Harrison Bergeron Literary Analysis

A utopian society is generalized as a world where everything is perfect to near-perfect with little room for flaws or errors. The polar opposite however, a dystopian society, is a society where everything from freedom and justice has completely become irrelevant, where everything is undesirable and frightening. One source that will be used is Kurt Vonnegut’s short story; Harrison Bergeron which has very contrasting themes depending on individual perspective. The thing with these societies is that more often than not,they are based around individual perspective. Much like journalism and overall modern media, perspectives will revolve around bias. It is that bias that settles the debate between the two societies commonly used in fictional novels,
movies and even children’s stories. A utopian society is as functional as it is dysfunctional.
In many points within Harrison Bergeron, it is mentioned that all citizens residing within the United States of America are intentionally handicapped. This is revealed within the exposition and further iterated as the story progresses as later on Hazel, George’s wife, says; "You been so tired lately-kind of wore out, If there was just some way we could make a little hole in the bottom of the bag, and just take out a few of them lead balls. Just a few." To where George replies with "Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out, I don't call that a bargain.” This exchange in conversation even if it seems very minor, is the pinnacle of evidence that the brainwashing and conditioning that has been put upon the citizens by the government, works. Regardless of what the reader wants to think about this society, it is relatively functional, with very convincing reason. The characters in this story may see the society that they live in as utopian but as mentioned before, the two are all dependent on perspective.
Lois Lowry’s book, The Giver, fits into the thesis that dystopia and utopia are all dependent on perspective. The story takes place in a futuristic representation of the world where all knowledge of past wars, grief, rebellion and imbalance has been stored and only accessible to ‘The Giver’. Lying is forbidden and in retrospect, all citizens are equal. Family units are never bound by blood as sexual intercourse is also forbidden amongst the people in order to further encourage equality. Within the story, the normal, everyday citizens are in the illusion that their world is absolutely perfect as everything is tailored to fit into the visual representation of perfection. ‘The Giver’ is able to see past this, to see how humanity has lost its individuality and freedom of expression. The Giver is then given an apprentice, Jonas, who is also the main protagonist within the story. Jonas has internal conflicts throughout the progression of the story as the realization that the world once thought of as perfect and carefree was sugar coated to in order to hide the reality of lost culture and heritage that was intentionally thrown away in place of a generalization of equality and world peace. Jonas finds contradictions in the once thought-to-be utopian society that eventually is seen as dystopian in the eyes of the ‘The Giver’ and its
apprentice. Another source that will be mentioned is North Korea which actually has a lot in common with Harrison Bergeron. At night, it is stated that North Korea is completely dark, no light emits from the country, not even the capital, Pyongyang. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita in North Korea is less than $2000 US Dollars. The United State’s GDP is $17419 Billion US Dollars; this means that even the poorest neighborhoods in the United States live luxuriously compared to the top families in North Korea. Much like in Harrison Bergeron, the people of North Korea are brainwashed and are forced to be completely ignorant from the outside world; this relates to how utopian and dystopian societies are based around individual perspective. A top official in North Korea would see the country as utopian in nature, that nothing is wrong and that all citizens residing in North Korea are completely happy. Even lower class families adopt this mentality as it is forced into the brains of children that the supreme leader is a descendent of God, that the supreme leader is to be treated with the utmost respect and disobeying to submit results in the death of not just the individual, but also the whole family. Many people attempt to escape North Korea however, every system that includes submission from the people will have it’s flaws. These refuges that escape from North Korea are the anomalies within brainwashing system set in place by the Government; this sound oddly similar to the story in Harrison Bergeron, doesn’t it? Harrison ends up being the anomaly within the system put in place by the Government only to be shut down later on. To reiterate, a utopian society is one in where everything is perfect to near-perfect while a dystopian society is a society where everything from freedom and justice has completely become irrelevant, where everything is undesirable and frightening, everything is based around perspective. Refugees from North Korea describe their home as backwards, wrong and horrific. Top ranking officials describe North Korea as a place of equality amongst all people as proven by their extreme, communist values. Characters in Harrison Bergeron such as Hazel and George would describe the environment as fair and true, nothing would be seen as wrong as nothing else is revealed through the constant inability to think and express individuality. In conclusion, nothing and nowhere can be completely debated as only being utopian or dystopian, where there is a society, there will be contrasting ideas and thoughts no matter how much effort is put into completely brainwashing individual thought and denying basic human rights.