Harrison Bergeron

"Harrison Bergeron"
Author	Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Dystopia, Science fiction, Political Fiction, short story
Published in	The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1st release)
Publication type	Periodical
Media type	Print (Magazine)
Publication date	1961

Harrison Bergeron is a satirical and dystopian science fiction short story written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and first published in October 1961. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the story was republished in the author's Welcome to the Monkey House collection in 1968. While there is disagreement regarding the political message of this short story, it has become known to raise questions about social equality.

Plot summary

It is the year 2081. Because of Amendments 211, 212, and 213 to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is stupider, uglier, weaker, or slower than anyone else. The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced.

One April, fourteen-year-old Harrison Bergeron is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel, by the government. George and Hazel aren’t fully aware of the tragedy. Hazel’s lack of awareness is due to average intelligence. In 2081, those who possess average intelligence are unable to think for extended stretches of time. George can’t comprehend the tragedy because the law requires him to wear a radio twenty-four hours a day. The government broadcasts noise over these radios to interrupt the thoughts of intelligent people like George.

Hazel and George are watching ballerinas dance on TV. Hazel has been crying, but she can’t remember why. She remarks on the prettiness of the dance. For a few moments, George reflects on the dancers, who are weighed down to counteract their gracefulness and masked to counteract their good looks. They have been handicapped so that TV viewers won’t feel bad about their own appearance. Because of their handicaps, the dancers aren’t very good. A noise interrupts George’s thoughts. Two of the dancers onscreen hear the noise, too; apparently, they are smart and must wear radios as well.

Hazel says she would enjoy hearing the noises that the handicappers dream up. George seems skeptical. If she were Handicapper General, Hazel says, she would create a chime noise to use on Sundays, which she thinks would produce a religious effect. The narrator explains that Hazel strongly resembles Diana Moon Glampers, Handicapper General. Hazel says she would be a good Handicapper General, because she knows what normalcy is. Before being interrupted by another noise, George thinks of his son, Harrison.

Hazel thinks George looks exhausted and urges him to lie down and rest his “handicap bag,” forty-seven pounds of weight placed in a bag and locked around George’s neck. He says he hardly notices the weight anymore. Hazel suggests taking a few of the weights out of the bag, but he says if everyone broke the law, society would return to its old competitive ways. Hazel says she would hate that. A noise interrupts the conversation, and George can’t remember what they were talking about.

On TV, an announcer with a speech impediment attempts to read a bulletin. He can’t overcome his impediment, so he hands the bulletin to a ballerina to read. Hazel commends him for working with his God-given abilities and says he should get a raise simply for trying so hard. The ballerina begins reading in her natural, beautiful voice, then apologizes and switches to a growly voice that won’t make anyone jealous. The bulletin says that Harrison has escaped from prison.

A photo of Harrison appears on the screen. He is wearing the handicaps meant to counteract his strength, intelligence, and good looks. The photo shows that he is seven feet tall and covered in 300 pounds of metal. He is wearing huge earphones, rather than a small radio, and big glasses meant to blind him and give him headaches. He is also wearing a red rubber nose and black caps over his teeth. His eyebrows are shaved off.

After a rumbling noise, the photo on the Bergerons’ TV screen is replaced with an image of Harrison himself, who has stormed the studio. He says that he is the emperor, the greatest ruler in history, and that everyone must obey him. Then he rips off all of his handicaps. He looks like a god. He says that the first woman brave enough to stand up will be his empress. A ballerina rises to her feet. Harrison removes her handicaps and mask, revealing a beautiful woman.

He orders the musicians to play, saying he will make them royalty if they do their best. Unhappy with their initial attempt, Harrison conducts, waving a couple of musicians in the air like batons, and sings. They try again and do better. After listening to the music, Harrison and his empress dance. Defying gravity, they move through the air, flying thirty feet upward to the ceiling, which they kiss. Then, still in the air, they kiss each other.

Diana Moon Glampers comes into the studio and kills Harrison and the empress with a shotgun. Training the gun on the musicians, she orders them to put their handicaps on. The Bergerons’ screen goes dark. George, who has left the room to get a beer, returns and asks Hazel why she has been crying. She says something sad happened on TV, but she can’t remember exactly what. He urges her not to remember sad things. A noise sounds in George’s head, and Hazel says it sounded like a doozy. He says she can say that again, and she repeats that it sounded like a doozy.

Main characters

Harrison Bergeron

Harrison Bergeron is the fourteen-year-old son of George and Hazel Bergeron. He is above average in many respects: he is seven feet tall, highly intelligent, and extraordinarily handsome, athletic, strong and brave. Furthermore he is willing to live as a full human being and does not want to obey the laws of the Government, who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of creating "equality" for the whole American society. He has been jailed by the Handicapper General’s office for planning to overthrow the government. He is a threat to them not only in his lifetime but also in the future because he could produce generations of superior children. In order to eliminate any "unfair advantages" he has, the Handicapper General forces him to put on the most extreme handicaps: he does not only wear the small mental handicap radios to interfere with any intelligent thoughts, but also huge earphones and spectacles which are intended to make him half blind and to give him tremendous headaches. He has to carry three hundred pounds of additional weight to impede his strength and wear a red rubber nose and black caps for his teeth to make him less handsome. When he escapes from jail, the Government describes him as “a genius and an athlete” and tells people that he should be regarded as extremely dangerous. In fact, Harrison has great self-confidence and when he escapes from prison and enters the television studio, he is fully convinced that he is able to overthrow the Government. In addition to this talent and egotism, he also possesses artistic and romantic characteristics. He sings and dances with his empress in a somewhat divine way; they are even able to seemingly "neutralize" gravity. He represents the part of American people who still long for greater goals, for a better way of living, and for progress. His character represents an attempt to become a Messiah, trying to free people from a totalitarian system.

George Bergeron

George Bergeron is Harrison’s father and Hazel’s husband. He is a very smart and sensitive character but he is handicapped artificially by the Government. Just as his son, he has to wear mental handicap radios in his ears which keep him from thinking intensely and analytically. Because he is stronger than the average man, he has to wear weights around his neck. When his wife, Hazel, suggests that he could take these weights off for a little while to relax, he turns the idea down. He wants to obey the laws of the Government and is not willing to risk the punishment for a little comfort. He believes that the situation in 2081 is better than it had been back in the days when there was still competition in society. He has a lot of respect to the rules and represents the common passive citizen who does not show any critique towards a Government which manipulates people and fights individuals. Obeying the rules, he is not even capable of recognizing the tragic situation when his son has been shot to death. This fate is a harsh critique and makes the readers question their own passiveness towards authority.

Hazel Bergeron

Hazel Bergeron is Harrison’s mother and George’s wife. Hazel has a perfectly average intelligence which means that she cannot think deeply about anything. Helpless as she is, she is still a very sweet and well intentioned character. She is a loving wife and mother and tries to comfort her husband by suggesting him to take his handicap weights off. She also cries when she sees what happens to her son but her brain does not allow her to keep in mind what she was crying about. So in the end all of her kindness does not count because her stupidity outruns her good intentions. It is important to note that Hazel has a lot in common with the Handicapper General Diana Moon Glampers. This seems to symbolize that America is ruled by persons of average intelligence as Hazel’s, as a possible satire of the competency of those running the government.

Diana Moon Glampers

Despite appearing in person for only four sentences, Handicapper General Diana Moon Glampers represents the oppressive government. It is mentioned early on that Hazel resembles Diana, and Hazel mentions improvements she would make to Diana's handicap regulations. She shows a bitter ruthlessness, in that she kills Harrison and his Empress without warning, and threatens the musicians with a similar fate before the Bergeron's television tube burns out (leaving their fate ambiguous). Diana's first and middle names could possibly be a reference to Diana, the Roman huntress goddess of the moon. Glampers also appears in Vonnegut's book God Bless You Mr. Rosewater.

Ballerina

A beautiful dancer who was burdened with an especially ugly mask and excessive weights ("as big as those worn by two hundred pound men"), as she is the fairest, most beautiful and most graceful of the dancers. She reads an announcement card after the stammering announcer is unable to. It is very likely, but not stated, that she is the same dancer who Harrison Bergeron takes as his Empress, who is later shot by Diana Moon Glampers for not wearing her handicaps.

“Harrison Bergeron” offers vigorous political and social criticisms of both America in general and the America of the 1960s. The political system depicted in Vonnegut’s story is distinctly American and founded on the principles of egalitarianism, which holds that people should be equal in every way. Equality is a beloved principle enshrined in America’s constitution in the phrase “All men are created equal,” but Vonnegut suggests that the ideals of egalitarianism can be dangerous if they are interpreted too literally. If the goal of equality is taken to its logical conclusion, we may decide that people must be forced to be equal to one another in their appearance, behavior, and achievements. “Harrison Bergeron” can also be interpreted as a direct critique of communism. In the 1960s, America was engaged with Russia in the Cold War and had recently struggled through the McCarthy era, when suspected communists were accused and blacklisted from artistic, literary, and political communities. The futuristic American society of “Harrison Bergeron” operates on communist principles, supporting the idea that wealth and power should be distributed equally and class hierarchies should not exist. Like the accused communists of the McCarthy era, anyone not conforming to society’s accepted standards—in a reversal of sorts, anyone not adhering to the communist structure—is sought out and punished. In his story, Vonnegut argues that such principles are foolish. It is unnatural to distribute wealth and power equally, he suggests, and it is only by literally handicapping the best and brightest citizens that the misguided goal of equal distribution can be attained. Similarly, it is unnatural to seek out and punish those who reject social norms.

Some modern readers have interpreted the dystopia depicted in “Harrison Bergeron” as a preview of what might happen to America if such trends as psychiatric drugs and political correctness are allowed to proliferate. The characters in Vonnegut’s story are passive, unthinking, and calm. Although the means of achieving this mental state are externally applied to the body, rather than internally applied to the mind, some readers draw a parallel between the noises that destroy George’s ability to think and the drugs that make modern Americans tranquil and detached. These critics argue that the characters in “Harrison Bergeron,” who lack all passion, intelligence, and creative ability, should be interpreted as a warning about what happens to the members of a society that prizes calm happiness above artistry or intelligence. Other readers see “Harrison Bergeron” as a socially conservative argument against political correctness. Vonnegut himself has connected the story to recent attempts to make people equal using the language of political correctness. According to this argument, the respectful treatment of all marginalized groups may be a slippery slope, as “Harrison Bergeron” suggests. If we begin with the equal treatment of male athletes and their weaker female counterparts, for example, we may end with the insistence that ugly people should be treated as if they are beautiful, and so forth.

Style

Vonnegut is influenced by his early work as a journalist. His sentences are short and easily understood so as to be largely accessible. A dystopian setting enhances his social and political critique by imagining a future world founded on absolute equality. Yet Vonnegut also punctuates his dystopia with humor. Even the most horrifying scenes are underlined by jokes or absurdity. When the news announcer is supposed to read a news bulletin he must hand it to a nearby ballerina because he has a speech impediment. The ballerina then has to alter her voice because it would be "unfair" to use her natural voice. This absurdity highlights the madness of the world of "Bergeron," while also giving voice to Vonnegut's consistent pessimism.

Parallels with The Sirens of Titan

A similar dystopian society to that of Harrison Bergeron appears in Vonnegut's 1959 novel The Sirens of Titan. When the Space Wanderer returns to earth he finds a society in which handicaps are used in order to make all people equal, eradicating the supposedly ruinous effects of blind luck on human society. The narrator claims that now "the weakest and the meekest were bound to admit, at last, that the race of life was fair".

The strong are burdened with "handicaps" (consisting of "bags of lead shot" hung from various parts of the body) and the beautiful hide their advantageous appearance through, 'frumpish clothes, bad posture, chewing gum and a ghoulish use of cosmetics'.

However, unlike in Harrison Bergeron, the citizens in The Sirens of Titan choose to wear these handicaps voluntarily as an act of faith towards the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent, although it is suggested that to not do so would result in heavy social condemnation. A further important difference between the two societies is that there are no handicaps for above average intelligence mentioned in The Sirens of Titan. Thus in many ways it can be considereed that Harrison Bergeron is centred around a more progressed version of the society seen in The Sirens of Titan, an argument which is supported by the later 2081 date in which Harrison Bergeron is set.

Adaptations

The story has been adapted to the screen at least four times.

PBS adapted several stories, including Harrison Bergeron, in Between Time and Timbuktu (1972), with Avind Haerum as the title character.

Showtime produced a full-length made for television adaptation titled Harrison Bergeron in 1995, starring Sean Astin as the title character. The adaptation varied from the plot considerably, featuring Harrison being recruited by the National Administration Center, a secret cabal of geniuses within the government who ensure that the handicapped America functions. Working for the television division, Harrison becomes dissatisfied with the status quo and attempts to start another American revolution by taking over the nation's television broadcasting. He broadcasts old unhandicapped movies and music, while encouraging people to remove their brain handicapping "bands" on their heads.

In 2006, a short film also titled Harrison Bergeron was released. This film received direct praise from Vonnegut himself, who said, "I am glad to see the appropriate measures taken with my story."^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, another short film titled 2081 was released, based on the original story and starring Armie Hammer as the title character. Joe Crowe, managing editor of the online magazine Revolution Science Fiction, called the movie "stirring and dramatic" and said it "gets right to the point, and nails the adaptation in about 25 minutes."

In the real world

• In 2005 the story was quoted by attorneys in a brief before the Kansas Supreme Court. Vonnegut was quoted as saying that while he did not mind the story being used in the suit, he disagreed with the lawyers' interpretation of it.
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia quoted the story in PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin.
• Libertarian commentator John Stossel frequently quotes the story and references the title of the U.S. Handicapper General.
• The story is printed in full in the politics textbook Political Concepts: A reader and guide by Iain Mckenzie, in the chapter on equality.
• The story is published in full in the compact eighth edition of the textbook The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction by Ann Charters.

See also

• Crab mentality
• Dumbing down
• Tall poppy syndrome
• Jante Law
• Between Time and Timbuktu, a PBS adaptation of several Vonnegut stories, including this one.

Further reading

Klinkowitz, Jerome (1998): Vonnegut in fact. The public spokesman of personal fiction. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press

Leeds, Marc (1995): The Vonnegut Encyclopedia. An Authorized Compendium. Westport, London: Greenwood Press

Leeds, Marc; Reed, Peter J. (1996): The Vonnegut Chronicles. Interviews and Essays. Westport, London: Greenwood Press

Petterson, Bo (1994): The World according to Kurt Vonnegut. Moral Paradox and Narrative Form. Åbo: Åbo University

External links

• Harrison Bergeron at the Internet Movie Database
• 2081 at the Internet Movie Database
• The politics of Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" - Critical Essay (Fall, 1998) by Darryl Hattenhauer
• Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron, and an Introduction to Deviance and Social Control A teaching-related essay by Kenneth Mentor