Equality In Harrison Bergeron

Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” is a satirical and dystopian science fiction story of an egalitarian society controlled by the government. The story starts off in the future of America that has reached equality by eliminating the gifted or controlling them with handicap technology. The Handicapper general team upholds this equality and ensures that all laws are enforced to keep the equality. Harrison Bergeron the main protagonist is taken away from his parents Hazel and George by the handicapper general for going against the government. Both of his parents can’t fully comprehend this tragedy because Hazel has average intelligence and George who is intelligent has handicaps to keep him of average intelligence. As Hazel and George are watching television
In the story the idea of total equality has become so unreasonable and twisted that people that have special physical and intellectual attributes or favorable genetic traits, are considered unequal from the non-gifted, creating a sense of inequality. This is made evident by Vonnegut’s flat and static character George, who is above average intelligence and strength, is forced to be different from the norms of society by wearing handicaps of weights and a radio head device to keep him from accessing his natural gifted talents. In spite of the unfair action to keep George equal to the norm of society, his wife Hazel creates another sense of inequality with her feeling envious of George’s handicap of being able to hear all the different lovely sounds and because she is considered normal a handicap like Georges is unnecessary. So the idea that in order for there to be total equality, society must be unfair or unjust to another group in this case the gifted or non-norms of society, but at the same time total equality will always be unattainable because their will always be a trait that makes someone unequal or envious of