The Theme of Equality in 'Harrison Bergeron' by Kurt Vonnegut

The story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr is about how everyone has to be equal and if you don’t follow your basically breaking a law. The Bergeron has recently lost their son that was only fourteen years old, but currently is at the jail. They have no memory of anything sad that had happened. As they watch the tv everyone has to be at the same pace. No one can be better than anyone they had to do what was instructed. This story also has one strongest theme that I was thinking about. 

That strongest theme about the Harrison Bergeron is equality. This experience bring that they can’t be better than anyone and proves some that this story is about equality. This is the strongest theme because in the story, no one can be better looking than anyone else, so they wear ugly mask. So basically everyone has the same amount of looks. So they make a mask and make sure it was the ugliest mask ever. In the story it had said that ‘’She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous’’ which proves that if you were very pretty or handsome you had to wear mask to match like the other ugly people. 

The next piece of evidence is taht no one can have better intelligence than anyone else. So if they have better intelligence they use this sound to keep them from having better intelligence than anyone. They put some type of earpiece in your ear and you will listen to weird noises. I’m pretty sure it helps you keep your intelligence low like the other people that have low intelligence. For evidence it says ‘’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 time. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or, the transmitter would send out sharp noises to keep people like Geroge from taking unfair advantage of their brains.’’ So this basically proves that you can’t be smarter than anyone you literally have to have the same type of intelligence like everyone else. 

Last piece of evidence is that nobody can be stronger or quicker, If they were stronger that were punished with a bag of balls or weights. If you were quicker you coulnd’t run at all with the amount of weight you had. Everyone wears these handicap wights to make sure everyone has the same amount of strength and power to run so its equal. There isn’t much evidence for this sentence,but it still helps a bit on how this story’s theme is about equality. It gives a little more proof to understand that it’s about equality. Despite how some people don’t need ugly mask because they are probably already ugly, but if you look in the first paragraph it says that ‘’1 YEAR WAS 2081, and everyone was finally equal’’, which gives away the theme of the story. Everyone was equal in so many different ways. When they were watching the ballerinas in the story it explained how everyone was at the same pace and none of them were better than anyone that was dancing on the stage. No one in this world can see a pretty or graceful face all they can see is ugly masks that they wear. 

At the end of the story it showed how Harrison Bergeron escaped jail and how he thinks all the laws they had made is very unfair to people. He decides to perform a show with a lady and grabbed magicians to make it seem like the best dance. The dance was so beautiful that he started to kiss the girl that was dancing with him. Unfortunately the handicap general came out and shot Harrison and the lady. They were dead before they even hit the ground. The handicap general gave the magicians 10 seconds to put their stuff back on. If you take any of these off you either die or go to jail. Everyone is forced to be equal and if you don’t obey that law then you have to face the consequences. 

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