Harrison Bergeron

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"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, 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 re-published in the author's collection, Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968.

Contents 1 Plot summary 1.1 TV film 1.2 Hollywood film 2 Popular culture and references 3 See also 4 References 5 Footnotes 6 External links

[edit] Plot summary

In the story, societal equality has been achieved by handicapping the more intelligent, athletic or beautiful members of society down to the level of the lowest common endowment. This is due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the United States Constitution. This process is central to the society, designed so that no one will feel inferior to anyone else. Handicapping is overseen by the United States Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers.

Harrison Bergeron, the protagonist of the story, has exceptional intelligence, height, strength and beauty and thus has to bear enormous handicaps. These include headphones that play distracting noises, three hundred pounds of weight strapped to his body, forty pounds of birdshot around his neck, eyeglasses designed to give him headaches, and a rubber ball on his nose, black caps on his teeth, and shaven eyebrows to hide his beauty. Despite these societal handicaps, he is able to invade a TV station, declare himself emperor, strip himself of his handicaps, then dance with a ballerina whose handicaps he has also discarded. Both are shot dead by the brutal and relentless Handicapper General. The story is framed by an additional perspective from Bergeron's parents, who are watching the incident on TV, but because of their handicaps and less than average intelligence, cannot concentrate enough to appreciate what occurs nor remember it.

A similar (though less developed) version of this idea appeared in Vonnegut's earlier novel, The Sirens of Titan.

[edit] TV film

• One segment of the 1972 teleplay Between Time and Timbuktu was based on the story, and it was later adapted into a TV movie, Harrison Bergeron (1995) with Sean Astin in the title role. In this 1995 made for television movie, after the handicapping devices are discovered to be ineffective against Bergeron, he is recruited to become a member of the secret unhandicapped elite who keep society running. Eventually disgusted by their duplicity, Bergeron commandeers a TV station in order to broadcast censored materials to the masses. Bergeron is eventually stopped by the government, and later forced to apologize, claiming that the incident was an act. During this on-air apology, Bergeron breaks from his script and commits suicide after explaining that it was not an act. The film shows Harrison's son as he watches old clips of his father from TV. The mother of Harrison's child, a now-lobotomized former member of the elite society, hears Harrison's voice as her son watches the television, and clearly recalls something of Bergeron.

[edit] Hollywood film

In 2009, Hollywood veterans Julie Hagerty, James Cosmo, Academy Award nominee Patricia Clarkson, and newcomer Armie Hammer starred in a film adaptation of Harrison Bergeron directed by Chandler Tuttle. The film was entitled 2081 and premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival. Unlike the 1995 teleplay, the film version is a close adaptation of Vonnegut's story and ends with the lead character being killed by the Handicapper General. The main speech by Harrison Bergeron reflects the spirit of rebellion from the original story but differs in that the lead character doesn't claim to be the "emperor of the world."

[edit] Popular culture and references

• In 2005 the story was quoted by attorneys in a brief before the Kansas Supreme Court. Vonnegut was quoted as saying that while he didn't mind the story being used in the suit, he disagreed with the lawyers' interpretation of it.^[1]
• "Handicapper General" has entered colloquial use as a pejorative term used to describe a person or institution that seeks to achieve equality of outcome by leveling down rather than leveling up, e.g., a school system that cancels advanced classes out of a fear of elitism.
• The hardcore band Snapcase referenced the story in the song "Harrison Bergeron" on their 1997 album Progression Through Unlearning.
• In season 1 of Frisky Dingo, the Xtacles, when asked about Flowers for Algernon, confuses it with Harrison Bergeron, Tom Bergeron, and finally Agamemnon.
• The plot of the manga "Personant" by Naoshi Komi has a very strong resemblance to the plot of Harrison Bergeron, except that it ends on a more positive note.

[edit] See also

• Crab mentality
• Dumbing down
• Tall poppy syndrome
• Jante Law

[edit] References

• John Tierney, "When Every Child Is Good Enough," The New York Times, November 21, 2004.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Harrison Bergeron The full short story by Kurt Vonnegut (1961).
• Harrison Bergeron at the Internet Movie Database
• The politics of Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" - Critical Essay (Fall, 1998) by Darryl Hattenhauer

v • d • e Works by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Novels Player Piano (1952) · The Sirens of Titan (1959) · Mother Night (1961) · Cat's Cradle (1963) · God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965) · Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) · Breakfast of Champions (1973) · Slapstick (1976) · Jailbird (1979) · Deadeye Dick (1982) · Galápagos (1985) · Bluebeard (1987) · Hocus Pocus (1990) · Timequake (1997) Story collections Canary in a Cathouse (1961) · Welcome to the Monkey House (1968) · Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) · Armageddon in Retrospect (2008) Collected essays Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974) · Palm Sunday (1981) · Fates Worse than Death (1990) · God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999) · A Man Without a Country (2005) Scripts Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970) · Between Time and Timbuktu (1972) · Make Up Your Mind (1993) · Miss Temptation (1993) · L'Histoire du Soldat (1993) Adaptations Stage Welcome to the Monkey House (1970, 1974) · Sirens of Titan (1974) · Cat's Cradle (1976) · God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1979) · Breakfast of Champions (1984) · Requiem (Stone, Time, and Elements: A Humanist Requiem) (1988) · Slaughterhouse-Five (1996) Film Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) · Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) · Next Door (1975) · Slapstick of Another Kind (1982) · Harrison Bergeron (1995) · Mother Night (1996) · Breakfast of Champions (1999) Television Displaced Person (1958, 1985) · Between Time and Timbuktu (1972) · EPICAC (1974, 1992) · Who Am I This Time? (1982) · All the King's Horses (1991) · Next Door (1991) · The Euphio Question (1991) · Fortitude (1992) · The Foster Portfolio (1992) · More Stately Mansions (1992) · Harrison Bergeron (1995)