Everyday in America equality is strived for. In recent months, gay marriage has been legalized and feminists have been trying to get job equality for women. Equality typically has a positive connotation, but what if I told you that equality isn't always so good. In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, Harrison Bergeron, total equality is achieved. No one is stronger, more attractive, or smarter than any other person. Every person is given a certain amount of handicaps depending on their abilities, this way everyone is created equal. If you're very strong you're forced to wear weights, and if you’re considered beautiful you are forced to wear a mask, and if you are smart you’re forced to wear a device that makes sounds meant to disturb your thoughts. …show more content…
This story follows George, Hazel, and Harrison Bergeron. Harrison is George and Hazels son who is considered to be superhuman because of his extreme strength and good looks. He is imprisoned because his abilities make it so he is not equal to everyone else. He breaks out of prison to try and start a revolution. He thinks the government is oppressive, but many people are either too ignorant or handicaps cause them to not be able to think thoughts of revolution, so Harrison's attempt at fixing society is quickly dismissed when the Handicapper General, Diana Moonglampers, kills him. Vonnegut effectively displays the theme, total equality is a dangerous thing and diversity is needed to thrive, through the characters and events that take …show more content…
At first glance Harrison Bergeron’s world seems like a utopian society based on equality and balance but as we read we begin to see that this balance is not what most people would consider equality. In an attempt to “create a society where everybody was finally equal before God and the law. [But] they were equal in every which way” (Vonnegut) citizens are handicapped if they possess any superior traits. Handicaps are imposed in order to create equality between individuals on all levels, both in terms of their abilities and talents as well as the laws that govern them. The use of the word quote suggests a solution has been discovered to cure the existing inequalities between individuals by creating a society where all people are equal. This idea of finding a solution to the inequalities that exist between people can be directly related to issues in today’s society. Obama’s public health care reform will attempt to make health care available to all people at an affordable price thereby attempting to level the imbalance between socioeconomic classes in America. Still, America should approach this fantasy of equality with caution because in Bergeron’s society this attempt to equalize all people is not the perfect solution it appears to be on the surface because “some things about living still weren’t right” (Vonnegut). This notion that some things in this society still were not right serves as