Preview

Conformity In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
267 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Conformity In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron
In short story “Harrison Bergeron” Kurt Vonnegut uses symbols and hyperbole to show how conformity isn’t better. Their society's solution to equality is to change the people who have unique attributes and make them the same as the average person. Vonnegut uses the handicaps to show how equality isn’t better and how their government fails to make everyone equal. They try to force individuals to change so they are conforming and no one will compete against each other. If you are above average you have a handicap, so it is obvious you are superior in some way. Vonnegut shows the characters are aware of this when George thinks “the ballerina… must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous”(Vonnegut, Kurt “Harrison

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    “About Being Considered ‘Retarded.’” by Amanda Baggs gives a great perspective on how those who have a disability are considered to be inferior or less human due to them being different from the societal standard of “normal”. To Baggs the way she looks and processes information is normal however compared to standards that society has placed she is different. To me Baggs is conveying the message that we label individuals who are different in this case those who have a cognitive disability and segregate them being considered normal due to the label of retarded.…

    • 94 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    As stated on page 1, handicaps have been made to take away so call advantages that some people have. As stated by the author, a Handicapper General was…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Many advancements have happened in the United States. Most of them have had positive effects; some have had negative effects. Government intervention has strongly increased as our demographics grows in age and population. Depending on a citizen’s political views, this increased government intervention could be good for the United States, or it could be just the opposite. Few have been living with the same government their whole life, so they wouldn’t know what is legal or illegal. In Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, the future consists of a more strict United States government, strongly overpowering the citizens.…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle once said “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” It is hard to try to picture a world where every human being is completely equal. A world where that every human being is forced by any means to has equal wealth, equal intelligence and equal physical beauty. Kurt Vonnegut’s Jr. wrote about such a world in his 1961 short story “Harrison Bergeron”. Vonnegut makes a good use of irony to show how creating absolute equality would require an absurdly oppressive society. Vonnegut uses the characterization of the Bergeron family members, Harrison, Hazel, and George to demonstrate how absolute equality destroys Individuality and also to show the two-facedness of that idealistic society and the danger of total…

    • 124 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, the author creates a short story about a Dystopian society where any form of "unequal advantage" is frowned upon and dealt with by a method known as “Handicapping” a person. Handicapping was given based off the “advantage” that a person had, a few examples being the ballerinas forced to cover their faces to keep their beauty hidden or an overly intelligent person being forced to wear a mental radio within his/her own ear.…

    • 251 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else,” everyone was equal (Vonnegut 1199). A handicap is something that hinders ones abilities in anyway. In this story many…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    2. Baynton specifies that disability is a major problem in America and people use it to justify the unjust society throughout American history. In the 19th century, people jumped to conclusion that these three figures were inferior to white men. Although they were physically normal people, the three figures were always considered “abnormal” due to the stigma that American society marked on them. 3.…

    • 251 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kurt Vonnegut’s dystopian story, Harrison Bergeron, is set in the year 2081, when everyone has been made equal. The means used to create this equality are not in any way unthinkable, although we may like to turn them away and think of them as such. Examining the first 50 years of the 20th century, you will notice a trend of reliance, trust, and general obedience to the government and the way things are. In the 60s however, with the anti-war protests and movements, citizens of the US became more aware of their impact on the government, and the fact that the government does not necessarily know best. In the following decades leading up to now, those thoughts have faded to the back of many people's minds, which may be a terrible mistake. If citizens are not conscious of the world they live in, it opens the door for scenarios, not unlike the happenings of 2081 and dictatorships, which have happened in many parts of the world already. These scenarios are in our past and present, and the similarities between 2081 and 2015 cannot be ignored.…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harrison Bergeron made a valid argument against conformity. Harrison was smarter than the average person, so the government came up with a way to make him equal, they placed headphones onto his head so that they would buzz to distract him and make him think like the average person. Harrison had a problem with this as the passage says, “Harrison smashed his headphones and spectacles against the wall” (Vonnegut 3). Harrison smashed his headphones and spectacles in anger because he was tired of being treated as if he was crippled and “handicapped”. He knew this would make the government and people mad because since he had broken the headphones and spectacles he was smarter than everyone and had ruined the perfect plan. After, Harrison wanted to…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Harrison Bergeron,” individuals are expected to conform to society. People are downplayed and anticipated to meet the lowest standards of society. For example, no one is smarter, better looking, stronger, or quicker than anybody else (1554). If an individual is deemed not average, then they are given a handicap. The protagonist in Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” is considered dangerous and a threat to the government. He bears heavier handicaps than everybody else in his society. He wears big earphones, glasses with thick wavy lenses, and scrap metal that hangs all over him. At the end of the short story, Harrison strips himself of all his handicaps. By stripping himself of his handicaps, Harrison is breaking the chains of his government and defying the laws.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Scarlet Ibis” shows that handicapped people are seen as different “creatures” than normal human beings. Brother expresses this when he asks Doodle, “Do you want to be different from everybody else when you start school?”. But Doodle replies with, “Does…

    • 436 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Is Gattaca Unethical

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This is best portrayed in the 1997 film Gattaca, where a futuristic dystopian society displays extreme segregation between the genetically-engineered “valids” and the unwanted “invalids,” those born of natural birth. Even after several years of exercise and studying, Vincent, who was born of natural birth, could not change the fact that he was an invalid and resorts to literally changing his identity in order to be accepted into Gattaca. Today’s society is beginning to resemble Gattaca in the sense that the physically and intellectually competent are sometimes looked upon as having more worth or value than one who is not. Although a disabled man might not be able to contribute to a society as much as Albert Einstein did, it does not change the fact that he is still a human being who is just as capable of being appreciated and loved by others. Therefore, labelling a person with disabilities as being “retarded” or “mental” and treating them as an inferior is being dangerously…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The major theme in “Harrison Bergeron” is true equality is not achievable. In the story all the talented characters with an above average intelligence have to put handicaps on in order to make them function in a similar way to the average characters. The intent of this is to make all the characters equal, however, it only makes them stronger and rebel or makes them weaker than average. One instance where the character is made stronger is with Harrison. A prime example of his strength is when “Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper” (Vonnegut, 4). After he rips the harness of he continues to rip the rest of his handicaps off. Even before he does this, he puts himself above all other characters. When the tv announcer…

    • 205 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the fictional short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut characterizes Diana Moon Glampers as cruel through her actions. Diana Moon Glampers is the Handicapper General, which is synonymous to supreme controller of every soul in dystopian America. And, wow, she takes the ´controller´ part to a new level. Firstly, Diana’s wicked use of the handicaps help portray her as cruel. Handicaps are a vital part of dystopian America’s agenda to keep everybody ‘equal’, but they’re nothing short of fiendish, since “every twenty seconds or so, [a] transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people ... from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (2). Physical handicaps aren't any worse; they’re weights that hang around the more capable citizens necks (H). Only…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the protagonist, Holden, exclaims that he dreams of a life where he can, “just be the catcher in the rye and all” (Salinger 200). Due to the pressures of American conformity in the early 1950’s, he discovers that he will never live a life where he simply keeps children from “falling off of cliffs”―helping them preserve their innocence. The Catcher in the Rye teaches readers that America promotes a materialistic culture in which conformity prevails.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays