Harrison Bergeron

In the futuristic short story, “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the world is finally living America’s first amendment of everyone being created equal. In this new society, the gifted, strong, and beautiful are required to wear handicaps of earphones, heavy weights, and hideous masks. These constraints leave the world equal from brains to strength to beauty. With the world constantly pushing for equality among people, Vonnegut shows a world that society is slowly working toward. Through this foreshadowing of the future, Vonnegut attempts to use Diana Moon Glampers and Harrison Bergeron to reveal and warn of the dangers of the two extremes--too equal or too unjust.

Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, symbolically portrays the idea of fairness in a society. She is the one in charge of lowering the capacity of the bright and intelligent to a level of normal and unaware being. To show readers this “perfect” world Vonnegut uses this vivid opening to his story. “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the…Amendments to the Constitution, and…vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.”

Equality is a great idea that a world should extend and embrace; however, absolute equality is another issue in which too much of a good thing may cause matters to go wrong. In absolute equality, each human being would never be looked upon as anything more or less than the person beside him or her. For instance, how can an intelligent person be given as much credit as the modest minded person beside him? This is the case with Harrison Bergeron's parents. Harrison's mother, Hazel, is described as having average intelligence meanwhile George’s intelligence was way...