In the short story Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut uses characterization and word choice to prove a truly equal society can destroy the growth of the United States. He uses the effects of technology and television to add to the drawbacks of an equal society. The author also shows how close our modern society is to replicating the society of Harrison Bergeron through our mindset and lifestyle as a whole.
Vonnegut uses words with negative connotation to describe the above average people. The author states “And George while his intelligence was way above average had a little mental handicap radio in his ear” (Source A). Vonnegut begins by introducing George as if his intelligence is great but useless. The author suggests that George’s intelligence is unimportant by implying that his mental handicap “out did” his intelligence. Instead of saying he was very intelligent, the author correlates it to the word ‘average” and adds the words “little” to …show more content…
He mostly depicts the issue within our mindsets and the outcome of our mindsets. The author draws into characterization to project issues within our modern society. George is an image of a fixed mindset in which most of our society today has. “People with a fixed mindset tend to conclude that there incapable so to protect their ego, they lose interest or withdraw (source B).“ When George sees his son killed on television he tries to distance himself when “Hazel turned to comment about the blackout...George had gone out into the kitchen for a can of beer”(Source A). George is trying to distract and distance himself from the death of his son by leaving the room and drinking. People in modern society tend to do this when we have to work a little harder to get a job, practice more to play a sport, or even study a little more to pass a test. We pretend that we do not care, that it does not matter when in all reality it does just like