of the most talented people in America. He has been given the most extreme handicaps in order to make him conform to the norm. While George and Hazel are watching a televised dance production, Harrison breaks into the performance, “Clanking, clownish, and huge, Harrison stood - in the center of the studio,” after breaking out of prison. Seeing everyone around him synonymous…

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this world, many people try to stand out by deviating from the norm. Guy Montag demonstrates this in Ray Bradbury's novel, "Fahrenheit 451". Likewise, Truman Burbank from Peter Weir's film, The Truman Show, attempts this. Similarly, Harrison Bergeron from Kurt Vonnegut's short story, "Harrison Bergeron", tries to do the same. In like manner, Johnny from James Clavell's short story, "The Children's Story", shows this attitude.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “‘And I say to you, that if it is GREATNESS we must destroy, then let us drag our enemy out of the darkness where it has been hiding! Let us shine a LIGHT...so that AT LAST, ALL THE WORLD CAN SEE!’” (Tuttle 2009). This quote creates a huge change in the main character than we see in the short story “Harrison Bergeron.” In both the short story “Harrison Bergeron” and the movie “2081” there are many similarities and differences.…

    • 867 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    On a superficial level, the root of the problem is the drive to compete and the drive to compare oneself to others. A political solution for this “compare and compete” problem can be theorized. The first potential solution that comes to mind is to find a way to equal the playing field until there becomes no need for comparison with others because we are all equal, and through this equality brings the end of competition, for what is achievable by one, is achievable by all. One way to accomplish this would be for the political power (i.e. the government) at hand to invent a means that impeded on any one individual’s advantage in society, whether it be intelligence, beauty, creativity, etc.. In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, “Harrison Bergeron”,…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Would Harrison Bergeron be considered as a hero, or threat to his society? Harrison Bergeron is fourteen year old boy in the year 2081. He lives in a town where everyone was finally considered as equals. A utopian society if you will. Nobody was smarter, better looking, and or stronger than anybody else.…

    • 92 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Kurt Vonnegut 's short story Harrison Bergeron is a satirical sci-fi story about the dim side of a perfectly equal American culture. Vonnegut 's decision of "uniformities" is vital to the story 's importance by concentrating on the subjective sorts of balance and downplaying the goal ones, he ridicules not the perfection of fairness itself, but rather the American culture 's defective idea of equality. Can an equivalent society genuinely exist? The story, Harrison Bergeron gives one point of view to answer this inquiry in the story. The story depicts one primary clash between Harrison Bergeron, a virtuoso kid who is exceptionally skilled, against a "government" that makes the whole society break even by limiting the more talented, down to the level of the less intelligent or unable.…

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In Harrison Bergeron society is all about Equal and everyone was a handicap. No One was different neither stronger in any way. There was technology. They did have families. Harrison Bergeron was a guy that escaped from prison and went live T.V to show people that they can take off their handicaps and make difference.…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Harrison is sent to a prison because of his superior strength. Throughout both Anthem by Ayn Rand and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, one can see that the equality movement leads to a government uprising by few, and makes their society weak and vulnerable.…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Harrison Bergeron is a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. The story is set in the future and in a society where everyone is made equal through the use of handicapping measures used by the government. Harrison Bergeron, the title character of the story, attempts to break free of these handicapping measures and pays for it with his life. Diana Moon Glampers, who is The Handicapper General in the story, shot and killed Harrison in attempt to maintain government control when Harrison set himself and others free of their handicapping devices and declared himself Emperor. Harrison is the son of George and Hazel Bergeron.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The plan was not made to make a mess. The plan was not made to ostracize people. The plan was made to help improve the knowledge of people, maybe even help find one’s place in the world, so where did the plan fail? The education system has, more recently failed to achieve what it was proposed to do, and that is to teach skills and build character. Students today can be compared to a great quote from Kurt Vonnegut 's story “Harrison Bergeron” that is “They weren’t really very good-no better than anybody else would have been, anyways” (Vonnegut, 1387).…

    • 2473 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine a world wanting to go forward, but only going backwards. A world where the government regulates its citizens to make sure that they are “equal” and of average standard, where if anyone dares to be above average, handicaps are forced upon them. This is the world of Harrison Bergeron, a world of dystopia, but in the meantime, will this also be the fate of America? Equality is the state of being equal in status, rights, and opportunities. Although equality is strived for everywhere in society, it does not lead to a utopia.…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The theme of Harrison Bergeron is that equality is an unattainable goal. The society shows the flaws of trying to gain equality. The government forces citizens to carry handicaps that prevent them from using their natural abilities that might…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The main character in “Harrison Bergeron” is a guy named Harrison, who is strong, handsome, smart, and almost everything that he isn’t supposed to be in a completely equal society. He is given hundreds of pounds of handicaps that sicken him and beat him down. He’s given a large earphones instead of regular earpieces, spectacles that half blind him and give him killer headaches, and is forced to shave off his eyebrows and wear a red rubber ball nose to alter his appearance, all for the sake of people being equal. Harrison does not want to be equal to everyone else, however. He wants to show that all around, diversity in people is just as important as equality in society.…

    • 1603 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many people in our world today strive for equality and work towards the cause of everyone being viewed as equal. Equality is something that over the years has become more prominent of an issue to society. It seems to be a movement that is good in theory, but has never actually been played out. A glimpse of true and full equality is shown in Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron, where Vonnegut uses a futuristic setting in this science fiction story to portray the dangers of true equality in a society. Just like there are some in society now who do not agree with full equality, Harrison, son of George and Hazel, chooses to be the one to rebel against the act.…

    • 1519 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays