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Jessica Leavey

Christina Oltmann

603-101-MG-02

6 October 2022

Harrison Bergeron and Gattaca: What makes them similar?

Equality is one of the most stigmatized values in the world because everyone has a

different definition of it. Kurt Vonnegut and Andrew Niccols explore this by imposing over

exaggerated social organizations to reach total control of the population. In the film Gattaca,

equality has absolutely no meaning as excellence and being perfect is all that matters. Contrarily,

in Harrsion Bergeron, equality is the absolute priority. Even though the values are different, both

works have governments that impose impossible standards that negatively impact their

population. These negative impacts are people that rebel against the authorities, the society must

endure unhealthy amounts of stress and worry and the family relations have become

unrecognizable from our own.

First of all, in both dystopian societies, the government tries to control their populations

by implementing severe rules. Unfortunately, with control, revolution often follows. In Harrison

Bergeron, the revolution happens with Harrison himself. Harrison tried to go against the

government, but he ultimately failed as “Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came

into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun.” (Vonnegut 13) Harrison went against

powerful forces and the authors tone of work when refereeing to the shotgun makes the situation

feel very dangerous. To compare both works, in Gattaca, Vincent was viewed as inferior since

he was born. Therefore, he was never able to achieve his dreams. He was determined to get to

the top. He rebelled and, with help, he created a new identity for himself to be able to have
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perfect DNA and be a valid. As he was not able to do this himself, he needed the help of a man

that specializes into matching in-valids and valids together. The man tells Vincent that he owns

an agency for this type of work (Niccols). This proves that Vincent is not the only one trying to

defy the odds to get a good life. There is a black market for this type of business. This

demonstrates that no matter how much the government tried to control the population, there will

always be people there to retaliate.

Second of all, the film, and the short story both impose stress and worry on their

populations. In Harrison Bergeron, no one can defy the system that the government has imposed

on the population. Everyone must be equal to survive. The handicaps that the population need to

endure is atrocious. For example, George had alarms that would ring in his head when he though

too hard. “Hazel saw him wince. Having no mental handicap herself, she had to ask George what

the latest sound had been. ‘Sounded like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peep

hammer,’ said George” (Vonnegut 8). This imagery strongly shows the readers how horrible

these alarms are. George never knows when he will get blaring sounds in his mind, and this

always keeps him on his toes. He is never able to think clearly and relax as he is always agitated

by the alarms. In Gattaca, the scene where Vincent gets ready in the morning for his interview

for his new job demonstrates how stressful it is to adopt someone’s personality. Vincent straps

on small bags of urine to his thighs for blood tests. He adds fake fingertips along with Jerome’s

blood to his fingers to be able to pass the security barriers for his workplace (Niccols). Vincent

must be very meticulous and think of everything he must need along the day to pass as Jerome.

He never gets a moment to not worry and rest. In all, the government induces stress and anxiety

on their populations as they force or discriminate them into being someone they are not.
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Lastly, the family relations in Vonnegut’s story and Niccols’s film are very different than

to what our society is used to. Vonnegut shows a broken family where George and Hazel don’t

really have an emotional connection with their son. After Harrison had his moment on television

during the ballet and the Handicapper General went on stage, “the Bergerons’ television tube

burned out. Hazel turned to comment about the blackout to George. But George had gone out

into the kitchen for a con of beer. George came back with the beer, paused while a handicap

signal shook him up. And then he sat down again. ‘You been crying?’ he said to Hazel. ‘Yup,’

she said. ‘What about?’ he said. ‘I forget,’ she said. ‘Something real sad on television.’

(Vonnegut 13) This situation shows that Hazel is sad for what is about to happen to her son, but

she can’t make sincere sense of the matter. She doesn’t know that her son is dead, neither does

she have the mental capacity to retain that emotion. In Gattaca, after Vincent was born and

deemed as an in-valid, his parents couldn’t wait to seek a specialist to genetically create a valid

child. The doctor took all the best parts of both of their DNA and made a perfect baby (Niccols).

This demonstrates how desperate Vincent’s parents were to have a valid child. They favorited

this child as he was able to achieve great thing in life while Vincent couldn’t do anything

important. All things considered, family values as we know them are no longer the same in these

societies.

After everything stated above, both works take place in a dystopian world. Even though

they have completely different social hierarchies, people tend to try and rebel against the

government, people endure stress and worry from the authorities and their family relations are

corrupt. These works are a great representation of what our society could become. Are we

doomed for a separated society where excellence is praised upon, or are we set for a world where

everyone is equal?
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Works cited

Niccols, Andrew, director. Gattaca, 22 Sept. 2022,

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/ec19aabf-55cd-4373-855d-d638b3b5facf?
referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww-jac-ovx.omnivox.ca%2F . Accessed 12 Oct. 2022.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Harrison Bergeron. Mercury Press, 1961.