Free Essays on Harrison Bergeron

Harrison Bergeron Essay In the short story â€Å"Harrison Bergeron†, the author, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., uses his natural ability of satire to illustrate a dystopian future, where the value of ‘equality’ is said to be held above all else. However, as we explore the meaning of the story we find that Vonnegut is actually warning us that in a world where we hold anything as an absolute the result will always be disastrous to the human condition and furthermore that such absolutes are usually the result of bad intentions. In â€Å"Harrison Bergeron†, the society in which the characters live is centered around the seemingly virtuous ideal of equality, opening with the almost macabre line, â€Å"The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal.† As the story moves along into the family life of the Bergeron’s, we are shown what this foreboding line means; beautiful people are made to wear masks, thin or strong people made to wear weights, and clever people to wear radio transmitters in their ears to keep them from â€Å"taking unfair advantage of their brains†. Everyone is in one way or another hampered by handicaps, dropped to an arbitrary average decided by an all-powerful Handicapper-General. The reader’s mind quickly screams with injustice, that this is not equality at all, and they’re right. Vonnegut wanted to blatantly outrage the reader into knowing the truth, which, is that the result of this world of theoretical equality is actually uniformity and a loss of individuality. Humans are no longer able to express their natural creativeness as they are blocked by noises in their ears, or subdued by other means. Progress, material and spiritual, comes to a standstill when our freedom of action is silenced, which is precisely what happens in the story. While the specific outcome is somewhat unique in it’s form of handicaps, the stifling of what makes us human is not unique to the absolute value of equality. If we were to hold any v... Free Essays on Harrison Bergeron Free Essays on Harrison Bergeron Harrison Bergeron The story â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† is an in depth story about equality. Being equal to one another is not always the best way to live. Everyone is different for a reason and when you are equal, life is boring and dull. Also when there is a ruler who controls everyone in the world and punishes those who do not listen and do not want to be equal. How the government makes laws and/or amendments for people to follow helps the world stay in order but causes some problems too. The government makes up amendments that the people have to follow, and there is no limit to how many they are aloud to have. The government makes the amendments as they find new ideas and reasons to makes them. In the story there are 213 amendments but today there are only 27. The amendments are made to make the people in the world equal in some kinds of ways. But, the amendments in this story are made so that no one is better or less equal to another in every kind of way such as looks, size, and level of IQ. Next is the handicapper or the one who keeps everyone in the world equal to one another by using masks or weights or even a head set that beeps so people can not even think about things. The handicap leader has to control all the people who try to not be equal to other and try to be greater by not listening to her. There is harsh punishment for everything you do to try to prevent from being equal to others. The general has to control what people need such has how much handicap bags you need or what kind of mask the person should wear. Third is the way of life they have to live in their world with all the laws of equality. The whole purpose of this is so that not one person is better than another and if you do not listen you will suffer harsh punishment for it. The way of life is very strict with all the amendments so it does not allow anyone to have any fun. You always are making sure everything is the way it should be because if you are... Free Essays on Harrison Bergeron Harrison Bergeron Essay In the short story â€Å"Harrison Bergeron†, the author, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., uses his natural ability of satire to illustrate a dystopian future, where the value of ‘equality’ is said to be held above all else. However, as we explore the meaning of the story we find that Vonnegut is actually warning us that in a world where we hold anything as an absolute the result will always be disastrous to the human condition and furthermore that such absolutes are usually the result of bad intentions. In â€Å"Harrison Bergeron†, the society in which the characters live is centered around the seemingly virtuous ideal of equality, opening with the almost macabre line, â€Å"The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal.† As the story moves along into the family life of the Bergeron’s, we are shown what this foreboding line means; beautiful people are made to wear masks, thin or strong people made to wear weights, and clever people to wear radio transmitters in their ears to keep them from â€Å"taking unfair advantage of their brains†. Everyone is in one way or another hampered by handicaps, dropped to an arbitrary average decided by an all-powerful Handicapper-General. The reader’s mind quickly screams with injustice, that this is not equality at all, and they’re right. Vonnegut wanted to blatantly outrage the reader into knowing the truth, which, is that the result of this world of theoretical equality is actually uniformity and a loss of individuality. Humans are no longer able to express their natural creativeness as they are blocked by noises in their ears, or subdued by other means. Progress, material and spiritual, comes to a standstill when our freedom of action is silenced, which is precisely what happens in the story. While the specific outcome is somewhat unique in it’s form of handicaps, the stifling of what makes us human is not unique to the absolute value of equality. If we were to hold any v... Free Essays on Harrison Bergeron Satire is the use of irony or sarcasm to attack some form of human behavior. Most satire appears in literature, but satire also plays a part in most other art forms. Most satirists claim they want to expose and reform such human failings as greed or vanity. But some satirists simply seem to enjoy ridiculing human conduct. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr's "Harrison Bergeron" is making fun of uniformity in general. The satire is the fact that uniformity (of any kind) leads to the loss of individuality, and therefore to absolute deformity of humanness. "The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal," the story begins. "They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal in every which way." In this haunting story, Vonnegut probably wanted to warn our society of similar kind of equality, equality that can be fatal for human race. In "Harrison Bergeron", Kurt Vonnegut presented a scary view of a future society, where everyone was equal. "Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else." It was the job of the agents of the United States Handicapper General to keep it this way. Beautiful people had to wear ugly masks. People not heavy enough had to wear handicap bags full of lead. Clever people had to wear a radio in their ear tuned to the government transmitter, which sent out sharp noises to keep people from taking advantage of their brains. It was a world where competition was the greatest of sins. I think that this view can be very easily related to modern society. People are striving for equality of some kindequality of races, sexes, etc. The society in "Harrison Bergeron" succeeded in eliminating these prejudiceseverybody got the same opportunity to do anythingand the result was fatal. When the power got into the hands of stupid people, unfit for governing the country, they had to find a way to protect their position. So t...