1/6/19

"Harrison Bergeron" ("HB") is a dystopian story in which equality becomes mandatory, and people who are extraordinary are made ordinary by any means possible. The main character in the story in Harrison, a 7-foot-tall 14-year-old genius. He's given handicaps that he has to wear: wavy glasses and a red nose to make him ugly and half-blind; headphones that play loud noises to prevent his thinking; and 300 pounds of scrap metal strapped to his body to slow and weaken him. It's only fair.

In Vonnegut's future, our desire for equality today has been exaggerated to such an extent that we, the readers, are forced to admit that equality isn't always good - no one is ever going to be the same as everyone else, and being upset about someone else's innate talents, brains, or fortune is pointless and self-defeating.

I agree with Vonnegut completely, and I applaud his effort to make us aware of this tendency. His use of Harrison's parents to illustrate this new, "fair" world is masterful - he uses Hazel to be the "normal" person and George as a simple example of someone who needs handicaps shows us right away that something is very different in this world. The announcer with a speech impediment, who should get a raise for "trying so hard" left me astounded, and his masterstroke is at the very end, when first, the TV blows out (showing the lack of quality in a dumbed-down world), and then when Hazel repeats, "Gee, I can tell that one was a doozy," just because George said, "You can say that again."

We DO NOT WANT this future.