Harrison Bergeron revised

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Total Equality and Utopia in the Society
Harrison Bergeron is a futuristic story set in the year 2081 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. The story highlights a scenario where everyone is living in the American dream of equality in society. In such a society, the people who are regarded as being superior are required by law to wear handicaps and several hideous masks. The story suggests that equality is something that is not worth to be strived for in the society and that implantation will be able to achieve outcomes that are dangerous to the society. To be able to achieve equality in the society, both physically and mentally, the beautiful ones are required to be singularly identified and suffer. The citizens are forced thus to hide from the government as the consequence of showing one’s talent is punitive. While the world is striving to achieve equality among people, the story highlights what the world is striving to achieve. Thus in the story, Kurt Vonnegut has highlighted the effects of total equality and sameness of individuals.
Diana Moon Glampers, a Handicapper General in the story, is a symbolic representation of fairness and equality in the society. Her responsibility is to ensure that everyone is equal by lowering the capacity and intelligence level of people in the society. At the start of the story, the novel makes us see the future through this lenses “The year is 2081, and all the people are equal in the society, people are not only equal before the eyes of the lord, but they are also equal in every manner and perspective….

” (Vonnegut 234). This manner of equality shows that the society wants the good for every individual and would not engage in patronizing activities.
Handicapper General is charged with the responsibility of maintaining equality and keeping check in the 2081 society. In God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater describes her as “a very old virgin who was to dump to live; no one had been able to love her since there was no reason to love, she was ugly, boring and occupied the bottom low…” (Vit). Diana Moon represents the very low and the bottom of the society, and this allows her to occupy a powerful place in the society. She uses this to ensure that no one in the society is better and equal than her thus being able to achieve the idea of equality. She represents the equality that the society is driving towards every time. It is a world that everyone is on the same level as everyone else and that no one is different from the other (Labin 1).
The concept of equality is a good idea that everyone in the society is able to embrace, on the contrary, however, the scenario of absolute equality is a different issue that may make things go all wrong. In this world of equality, every individual is seen as nothing more or less than another human being beside another. In the story, Harrison’s mother is “a perfect intelligence whereas Gorge being more intelligent” (Vonnegut 234). To equalize their agility level, Gorge has to put on “a little mental handicap radio in his ear” (Vonnegut 234). The intelligent people wear a large set of earphones to distract their line of thought. The General Handicapper shoots downs the people who are overly intelligent and those that appear to fight for freedoms and rights of individuals such as Harrison Bergeron. Vonnegut in this story satirically highlights that for all the people to be equal in the society, those that are overly intelligent are required to be clamped down.
Vonnegut presents in the story, the scenario of the extremes of being equal and unequal and tries to find a middle ground for both scenarios. He highlights that it is important for society to achieve this median as a failure to do so would result in the society becoming a living hell for all individuals. Marton talks of Vonnegut’s themes of satirizing the ruling government by destroying the individuality of a person. He says “characters to do evil in the name of good” (Marton). On one side there is the equality that General Handicapper represents and in the other is one that the characters represent. Both extremes presented in this story has negative consequences, and thus the kind of utopia that should be celebrated in the society is one that allows for individuality and equality.
Works Cited
Labin, Linda L. Master, plots 11: Short Story Series, Revised Edition. January 2004, p 1-2.
Marton, Adam R. “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You…” Marek Vit’s Kurt Vonnegut Corner. 11 March 2002. Online Posting. 8 October 2002.
Vit, Marek. “Uniformity and Deformity in ‘Harrison Bergeron’.” Marek Vit’s Kurt Vonnegut Corner. 11 March 2002. Online Posting. 9 October 2002.
Vonnegut, Kurt. “Harrison Bergeron.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama Eighth Edition. Ed. Dana Gioia and X.J. Kennedy. New York: Long man, 2002.