response to harrison bergeron (Laura)

The story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut takes place in a future society drastically different from our own. In this society people are all equal due to the use of handicap devices placed on them. Those who were really strong were given weights to carry around them so they would be brought down to a strength equivalent to others and those with high levels of intelligence were given ear pieces that made sounds causing them to lose their train of thoughts. For Harrison Bergeron, at the young rebellious age of fourteen he had the most handicaps placed on him. “Harrison’s appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever worn heavier handicaps.” With a red clown nose on his face and shaved eyebrows to make him less attractive, headphones to hinder his thinking and intelligence, eyeglasses that made him half blind and over 300 pounds of extra metal to carry around, Harrison was the one person that was ready to defy the government. He escapes jail, and on a televised broadcast in front of the entire country, stands up and removes all the obstructions that layered his body stopping him from reaching his potential. Claiming himself emperor to the people that watched, he fatefully tries to overthrow the government and the “Handicap General” who enforces these laws on the people.

Harrison though isn’t alone in this, when he asks for someone to stand beside him as queen, a ballerina with a mask over her face hiding her beauty accepts his offer. Tragically though as they dance together they are shot and killed by the Handicap police. I found it really sad in the end when Harrison Bergeron dies as his parents watch. The fact that Harrison’s own mother can’t even remember why she is crying a few moments after her son’s death just ends the story on a sour note for me. I could never imagine my own parents forgetting about me. It makes you think of this world and how much it had changed for the worse, where a simple thing like the grief over a child’s death is taken away from a parent. I never read this short story before so I found it interesting, a part of me at the end thought that Harrison was going to actually win in overthrowing the government so I was surprised to read him get shot and killed as the nation watched.

I also found it very interesting to see a glimpse of how life would become if we were all made equal by not just laws but in intelligence, strength and beauty. Especially with this all taking place in America, the land of the free, it shocks you to imagine a world where this is possible. Free will and freedom is something not to be taken for granted, when it’s taken away from a person you can see them slowly wither away almost as if they were a caged animal. The people of this future society sadly no longer have the ability to dream and have the drive to make the world a better place, as cheesy as that sounds. Freedom to be who you are makes us unique and keeps the world moving ahead.

As Harrison’s father George watches the ballerinas on the TV you can’t help but feel how disheartening fairness can actually be. “They were burdened with sash weights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in. George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped. But he didn’t get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts” As I read this I thought, what is the point of living in a world where were all the same. No one would ever be able to show their true potential, express themselves and achieve great things. This story makes you stop and think afterwards, imagining yourself living a life wearing hardware that holds you back along with your family and friends. I think that those who read this story can take a lot away from it just like “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson.