“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut is a short dystopian story that explores the notion of equality. However, the author takes the dystopian genre to an extreme length by portraying all the characters as handicapped, which makes no one superior in this piece. Overall, as “Harrison Bergeron” is based on a society that strives for perfection but fails, it can be assumed that Kurt Vonnegut aimed at presenting the fear of socialism.
First of all, the story describes a society that is powerless and ignorant. Kurt Vonnegut illustrates an organization called General Handicapper that focuses on handicapping powerful, brilliant, and gifted individuals. Therefore, as the story revolves around a married couple, George and Hazel, it can be noticed that society members indeed suffer from various impediments. As the Bergerons’ 14-year-old son Harrison is taken from them, parents cannot dwell on this event, “Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence… she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts” (Vonnegut 7). Yet George is rather brilliant compared to his wife; he struggles with a “little handicap in his ear,” which disrupts his thoughts (Vonnegut 7). It is evident that the author portrays such impediments to show how everyone in this story is equal as the tale’s characters struggle to be superior over each other due to their satirical conditions.
Furthermore, the writer portrays society’s fear of superior people by how they treat the main character, Harrison Bergeron. To elaborate, while Hazel and George watch a ballerina show, the announcement is made about their son escaping from jail and being “genius and… under-handicapped”, which should be regarded as “extremely dangerous” (Vonnegut 10). Harrison Bergeron is clearly portrayed as a criminal since he wants to overthrow the government by showing viewers how he removes all of his handicaps. However, he does not stop there as he frees a ballerina and musicians from their impediments and forces them to dance and play on-screen. Naturally, as the nature of General Handicapper was to provide society with equality due to the fear of socialism, the members of this organization could not allow their system to be disrupted by a teenager. Diana Moon Clampers, The Handicapper General, enters the ballroom and shoots Harrison and the ballerina. Undoubtedly, it shows that even though everyone is supposed to be equal, there are people who still decide whether someone should live or die.
Kurt Vonnegut is known for being a socialist, and he presents the weak people’s fear of superiority in his short story to show that even such satirical handicaps cannot make everyone equal. The author loathes General Handicapper as, despite its considerable effort to control everyone by limiting their intelligence and talents, Harrison Bergeron still manages to free himself from handicaps. However, the impediments do not even allow Hazel and George to mourn the death of his son due to their handicaps. The woman forgets how she has just seen her son die on the TV when her husband asks her why she is crying, “I forget … Something real sad on television” (Vonnegut 14). Clearly, as the Bergerons would not remember their son’s death, they would live as if nothing had happened.
To sum up, “Harrison Bergeron” is a dystopian story that explores the fear of socialism with heavy satire. Kort Vonnegut presents how the intense focus on being perfect has ripped all the characters from their gifts and talents. The handicaps designed to eliminate superior people from this society make everyone identical and almost robotic, which in no way provides equality to the world, but rather suffering.
Work Cited
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. “Harrison Bergeron.” Welcome to the Monkey House, New York, Dell Publishing, 1968, pp. 7–14.