literary analysis essay harrison bergeron

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Analysis of Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 25, 2021

Kurt Vonnegut is celebrated more for his longer fiction than for his short stories. Nonetheless, Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron,” originally published in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science in October 1961, and currently available in the author’s collection, Welcome to the Monkey House , is a very popular short story and is often cited as an example of dystopian science fiction with an emphasis on egalitarianism. One segment of the 1972 teleplay Between Time and Timbuktu was based on the story, and it was later adapted into a TV movie, Harrison Bergeron (1995), with Sean Astin in the title role.

Set in 2081, the story depicts society’s vain search for absolute equality. Specifically, this new world does not attempt to raise standards for the disabled or handicapped but rather chooses to implement a more onerous solution: to impede those who have superior intellect, beauty, or strength. This solution deprives individuals of their talents by employing masks, loud noises, and weights in an attempt to level the playing field for the less talented. Actually the government is attempting to place all members of society at the level of the lowest common denominator, a process that is overseen by the United States Handicapper General, the shotgun-toting Diana Moon Glampers, whose primary goal is to rid society of anyone who might threaten mediocrity and inadequacy. A similar (though less developed) version of this character and idea appeared in Vonnegut’s earlier novel, The Sirens of Titan.

In this brave new world, the exceptional are consistently repressed, arrested, thrown into mental institutions, and ultimately killed for failing to be average. The central and title character, Harrison Bergeron, is, of course, a threat to this community since he is physically fit, handsome, intellectual, and, what is worse, rebellious. As a result, he is forced to bear enormous handicaps. These include distracting noises, 300- pounds of excess weight, eyeglasses to give him headaches, and cosmetic changes to make him ugly. Despite these handicaps, however, he is able to invade a TV station and declare himself the new emperor. He then strips himself of his handicaps and begins to dance with a ballerina whose amazing beauty and skills have also been distorted by the authoritarian government in an attempt to restrict her advancement and recognition as a superior individual. As the couple dance in defiance of the “rules,” the two defy gravity as they “kiss” the ceiling and assert their artistic independence as well as their refusal to be controlled by an outside authority. The story ends abruptly with two shotgun blasts, suggesting to the reader that there is no forgiveness for those who defy society’s demand for conformity to the ordinary. Added poignancy is created by the framing story, in which Bergeron’s parents are watching TV and observe their son’s demise but cannot concentrate enough to remember the incident or assess its importance. Vonnegut’s point seems to be that without the nonconformists, the dreamers, and the different, society is doomed. The good intention of equality is marred by the way society decides to maintain it. To be fair to one group, it must necessarily be unfair to another. Yet if the brilliant and talented are hindered, society will be unable to improve, and the status quo will be all it can hope for.

Kurt Vonnegut/The New York Times

Vonnegut’s more pessimistic view of life may be termed absurdist. In this future society, growth and experimentation are no longer fostered, and science and technologies are devised to hurt rather than to help humankind. The complacency of Harrison’s parents who witness his murder and yet cannot remember why they are so sad indicates they both have submitted to a world where rebellion is not tolerated and where sameness is fostered and encouraged.

While many critics have considered Vonnegut’s story as an attack on the attempt to level all individuals, what Vonnegut is really assailing is the public’s understanding of what that leveling entails. Critics like Roy Townsend and Stanley Shatt seem to have missed the underlying irony of “Bergeron,” as well as its unreliable narrator, preferring to stress the obvious and ignore the fact that the story line offers an assessment of the foolishness that is “common sense.” Common sense is shown to be ridiculous in its assumptions about equality and in its belief that a sense of morality and ethics is intuitive. Moreover, since Vonnegut’s politics were Leftist in nature, it is unlikely that he would attack the concepts of communism and socialism.

In fact, it is Harrison himself who embodies the past oppression of a dominant culture, and readers should remember his desire is to be emperor, to reassert his superiority and the power it entitles him to wield. Instead Vonnegut seems to satirize society’s limited view of egalitarianism as only intelligence, looks, and athleticism. He never addresses income distribution (the separation between rich and poor) or class prejudice (the difference between the powerful and the powerless) even though both are signifcant issues for America. The mediocrity Vonnegut decries is not a result of the future but a continuation of past practices, an antiintellectualism that is depicted in Harrison’s parents, Hazel and George, whose ideas seem to be shaped by what they see on TV and little else. Controlled by a corrupt value system that says to ignore sad things and be satisfied with normality, it is their world that is condemned more than the world of Diana Moon Glampers. They have facilitated her rise to power with all the coldness and sterility that one might associate with the lunar goddess. Freedom is not the greatest good for the smallest number; nor does it hold that a classruled society will promulgate economic success. Though the story’s message appears quite simple, its moral is rather complex, forcing individual readers to think twice before they reduce its meaning to a sentence or two. Vonnegut was clearly not just trying to side with the radical Right’s objections to big government, and “Harrison Bergeron” is definite evidence of how his convoluted texts beg for more contemplation than they have been previously given

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A Summary and Analysis of Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘Harrison Bergeron’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Harrison Bergeron’ is a 1961 short story by the American writer Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007). The story can be categorised as ‘dystopian satire’ or a ‘satirical dystopian story’, but we’ll say more about these labels in a moment. The action of the story takes place in the future America of 2081, where everyone has been made truly equal, physically, mentally, and aesthetically.

Plot summary

The story is set in the United States in 2081. True equality has finally been achieved: nobody is allowed to be stronger, more beautiful, or more intelligent than anyone else, so people who are deemed to have an unfair advantage are forced by law to use ‘handicaps’ which limit their powers or talents. A Handicapper General, named Diana Moon Glampers, is in charge of ensuring everyone obeys the law and wears their assigned handicaps at all times.

The story focuses on a couple, George and Hazel Bergeron, whose fourteen-year-old son Harrison is taken away so that he can be ‘handicapped’ because he is abnormally strong and intelligent. George is of above-average intelligence so is forced to wear earpieces which transmit distracting noises every twenty seconds, so that he cannot concentrate or, or think about things, for too long and thus use his intellect to his advantage.

George also carries forty-seven pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag, hung around his neck, to reduce his natural athleticism. When his wife suggests opening a hole in the bottom of the bag and removing some of the lead balls, because she can see how worn-out he is, he reminds her that such a crime carries a prison sentence and a fine.

George and Hazel watch ballerinas dancing on television, but George is unimpressed by them, since they aren’t very good: no more than average, at least, because they are not allowed to be supremely gifted at ballet. The naturally attractive dancers, like other beautiful people in society, are forced to wear masks which make them look less attractive.

The ballet show is interrupted by a live news broadcast, which reveals that their son, Harrison Bergeron, has escaped from jail, where he had been held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. Harrison enters the studios where the ballerinas are dancing, and tears off the handicaps he has been made to wear, which include a red rubber ball for a nose (like a clown) to make him look less handsome, and a large pair of headphones rather than the small radio his father is made to wear.

Harrison then announces that he will become emperor of the world, and asks for a woman to claim her prize as his empress. One of the beautiful ballerinas steps forward, and he removes her mask and frees her of her handicaps. He does the same to the other dancers and the musicians, and orders them to play good music.

Harrison and the dancer then ascend to the ceiling, floating above the ground, and exchange a long kiss. At that moment, Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, arrives and shoots them both dead, before ordering the dancers and musicians to put their handicaps back on.

George, who was in the kitchen getting himself a beer, misses the killing of his own son live on television, while Hazel, owing to her low intelligence, almost immediately forgets what she has seen.

This story is satirical, but what precisely is Vonnegut satirising in ‘Harrison Bergeron’? Is he taking aim at the idea of state-mandated equity, which forces everyone to be mediocre, in order to show the absurdity of such a notion? Or is he, in fact, satirising those who would oppose attempts to level the playing field for everyone?

This latter interpretation is not as unlikely as it may first appear. The first thing to establish is that Kurt Vonnegut was aware of the dangers of government overreach, and the future society depicted in ‘Harrison Bergeron’ is clearly one in which the state has too much power over the individual. They can force people to carry bags of bullets around their necks to disadvantage them physically, and even prevent them from thinking too much. People are fed a diet of mediocre television to keep them docile and compliant.

This aspect of ‘Harrison Bergeron’ reads almost like a more extreme version of Ray Bradbury’s dystopias of the 1950s: not just Fahrenheit 451 , in which books are banned because the government wants to keep everyone stupid and passive, but Bradbury’s short story ‘ The Pedestrian ’, in which the police threaten to arrest a lone man walking the streets of an evening because he isn’t sitting in front of the television, consuming a diet of cultural dross, like everyone else.

But the other key theme in Vonnegut’s story, besides government overreach and the state’s attempts to keep everyone intellectually lazy, is the one for which it is perhaps best known: egalitarianism, or the struggle for equality between all people. And on this issue, ‘Harrison Bergeron’ strikes a more ambivalent note.

On the one hand, the idea of state-mandated weights, radios, and masks to render supremely strong, clever, or beautiful people as weak, stupid, and ugly as the rest of the population strikes us as preposterously evil. Rather than pushing for a race to the bottom, a responsible and progressive government would seek to encourage weak citizens to pick up weights and build up their muscles, educate less intelligent members of society, and devise surgical techniques (such as plastic surgery) to make ugly people more attractive.

In one respect, then, Vonnegut’s story reads as a bedfellow of those satires which view communism or socialism as a way of making everyone equally miserable and poor, rather than trying to make everyone equally successful and financially comfortable.

Such an analysis is certainly defensible when we turn to the story and witness the ways in which, for instance, George Bergeron is effectively punished for his natural intellect by being bombarded with state-sanctioned noises on a regular basis: a peculiar kind of torture. The idea that one’s fourteen-year-old son could be taken away simply for being unusually strong and intelligent is abominable.

And yet Vonnegut doesn’t actually tell us why Harrison is taken away initially. We are just told that he has been taken away: nothing more. The news broadcast announces that he has been imprisoned for trying to overthrow the government.

Given George and Hazel’s short memories, and the fact that the story is focalised through them, we don’t learn, despite the story having a supposedly ‘omniscient’ third-person narrator, whether Harrison was simply taken away for being different or arrested because he had already presented a threat to the state by plotting a coup.

After all, George and Hazel have been allowed, following the application of their handicaps, to live ‘freely’ (at least relatively so) in their own home. Why was Harrison taken away? Because he was not just a little bit more intelligent than the average person, but vastly more ingenious than everyone else, so that all existing handicaps were useless on him? Or because he is already plotting something? The story refuses to tell us this.

Similarly, although the shooting of Harrison and his new girlfriend at the end of the story is shocking, Harrison’s lust for power – seeking to use his natural height, strength, and intellect to become ruler of the whole world – also strikes us as a nightmare prospect, so that the shock of his death is likely to be tempered with some degree of relief.

‘Harrison Bergeron’, in the last analysis, is a story which invites us to consider the lengths we are prepared to go to as a society in order to achieve equality. Clearly there are some things, like dancing or athletics or even thinking, which some people are more naturally gifted at than others. Do we want to punish them for their natural talent, or appreciate the things their gifts allow them to do? Just because we will never be an Olympic athlete, do we think it unfair that others get the chance to win a gold medal?

Most reasonable people would answer ‘no’ to this question. People are different, with different talents and skills. An ugly person might be extremely clever. A clever person might be a physical weakling. A body-builder might be thicker than a whale omelette. And Vonnegut’s point in ‘Harrison Bergeron’ appears to be twofold: first, that failing to accept that people are different from us is bad, and second, that government overreach is also bad.

And it is worth remembering that in 1961, when the story was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , America was still struggling towards the legislation which would recognise that all citizens were in fact equal before the law. The Civil Rights movement would, throughout the 1960s, see African-Americans asserting their equality as racial segregation was gradually written out of state laws.

What this means is that ‘Harrison Bergeron’ is both a satire on the absurd attempts to make everyone the same and to disregard the important differences between us, and a story which rejects the human impulse to use one’s innate sense of superiority (whether real or merely assumed) in order to gain power over other people.

In this regard, Diane Moon Glampers is the villain of the story for seeking to impose equity on everyone using totalitarian force, but Harrison Bergeron himself is also a warning about what may happen if individuals are allowed to use their innate privileges for evil or depraved ends.

At the same time as it is a warning against enforced equity (i.e., everyone will be as mediocre as everyone else), the story also carries the seeds of an opposing message, namely that those who seek to enforce difference and to use their innate differences from others to attain power and privilege are also to be rejected and opposed.

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Book Review

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

Dystopian Brilliance: Kurt Vonnegut's Warning on the Perils of Enforced Equality

Title: Harrison Bergeron

Author: Kurt Vonnegut

Genre:  Short Story, Science Fiction, Dystopia

First Publication: 1961

Language:  English

Summary: Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

It is the year 2081. Because of Amendments 211, 212 and 213 to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is stupider, uglier, weaker, or slower than anyone else. The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced.

One April, fourteen-year-old Harrison Bergeron is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel, by the government and to a place unknown. But what happens in the aftermath will challenge the status quo and inspire his peers about the hidden potential within one’s own individuality.

Review: Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

Harrison Bergeron is a dystopian satire written by Kurt Vonnegut and first published in 1961. The story imagines an egalitarian future in which individuals with above-average talent and intelligence are artificially handicapped to prevent them from dominating others. When the story’s teenage protagonist rebels against this system, tragic consequences ensue. Through dark humor and hyperbole, Vonnegut crafts a vivid totalitarian world to provide commentary on enforced equality, freedom of the individual, and governmental control.

The story is set in 2081 when amendments to the US Constitution aim to make all citizens completely equal. Strong, intelligent, or attractive people must wear physical and mental handicaps prescribed by the United States Handicapper General. For instance, graceful dancers wear heavy weights, and intelligent thinkers have distracting radio signals transmitted into their ears. Without these handicaps, they could overwhelm others and gain unfair advantages. The narrative focuses on George and Hazel Bergeron, average citizens watching television when a news bulletin announces their son Harrison has escaped from jail.

Harrison is revealed to be a genius and extraordinarily gifted athlete. He was imprisoned after refusing to wear state-imposed handicaps. The television suddenly shows the fourteen-year-old Harrison bursting into a theater and declaring himself the new Emperor before removing his handicaps. He calls for a beautiful ballerina, also handicap-free, to join him. They begin dancing together beautifully and defiantly. However, the Handicapper General arrives and kills them both with a shotgun. The story ends with George and Hazel quickly forgetting the incident and distracting themselves with trivialities.

Vonnegut’s exaggerated version of equality enforced by a totalitarian government satirically highlights flaws in applying egalitarian ideals too literally. Individual strengths and weaknesses are part of the human condition. Forcibly achieving equality by restricting talent and intelligence can undermine freedom and human dignity. True equality should empower society’s least advantaged while celebrating diversity, not dragging down the gifted.

The story also cautions against governmental overreach and regulation of citizens’ lives and abilities. The dystopia depicts a system in which the state actively impedes personal potential in the name of an ambiguous “common good.” Individual excellence is treated as inherently unfair, disregarding its social value. The absurd handicaps suggest regulation taken too far can breed mediocrity and conformity while suppressing achievement. Vonnegut implies enforced equality can ultimately dehumanize us all.

Harrison represents individualism and freedom of thought, while the Handicapper General symbolizes an authoritarian system demanding total compliance. Their conflict dramatizes tensions between individual rights and collectivist ideals. Harrison’s defiance and creativity contrast with the bleak conformity of his handicapped peers. His call to the ballerina to join him in free self-expression suggests art and culture suffer when totalitarian governments limit human potential. Their immediate deaths at the hands of the state demonstrate an authoritarian system’s swift, violent suppression of dissent.

The story’s darkly absurdist humor critiques governmental overreach and flaws in utopian striving. Visual absurdities like dancers weighted down with bags of birdshot highlight the ridiculousness of suppressing talent. Radio signals broadcast into intelligent minds satirize the regulation of thought itself. Vivid hyperbole imagines the logical extreme of enforcing physical and mental equality among citizens. By portraying an absurd system most would reject, Vonnegut prompts readers to consider which governmental controls over equality and achievement may be problematic or unethical.

The passive reactions of George and Hazel Bergeron represent conformity and loss of individuality under authoritarianism. They blithely accept their son’s televised murder, unable to grasp the broader significance of what they have witnessed. Their limited attention spans and superficial concerns symbolize diminished intellect and humanity. Through their characterization, Vonnegut suggests societies that overregulate human potential reduce citizens to passive, easily manipulated drones stripped of free thought and critical reasoning abilities.

While exaggerating for effect, the story extrapolates real twentieth-century egalitarian movements to a dystopian extreme as a cautionary tale. Written during the Cold War, its setting in 2081 evokes communism’s promised utopian future in which class differences disappear. Vonnegut suggests this ideal of equality could become authoritarian and restrictive rather than empowering when taken too far. The story remains relevant today as debates continue on regulating citizens and elites for various social goals. By vividly imagining an exaggerated dystopia, Harrison Bergeron prompts consideration of governmental overreach and suppression of individuality even in free, democratic societies.

Harrison Bergeron showcases Vonnegut’s signature satirical style. Through dystopian fiction, he sharply criticizes real-world social and political dynamics. The story’s exaggerated setting makes its themes more potent as readers recognize satirical hints at greater truths about human nature and societies. Its dark humor casts egalitarian striving in a dystopian light to provoke questions about governmental authority, individual potential, and the rights of the gifted. As a distilled satire, Harrison Bergeron continues to resonate as debates around equity, privilege, and restriction of talent persist into the modern day. Its warning about utopian striving giving way to restrictive authoritarian systems remains as relevant as ever.

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Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Literature Analysis Essay

Admittedly, literature has a great power over people. Satire is one of the most potent tools of literature. Authors use satire to reveal the wrongs of the society they live in. With the help of satire authors manage to express their opinion on some matters and make people think of essential issues.

Thus, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. focuses on such important themes as equality and control. The author emphasizes that equality can be even dangerous as it may make people vulnerable. Vonnegut creates a very specific society with the help of satire. The author manages to make people think of the essence of equality and possible hazards associated with the society of equals.

According to Vonnegut being equal does not mean being happy, which is one of the major themes of the story. Thus, the times when “everybody” are “finally equal” are not that cloudless (Vonnegut 1). Interestingly, the author stresses that equality is against the nature as different people come into this world. People are different.

Some are “blindingly beautiful” (Vonnegut 4). Some could “have awed Thor” (Vonnegut 4). Some could simply think and understand things. However, the majority of people in Vonnegut’s society have some kind of impediment which prevents them from thinking critically.

Notably, to reveal the theme of differences between people Vonnegut uses a variety of literary tools. Thus, when depicting beautiful ballerinas, he uses epithets “extraordinarily”, “blindingly” beautiful. Vonnegut resorts to an allusion to depict Harrison who could be the leader of the different people.

The author portrays Harrison as an extremely strong person who could be even stronger Thor himself. Mentioning the god of thunder, Vonnegut emphasizes the strength and handsomeness of Harrison. Admittedly, the use of the allusion makes the story more expressive.

Likewise, the author uses quite expressive means to describe the majority of people who have “a perfectly average intelligence”, i.e. people who cannot focus on any important thing (Vonnegut 1). The epithet “perfectly average” is somewhat paradoxical. This contributes greatly to creation of the satirical effect. Of course, one of the most striking depictions of people’s equality in the society was the portrayal of the announcer who “like all announcers” had a “serious” speech defect (Vonnegut 3). Therefore, the author stresses that equality could only mean equal impediments as progress presupposes development and competition.

Nonetheless, people in Vonnegut’s society strive for equality. The author employs various tools to reveal the society in a satirical way. Thus, the author mentions that equality is guaranteed by the Constitution (Vonnegut 1). Of course, it is a biting satire as no man’s law can make people truly equal, especially physically equal.

The author notes that people were kept from “taking unfair advantage of their brains” (Vonnegut 1). It goes without saying that the word “unfair” produces the most satirical effect. The protagonist has to endure constant audio torture. Beautiful people have to wear masks. The author enhances the idea of the deliberate equality with the help of repetition at the beginning of the story:

Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. (Vonnegut 1)

The words “nobody” and “anybody else” are repeated three times to stress the idea that all people should be equal. The writer makes people accustomed to the idea of such kind of complete equality. Remarkably, the idea of the complete equality is itself satirical. The author uses such kind of exaggeration to express his idea concerning impossibility of equality.

The author also uses satire to express his view on hypothetical future. Thus, Vonnegut does not believe people can be equal as diversity is one of the primary characteristic features of the nature. The writer stresses that people can only artificially make people equal by hiding their faces, distracting them from thinking. At the same time, the author believes that there still will be people who can rise.

Harrison is the one. This god-like teenager dares to oppose the order. He inspires someone (one of the ballerinas and some musicians) to become different. Notably, the author portrays the picture of the rise in detail. He also does it quite poetically. The two young people reach the ceiling while performing their divine dance.

Of course, it is not about dancing. The author exploits this symbol (the symbol of soaring) to articulate the idea of divine sparkle in each person. The author suggests that the difference is what makes people strive for something bigger. The difference makes people strive for development. The difference makes people evolve.

Notably, this poetic passage contributes to creation of the satirical effect as well. The soaring of the two beautifully different people is abruptly stopped by gunshots. The two great people are killed by those who strive for equality. What is more, “perfectly average” people simply forget about the soaring and the cruel murder. The author admits that even though it is impossible to make all people equal, it is quite easy to distract people and prevent them from thinking critically. Vonnegut reveals his ideas on the total control.

The author believes that complete equality can only be beneficial for those who want to control nations. The author’s satire is aimed at making people understand that being different is just fine. More so, the author stresses that being different means being free.

It is important to note that the story is not about social or gender equality. It is not about racial issues. The author reveals one of the major wrongs of the contemporary society. The author uses satire to make people understand that they are quite vulnerable. Vonnegut shows that there are attempts to make people think ‘equally’. There are attempts to make people have similar ideas and opinions on this or that matter. Now people are being distracted from really important issues.

Notably, the author uses television as rather a controversial tool. On the one hand, television is one of the tools of distraction. On the other hand, it is used to rebel. Thus, the author believes that media can help people become different and find the truth. However, the author also admits that media are quite potent means of proliferation of certain (‘equal’) ideas. At any rate, Vonnegut creates a hypothetical society which is aimed at making contemporary people think. The author uses satire to evoke strong feelings in people.

On balance, it is possible to state that Vonnegut employs various tools to create a satirical effect. The author uses satire to reveal one of the major wrongs of the contemporary society, i.e. people’s indifference and inability to see what is really important. Vonnegut conveys his ideas concerning equality and control. The writer shows that equality is a kind of premise for total control over people. Therefore, the author notes that being different means being free.

Works Cited

Vonnegut, Kurt. Harrison Bergeron. Ted Nellen, 2012.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, April 22). Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Literature Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/harrison-bergeron-by-kurt-vonnegut-literature-analysis/

"Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Literature Analysis." IvyPanda , 22 Apr. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/harrison-bergeron-by-kurt-vonnegut-literature-analysis/.

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IvyPanda . 2020. "Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Literature Analysis." April 22, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/harrison-bergeron-by-kurt-vonnegut-literature-analysis/.

1. IvyPanda . "Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Literature Analysis." April 22, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/harrison-bergeron-by-kurt-vonnegut-literature-analysis/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Literature Analysis." April 22, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/harrison-bergeron-by-kurt-vonnegut-literature-analysis/.

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Harrison Bergeron

Kurt vonnegut, everything you need for every book you read..

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Harrison Bergeron: Introduction

Harrison bergeron: plot summary, harrison bergeron: detailed summary & analysis, harrison bergeron: themes, harrison bergeron: quotes, harrison bergeron: characters, harrison bergeron: symbols, harrison bergeron: theme wheel, brief biography of kurt vonnegut.

Historical Context of Harrison Bergeron

Other books related to harrison bergeron.

• Full Title: Harrison Bergeron
• When Written: 1961
• Where Written: United States
• When Published: 1961
• Literary Period: Postmodern, Contemporary
• Genre: satire, science fiction
• Setting: America in the year 2081
• Climax: Harrison Bergeron is shot and killed by the Handicapper General
• Antagonist: Dianna Moon Glampers
• Point of View: Third Person

Extra Credit for Harrison Bergeron

Real World Applications. In a 2005 Kansas Supreme Court case on public school financing, attorneys arguing against equal funding for all public schools quoted “Harrison Bergeron” to claim that a statewide requirement for equal school funding would result in an unconstitutional deprivation of resources from students in wealthier districts. Vonnegut responded on the record, stating that he believed the attorneys misinterpreted his story, which is more concerned with talent and ability than it is with wealth.

Pop Culture. Harrison Bergeron has been the source of several TV and film adaptations, including adaptations for PBS and Showtime.

Harrison Bergeron

47 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Analysis: “Harrison Bergeron”

The opening paragraph involves worldbuilding as is typical of science fiction. It explains that, based on amendments to the Constitution, the government enforces total equality. The use of hyperbole , comedy, and worldbuilding indicates the story is a work of political satire . It also explores different senses of “equality;” the narrator clarifies that people are equal not only before God and the law but also in attractiveness, physical ability, and intelligence.

The “Handicapper General” enforces total equality by placing handicaps on people who are above average in ability or attractiveness. The Handicapper General enforces equality in three ways: first, by imprisoning perceived enemies of the state, as when the H-G men take Harrison away; second, by threatening fines and jail time for dissenters, which George fears might happen if he takes off his handicap; and third, by handicapping exceptional people. For example, loud sounds erupt in George’s earpiece whenever he begins to think.

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