Harrison Bergeron

Harrison Bergeron Analysis

It's the year 2081, and everyone is equal. The story zone into a couple, George and Hazel Bergeron. George and Hazel have a son, Harrison, however, the government took him away when he was fourteen years old. See, someone once decided that George Bergeron is of above-average intelligence, so he's had a radio implanted in his ear. Piercing sirens crashes and booms go off periodically to hinder his thought process. (His wife, Hazel, on the other hand, is the definition of average. No handicaps on her.)

One night,  the Bergerons are sitting in front of the TV watching ballet with ballerinas wearing masks to hide their beauty and weights to hinder their grace and strength.

The Ballet is then interrupted when one of the ballerinas has an urgent government news announcement to make. The infamous Harrison Bergeron has escaped! An escaped convict is just what any boring ballet, opera, or interpretive dance routine needs to liven things up a bit so when Harrison himself rips off the door to the stage and storms on the screen you could say it was party time.

He declares himself Emperor and takes one of the ballerinas as his Empress. Just what this society needs to pull it from its homogenized doldrums: a crazed monarchy.

Anyway, the two of them dance, fly through the air, kiss the ceiling, then kiss each other. There's a whole lot of kissing. But the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers, doesn't seem to care much for kissing (in addition to discouraging strength, intelligence, and beauty) since she shoots them both dead with a shotgun.

The Bergerons' television blows out and goes dark. Must have been a faulty bulb—no way it was government intervention, right? But then it turns out that George had gone to get a beer, so it appears he missed the whole thing. Hazel cries, but soon can't remember why. Life quickly returns to normal.

So what's the point of this darkly twisted story you may ask?

Well is actually quite simple.

"Harrison Bergeron" tackles the theme of equality in a unique way. Rather than suggesting that all people should be equal, it imagines a world where people are forced to be equal by means of handicaps and limitations. In the end, Vonnegut depicts the dangers of focusing on artificial equality rather than celebrating differences. Other smaller themes include Intelligence, beauty, and strength. These are human attributes which make people different and unique. These attributes are targeted by the Handicapper General, who strips characters of their extraordinary physical and mental attributes so that others won't feel inferior. These handicaps are superficial, however, and can't change one's inherent characteristics. Vonnegut also uses the government of "Harrison Bergeron" to explore the theme of freedom/equity. Equality and freedom are not the same things, Vonnegut notes, and though the characters in the novel are superficially "equal," none of them are truly free under the oppressive rule of the Handicapper General.

Long story short, Kurt Vonnegut's piece "Harrison Bergeron" is one that challenges the notion of equality and bridges its divide between freedom and equity.