The short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut exemplifies what strong beliefs can make humans do and where this, in turn, can lead society to. The creators of this society strongly believe that the main cause of discord (and ultimately unhappiness) is difference (inequality) among human beings. This strong belief makes them take extreme measures to make everyone in the society equal. According to them, the ultimate utopia is where every human being is equal. But, as shown further in the essay, their misinterpretation of the terms “equality” and “happiness” leads the society well on a downward path to being a dystopia.
Some of the extreme measures taken by this society include making each individual in the society wear handicaps, so that every single person has the same level of artistic talent, academic genius or athletic ability “And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (7).
Furthermore, to keep all the individuals in the society in check, the creators set the level of equality on the lower level of aptitude rather than the high. “Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts.” (7). For example, instead of making the less-intelligent people smarter, they disabled the intelligent ones -cutting off all means for the society to progress, in the process.
The main ideology reflected in this society is “equality”- which can be defined as “Having the same quantity, measure, or value as another”. This society fails to achieve that. The handicaps don’t really serve as instruments to make people equal, because as soon as they see the handicaps a person is wearing, they know what quality he/she possesses - either strength, beauty, intelligence, grace, or eloquence. “She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and the most graceful of all dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred pound men.” (10). Also, the value of a person comes from what qualities he or she has. If the qualities themselves are subdued, what value does that person have and how exactly can it be equated to another’s?
The other main ideology used in defining the individuals of this society, is “happiness”; which can be defined as “being in harmony with who you are”. In a society where people are made to suppress who they are, happiness hardly seems to be a possibility. Human emotions such as parents’ love for their child, are suppressed (“‘My God-‘said George, ‘that must be Harrison!’ The realization was blasted from his mind instantly by the sound of an automobile collision in his head.” (11). ) Also, “being who you are” as a key phrase can be interpreted from the fact that the commentators, all of whom had speech impediments, were made to report the news every night, whereas the ballerina, whose voice was “a warm, luminous, timeless memory” was made to “apologize for her voice”.
Vonnegut cleverly uses the character of Harrison Bergeron to point out the flaws this society has. Harrison Bergeron is George and Hazel Bergeron’s fourteen-year-old son. He is the only exception in the society - he outgrows all his handicaps, and manages to find a way to overcome them every time they are put on him. He is ‘strong, intelligent, eloquent, graceful’ and handsome - in short, “a genius and an athlete” (10). He is imprisoned at the beginning of the story but manages to escape.
The point to be noted here, is that Harrison Bergeron could have - given his intellectual abilities- remained hidden and undiscovered- for the length of his life- even started an underground rebellion if he had wanted to- yet he chose to walk into a TV studio unarmed, where he would have been easily tracked down by the Handicapper General and shot at sight.
The reason he chose to take the risk was that he didn’t mind exchanging his life in lieu of letting the people know what was wrong with their society and what they were missing in life by being citizens of it.
When he walks onto the stage, he first gives a speech describing how he was “crippled, hobbled, sickened” (12) by the H-G men, and proceeds by taking all his handicaps off in front of everyone and makes the audience see him become “what he can become” (12). This act of defiance is crucial to the story because it is from this point onwards that the viewers see what they have missed. The performance which Harrison gives with the help of a ballerina and the musicians (all of whom have been rid of their handicaps) is described by phrases like “weightlessness”, “explosion of joy and grace” and “laws of land, gravity and motion were abandoned” (13)
The viewers, who have already had their qualities been taken away by the society, have also lost all memory of what it used to be like to watch dancers dance unrestricted, to hear music being played the way it is supposed to be played, to see the beauty that the society tries to hide behind masks, to see the extent of what they can be, and to feel the joy that comes from being who you are. Harrison’s performance reminds them of all these things and more.
Just as the ideas of freedom and expression begin to form in the viewers’ minds, the Handicapper General walks into the studio. “…with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the emperor and empress were dead before they hit the floor” (13) Vonnegut’s use of this big leap from a blindingly beautiful performance to death in the span of a few lines truly encompasses what strong beliefs can make people do. Sure, Harrison Bergeron was a criminal fugitive but the there was no reason for the Handicapper General to kill the ballerina, who was just a civilian. The Handicapper General was motivated purely by the belief that equality was the basis of this society and anyone who threatened it ought to be gotten rid of.
This society fails to achieve what it set out to achieve because it undermined the power and importance of human individuality and freedom. It tried to equate extreme equality with happiness and ended up taking everything that makes a society what it is (individuality, freedom, expression, love and happiness) away from the people. Also, it is important to look at what beliefs we base our societies on, because definitions can be misinterpreted- and nothing can take the place of individuality and freedom- not even equality.
Works Cited
Vonnegut, Kurt. Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Works. New York: Delacorte Press, 1968. Print.
