Y.+Kurt+Vonnegut+Jr.

(1922-2007)
 * Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.**



//Harrison Bergeron// is about a society of people whoa re equal – not only do they have equal rights and opportunities, but they also have equal strengths. Nobody is smarter, stronger, or prettier than anyone else. If they have an attribute that is better than another’s, they are given a “handicap” to compensate for their gift. For example, if anybody is smarter that another person, they are given a device to put in their ear that makes an unbearable noise to keep them from taking unfair advantage of their brains. A man named George, is was an intelligent man before he was given a little mental handicap radio to wear in his ear. However, his wife, Hazel, has an all around “average” person and isn’t burdened with any handicaps. Their son, Harrison, was taken away from his family because of his brawn and beauty. Harrison was an extremely good-looking, athletic, and intelligent boy. As George and Hazel watch television, they see a ballerina who they assume is very beautiful and strong due to the ridiculous amount of handicaps she had. All of a sudden, the show that they were watching is interrupted with breaking news that an under-handicapped, fourteen-year-old boy escaped from jail. George and Hazel soon realized that they escapee was their son, Harrison. Shortly after seeing their son on the television, Harrison appeared in their living room and he had brought the beautiful ballerina with him – both without their handicaps. They grabbed each other and leaped into the air defying the law of gravity and the laws of the land. But before they reached back down to the ground the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers, shot them. After they were killed, the Bergerons’ television burned out and Hazel began to search for her husband. George reappeared in the living and neither him nor his wife could recollect what had just occurred in their living room. But as George tried to recall what happened, he was struck with a blustering sound that resembled a gunshot. Neither of them remembered what had just occurred, and neither could remember if they cared or not.

**“And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was turned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.”**


 * “That’s all right-” Hazel said of the announcer, “he tried. That’s the big thing. He tried to do the best he could with what God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard.””**


 * “It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.”**

This story reminded me of today’s society where some people are negative towards others who have better attributes than them. Some people don’t like that others are smarter, prettier or more successful than them. This is like the government in this story because they don’t look at people’s strengths as a positive, but they look at them as a negative. On the other hand, some people benefit from other’s advantages. Competition is what “drives” America. Americans thrive on competition and strive harder to surpass others. Seeing others succeed is like a domino effect and pushes Americans to aspire to achieve more. []