Devan McCallister Mr.

Neuburger ENG Comp 102-104 21 September 2011 The Inequality of Equality Harrison Bergeron is a futuristic science fiction written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. that envisions a completely equal society in the year 2081. The idea of everyone being truly equal is false and is a strategy for government control. The story recognizes that people are born naturally unequal by applying handicaps on stronger, smarter, and more attractive people. And George while his intelligence was way above normal had a little mental handicap radio in his ear.(294) George is not equal to his wife Hazel who has no such device to burden. If anything George is less equal because of the pain it causes him. It was such a doozy that George was white and trembling, and tears stood on the rims of his red eyes.(295) It is not equal for someone to bear that pain because they happen to be born with intelligence. What that does is keep the society from thinking for itself. The fact that the Handicapper General was allowed to order the dancers and wield a shotgun shows she holds a much higher status is this supposedly equal society. She fired twice and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.(298)

Word Count = 211 Vonnegut, Kurt. Harrison Bergeron. Power of Language: Language of Power. New York. Pearson Learning Solutions, 2009.293-299. Print