Harrison Bergeron Response PDF

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Short responses to questions on Harrison Bergeron...

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Harrison Bergeron Response At the start of the short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, it does not appear that anyone is free. The way the people in this story live is under a forced complete socialism system that is dictated by the government. It is explained that "everybody was finally equal… 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 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General" (Vonnegut 1-5). This is a worst case scenario where the government has become too powerful and has the authority to impose on a person's freedoms in order to deprive them of their individuality. The government handicaps people who possess certain abilities or features that others do not in an attempt to make everyone equally average. It has total control over what and how people think. As George and Hazel were watching dancers on the television, "George was toying with the notion that maybe dancers shouldn't be handicapped. But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts" (Vonnegut 25-27). Anyone who challenges the government's will is penalized with jail time and a fine. This is quite obviously not freedom and no one has free will. Harrison Bergeron, who had been arrested and extremely handicapped for being abnormal, was the first character who resisted. He broke out of his handicaps and invited others to do the same. He helped them realize that they had the potential to be and do more than they were being allowed by the government. It was not long before "Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun" (Vonnegut 151-152) and killed Harrison and a ballerina he had convinced to oppose the handicap laws with him. While the freedom that those who had protested the laws experienced was short lived, it was still a real freedom

because for a moment, they got to display their individuality and live as they wanted to and not as they were told to....