Harrison Bergeron Literary Elements

This sample essay on Harrison Bergeron Literary Elements provides important aspects of the issue and arguments for and against as well as the needed facts. Read on this essay’s introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Kurt Vonnegut’s short narrative “Harrison Bergeron” is about a futuristic society where beauty is destroyed to make equality. It centers around the highest functionary. suitably named. the General Handicapper. His lone function to to seek out and happen to people who are skilled. reasonably. or good at athleticss and forced them to conceal off these endowments through masks and delaies.

It is through basic literary elements that Vonnegut creates and develops the subject that general conformance leads to the distortion of humanity.

The short narrative begins in the hereafter. “The twelvemonth was 2081” and Vonnegut instantly puts out the benefits of this futuristic society. saying “everybody was eventually equal” and non merely equal “before God” but in “every way” possible ( Vonnegut. 1968. p. 7 ) . Vonnegut’s description foreshadows what is to come in the novel and surely this forced equality can merely take to a unsafe and potentially lifelessly stoping.

Conformity and the effects of uniformity is a common subject in the majority of scientific discipline fiction literature and Vonnegut’s short narratives are no different.

Harrison Bergeron Essays

However. in “Harrison Bergergon” non merely the subject of uniformity is explore but besides the depriving off of humanity. This short narrative. the authorities forces everyone to be equal –“nobody was smarter than anybody else.

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Cipher was better looking than anybody else. Cipher was stronger or quicker than anybody else. ” ( Vonnegut. 1968. p. 7 ) . Government agents force people who are beautiful to have on ugly masks and people who are thin are forced to transport around weights. The end of all this control is to do certain that everyone has the same disability. the same characteristics. and the same feelings.

Even odder is that smart people were forced to have on wirelesss which interfered with there encephalon functional making a human society where everyone was every bit stupid. By extinguishing the the issues. which modern society still deals with. of racism. sexism. and favoritism based on expressions. Vonnegut’s future society should be healthy and happy because everyone is the same. However. in the chase of equality the loss of humanity took topographic point. Humanity is based on the thought of independency and individuality. The featured supporter of this short narrative and namesake is Harrison Bergeron.

He is a bright and friendly male child who has the most despised qualities in his society. He is intelligent. handsome. tall. and strong. Due to Harrision’s characteristics he is required to make several things to counterbalance for all his good quality. He is capable to wireless noises which stops his concentration and focal point. He has to transport 100s of lbs of excess weight. He besides have to have on Sun spectacless which gives him a caput and he has to undergo surgery garrison Os make him ugly. While expecting his surgery he escapes and takes over a intelligence station. On air he takes off his disabilities and is revealed to society.

When enters the station he is looks “like a walking debris pace. ” required to have on “a ruddy gum elastic ball for a olfactory organ. maintain his superciliums shaved off. and cover his even white dentitions with black caps at snaggle-tooth random” ( Vonnegut. 1968. p. 21 ) . He besides meets up with a danseuse and she excessively casts off her imposed disablements. When the twosome dances they shrug off the jurisprudence of gravitation and the Torahs of gesture as good. ” jumping to snog the thirty-foot ceiling until eventually “they remained suspended in air inches below the ceiling. and they kissed each other for a long. long clip. ” It is so that Glampers enters with her shotgun” ( Vonnegut. 1968. p. 22 ) .

Unfortunately both are killed by the General Handicapper. As a bomber secret plan his parents are watching the intelligence station but one time everything is said and done they can non retrieve what has happened due their forced disabilities. Irony is another literary device that Vonnegut uses in this short narrative. Vonnegut remarks on the look-ism which is evident in American society. Vonnegut even appears misanthropic about what passes every bit mean in America. “Hazel had a absolutely mean intelligence. which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts” ( Vonnegut. 1968. p. 20 ) .

The observation on the danseuse continues the undercutting wit: “They weren’t truly really good–no better than anybody else would hold been. anyway” ( Vonnegut. 1968. p. 20 ) . Heavy sarcasm emerges in the drudgery Hazel’s losing the point. as when she sympathizes with the bumbling announcer for seeking “real hard” to make his best or suggests George might take some of his weights in the eventides. Intensifying the sarcasm she says. “‘I think I’d make a good Handicapper General. ‘ ‘Good as anybody else. ’ said George. ” The scope of sounds and the amusing ferociousness of their consequence provides another beginning of comedy.

One of George’s winces prompts Hazel to inquire the cause. “Sounded like person hitting a milk bottle with a cock. ” he replies. Another sounds like a 21 gun salutation that leaves George “white and trembling” and leaves two of the danseuse on the floor seizing their temples. The concluding 1 is a absorbing gun. “Gee–I could state that one was a doozy. ” said Hazel. “You can state that once more. ” said George. “Gee–” said Hazel–“I could state that one was a doozy. ” ( Vonnegut. 1968. p. 41 ) Hazel’s stupid behaviour and mentality symbolizes the dumbing down of America.

In add-on the telecasting is every bit symbolic. When this book was written. the telecasting was now found in every place throughout the state. It became the manner that people communicated and received intelligence. Reading. literature. and human interaction decreased and was replaced by the mindless yak of telecasting shows and governmentally run intelligence broadcasts. Hazel’s antipathy to the old yearss when she could be made to experience like “something the cat dragged in” ( Vonnegut. 1968. p. 22 ) evidently is non really persuasive The narrative in “Harrison Bergeron” is besides interesting.

This is because the narrative is 3rd individual. as if individual is looking back on the events that merely happened. Third individual omnipresent is an interesting pick for narrative because it allows the reader into the heads of all characters. For illustration Vonnegut reminds the readers. in 3rd individual narration Cipher can be in any manner superior to anybody else. as guaranteed by “the 211th. 212th. and 213th Amendments to the Constitution. and to the ageless watchfulness of the agents of the United States Handicapper General” ( Vonnegut. 1968. p. 20 ) . In peculiar. the motives of each character which inspire their actions and words.

“Harrison Bergeron” is a really alone short narrative because Vonnegut manipulates basic literary elements and creates a sarcasm of American ideals and social norms. Vonnegut is able excessively. in a lingua and cheek mode. demo how the authorities can make a society which lacks humanity. A authorities that is left uncontrolled can exercise such great power that it can destruct what makes human alone animals on this planet. In making so. people become mindless and vulnerable to the governmental propaganda that tells the citizens of a society that these regulations are for their ain good.