impossibility of equality - Harrison Bergeron

impossibility of equality - Harrison Bergeron

Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut Junior, is a satire because underneath the absurdity and the comic movements are serious issues. Vonnegut Junior is concerned with the following ideas: the impossibility of equality, tall poppy syndrome, the need for competition and the ways that well intended ideas can have bad consequences.

One aspect of society that Vonnegut Junior is worried about is the impossibility of equality. Harrison Bergeron begins with the comment that in 2081 “everyone was finnaly equal”. However, humans are not and never will be equal due to individuality. The story discusses how absurd the world would be if we were equal. Strong people will have weights, handsome people will wear masks and clever people will be mentally handicapped. Instead of celebrating and accepting difference, people would be brought down to a lower level.

Bringing people down to a lower or average level is known as tall poppy syndrome and this is another of Vonnegut Juniors concerns. Tall poppy syndrome is when somebody better that you is brought down to your level or lower so that you don’t look bad, whether this be by handicaps 1, injury or verbal abuse. For example, you have a tall flower in your garden and your neighbour is jealous so she chops it down. This is portrayed in the story by the quote: “In the race of life, Harrison carried 300 pounds”. This means that Harrison was strong and had to carry a weight around his neck to be the same as everyone else.

The final idea that Vonnegut Junior would like us to think about is how supposedly good ideas could have bad consequences. This is because everyone has different ideas on the good and the bad. The story states that Harrison overthrows the government by taking his and a few others handicaps away. This causes other peoples emotions to overthrow their equality and be compeditive. This of course countered the government’s supposedly good plan and gave it a bad consequence that led to death. So no...