Harrison Bergeron ||

Harrison Bergeron

By Kurt Vonnegut

What would you do encountered by a government that oppresses the people by manipulating the things they see, all that they do and all that they are? Well, that may very well be the position in which you may be right now. That is the wonder of Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut. He narrates his dystopian universe as equality for the people. What would it mean to be equal? Would we all be blond and tall with a bulky build and a strong case of patriotic exaltation?

Vonnegut as the voice that expresses all that has been and all that is. He clearly pictures a world where the government is in charge of oppression. However, is his government purely fictional? I do not think as much, many are in this dystopia this very moment. The government manipulates the people to its pleasing, making the word “democracy” just another synonym of “corruption.” No matter the place in which you reside, you must be aware of the problematic that the government has placed upon the people whom it is supposed to nurture. Here is where Vonnegut’s satirical tone shines. His stance is firm and Harrison Bergeron is the vivid example of such statement. The word he has created is not fictional but rather extreme representations of oppression where the sense of free will is just an illusion. Harrison is the people, is what we could do and who we are; we are different, and we can stand forth. However, this leads to the same faith as Harrison, we are shut, and the ones that strive to make a difference and oppose the greed of those who rule are silenced, persecuted and modified.

Now, Mr. Vonnegut, as a prisoner of war during the Second World War, was exposed to the reality that the world was facing at the time. Where does Vonnegut’s experiences as a prisoner of war come to play in Harrison Bergeron? In equality, the ideology of Nazi’s “master race.” The sense that humanity is to be equal, the idea that none is to be different, and those who are should be cut and stripped of their differences. Vonnegut’s idea of a dystopian world is one in which the ideology of Nazi Germany is reached. However, there is mockery, mocking the fact that even being a sole race is not to be perfect, rather imperfect. Vonnegut does not make the characters of Harrison Bergeron have handicaps to be as good as others are, but rather to make them as bad as the rest. This is Vonnegut’s response to that ideology. Which makes the story have a deeper meaning than that of just politics and governmental oppression.

 

What do you think? Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to leave a comment below.