HARRISON BERGERON

By Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Idea of equality: everybody was finally equal

Characters: Hazel and George their intelligence: Hazel- perfectly average;
George- way above normal
Obsessive repetition of comparisons throughout the story, which signals equality
in a way, but meanwhile the idea of dullness in a world where nothing really
happens as a fact. This world seems to be coordinated by a higher power, and
characters seem to be subjected to the rulers, although it is stated that:
Nobody was smarter than anybody else.
Nobody was better looking than anybody else.
Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.
Setting: way too unimportant in comparison to the message of the text
The nothingness of human beings
Humans being ruled as if they were some robots
Society heading towards a world which does not have an appropriate set of moral
values
The tone is satiric, sarcastic
Positive symbols are turned into negative ones (ballerinas)
The theme of this story might be considered the total annihilation of human
values in a future world towards which we are all headed to. Somehow we are
revealed the fact that we are all doomed to perdition, not necessarily a physical
one, but moral perdition. We all are in danger of loosing our identities in our
struggle for equality and a better life.

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.- How can
it be unfair, if we are talking about his own brain? !!!
The music began. It was normal at first- cheap, silly, false- Is cheap, silly and
false normal? So it seems to be in this world ruled by a Handicapper General.
And they kissed each other for a long long time.- Even the feeling of love is
mocked at. In this world of fools subjected to the government, the dance of
Harrison and the ballerina becomes a dance macabre rather than a spiritual
communion.
Is Harrison a likeable or dislikeable character? Duality of the readers feelings
towards him- he is just a foolresembling a circus character (this whole world
resembles a circus)

The ending in my opinion contains the essence of the presented nothingness. It is

a sad resignationnothing can ever change in this world. The world is doomed to
failure- pessimistic point of view.