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Josh Campbell and Tannor McDonald

Professor Holke-Farnam

Cornerstone Section 28

6 December 2016

Rhetorical Analysis - Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The story of Harrison Bergeron is that of a dystopian world in which every citizen is

closely managed and controlled by the government, led by The United States Handicapper

General. In this disturbingly oppressed world, the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments deem it

illegal to be different than anyone else. Everything from thought to physical looks was dumbed

down to the lowest it could possibly be. Vonnegut describes the people as ... equal in every

which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anyone else

(208). This differs greatly from the United States that we live in today, in which everyones

unique qualities are celebrated rather than hidden.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr., the author of Harrison Bergeron, was born on November 11th, 1922

in Indianapolis, Indiana. Vonnegut attended Cornell University where he studied biochemistry

for two years, but he eventually dropped out in 1943 to enlist in the United States Army. He

fought in Europe in World War II, and was captured by Nazi soldiers during the Battle of the

Bulge. Vonnegut was moved by cattle-car to the Dresden Internment camp where he narrowly

survived bombing raids laid down by the Allied forces. He survived by staying in the basement

of what he described as a slaughterhouse. After the war, Vonnegut attempted to go back to

school via the G.I. Bill, but he never completed his degree. After his second stint in college, he

briefly worked at General Electric, but eventually quit to write full-time. At first, Vonnegut

published many novels without achieving success. He had to wait until 1969 when
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Slaughterhouse-Five was released to receive any type of acclaim. The novels anti-war themes

were very popular, especially with young people, and his words resounded with anyone who held

anti-war sentiments.

Today, our government takes numerous actions in order to achieve equality. With policies

such as Affirmative Action, No Child Left Behind, and the 15th and 17th Amendments, our

government strives to give every citizen the same rights and privileges. Obviously, however, not

everyone is born equal. For example, LeBron James is much more physically talented and gifted

than almost anyone else at the sport of basketball. Because of the demands of viewership, Mr.

James has the ability to make a lot more money than the average person. In our opinion, The

United States government does a sufficient job of letting people express their personal freedoms

in the ways that they choose.

We could not fathom what it would be like to live in a society such as the one portrayed

by Vonnegut. We cannot understand how making everyone hideous and unintelligent would be in

any way beneficial for a society. We are aware that this is simply a work of fiction, but we could

not see a world ever becoming as extreme as the one depicted in Harrison Bergeron. The

people in our great nation simply enjoy their freedom too much.

From our understanding, there are multiple problems that would fundamentally hinder

this type of government. First of all, the way this regime manages equality is by literally

torturing its citizens. If you were above-average in any way, whether it be physical traits or

intelligence, you were forced to adhere to mandatory laws which gave people various handicaps:

Ladies and gentlemen, said the ballerina, reading the bulletin. She must have been

extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous (210). From an economic

standpoint, there is no way that this could possibly raise productivity among citizens. As a nation
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we would suffer heavy economic losses, and the average standard of living would plummet.

Considering there are only five factors of production included in aggregate demand, drastically

reducing human capital, one fifth of A.D., would have an extremely detrimental affect on our

nations GDP.

Although there are many ways this administration has shown itself to be incompetent,

what really proves that this government is inept and would not last is the fact that a seven-foot

tall teenager was able to stage a rebellion on live television, if only briefly. Ever since Janet

Jacksons infamous nip slip, nothing disturbing has made its way onto Americas live, televised

events. If one child can take over a nationally-televised performance and declare his dominance

over the entire government without anyone cutting to a commercial break, how could one expect

this system to last any amount of time? It simply would not. Also, we believe it is quite

reasonable to expect the government to manage all television, as this society seems to be

controlled in every possible way by the Handicapper General. It is safe to say that all media

outlets are most-likely government-operated.

Radically different types of relationships were portrayed by Vonnegut in this short story.

By nature, humans are emotional creatures. We develop strong bonds with one another, and

almost every day we experience extremely powerful emotions such as love, hatred, desire,

jealousy, happiness, and fear. Hazel Bergeron, Harrisons mother, is so mentally incapable that

she cannot sustain any sort of emotion for an extended period of time. She witnessed her sons

killing, but forgot about it entirely only minutes later. Her husband, George, asked Hazel what

was wrong after she watched her son's death on national television. Her response was, I

forget Something real sad on the television (212). The bond between mother and child is

historically known to be one of the strongest bonds between humans, and nearly every single
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mother would completely break down both emotionally and mentally if they witnessed their

child being shot and killed. This terrible society has rendered parents absolutely incapable of

caring and nurturing their children, and in our estimation, this would have a horrendous effect on

culture and society. Without the emotional principles that are established in hominins early lives,

we would lose parts of what it means to be human.

There were many reasons for Vonnegut to write this piece, but one of the most important

was his suspicion of communist principles. There is no way to read Harrison Bergeron without

realizing that Vonnegut is directly criticizing communist ideals. Considering that the United

States was involved in the Cold War around the time of this texts publication, we can clearly see

Vonnegut attempting to persuade the reader to mistrust communist governments.

As much as we want equality to be fundamentally instilled in our society, there is

something absolutely terrifying about true equality. Although there are many references to

equal opportunities and fairness in the early documents of our nation (such as the phrase All

men are created equal), our forefathers had no intention to ever attain true equality in the

United States. This type of government would fail rather quickly, and it would ruin many

people's lives. I hope that we can all learn from what Vonnegut wrote, and never let any type of

authority gain too much power.

Works Cited

Crenshaw, Paul. Chainsaw Fingers. The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2015. Ed. Adam

Johnson. Boston: Harcourt, 2015