Absolute equality is not an objective worth pursuing, as many people think, according to Vonnegut’s argument in “Harrison Bergeron,” but rather a misguided one that is destructive in both the process and the results. The administration in Vonnegut’s tale tortures its people to establish physical and mental fairness among all Americans (Vonnegut Jr 2). The intellectual must endure ear-splitting sounds that impair their capacity to think, the elegant and muscular must image matching around their necks at all times of the day, and the attractive must wear horrible masks or dismember themselves.
The inhabitants start to dumb themselves down or hide their unique characteristics due to the stress of complete equality. Some people act this way because they have absorbed the government’s objectives. In contrast, others do so out of apprehension that the government would punish them harshly if they show any exceptional talent. This yearning for equality has fatal results. America has become a nation of timid, illiterate, and sluggish people. Government authorities kill the very talented without concern for retaliation. More or less, equality is attained at the expense of personal freedom and success.
Harrison is a symbol of the segment of the American population that still aspires to work hard, show off their talents, and surpass their contemporaries. Harrison is a physical specimen at the age of fourteen; he is seven feet tall, strong, and handsome. Harrison is made to wear massive earbuds that cloud his mind, spectacles that impair his vision and give him migraines, 300 pounds of metal that weighs him down, a goofy nose, and black caps on his teeth as part of the government’s concerted effort to silence him (Vonnegut Jr 5). Harrison, though, is unaffected by any barriers erected by the state, not even imprisonment. His desire to live a whole human life is impossible. The government considers Harrison a genius, yet his courage and self-assurance stand out more than his intelligence. He is confident that he will succeed in overturning the government when he escapes prison.
Throughout the narrative, the government’s broadcasts get more violent and intense, mirroring the unfolding tragedy of George and Hazel’s life. When the narrative starts, George watches the ballerinas on TV and hears a buzzer in his mind. The noise of a bottle being broken with a hammer echoes in his ears as he attempts to focus on the dancers, who are burdened down and disguised to contrast their delicacy and beauty (M Ridha Al-Hasan, Hayder M. Saadan, and Thulfiqar Abdulameer Sulaiman Alhmdni 2063). He is distracted from his thoughts of his son by the overly violent sound of the twenty-one firearms shooting, which foreshadows Harrison’s death.
The noise of a siren reveals how far the government has transformed into the thinking police, shattering ideas about the rules of equality and competitiveness that prevailed in the past. George hears a vehicle smash as Harrison storms into the television studio, a sound that suggests that many people were hurt. George is interrupted by a noise succinctly summarized as a handicap signal, which is an alarmingly ambiguous term, occurring at the same time his son is being murdered on live television. In the same way that George and Hazel could not correctly grasp Harrison’s death, Vonnegut implies that the noise is so dreadful that it cannot be acknowledged. The sound of a riveting pistol is the last sound George hears, a fitting allusion to Diana Moon Glampers’ murder of Harrison.
Works Cited
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Marquez, Gabriel Garcia and Gregory Rabassa. “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World.” 2022.
M Ridha Al-hasani, Hayder M. Saadan, and Thulfiqar Abdulameer Sulaiman Alhmdni. “Paradoxical Postmodernism in Kurt Vonnegut’s” Harrison Bergeron”.” Talent Development & Excellence 12.2, 2020.
Vonnegut Jr, Kurt. “Harrison Bergeron.” Ark. L. Rev. 44, 1991.
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