Satire In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

In "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, the author creates a short story about a Dystopian society where any form of "unequal advantage" is frowned upon and dealt with by a method known as “Handicapping” a person. Handicapping was given based off the “advantage” that a person had, a few examples being the ballerinas forced to cover their faces to keep their beauty hidden or an overly intelligent person being forced to wear a mental radio within his/her own ear. Vonnegut deploys a very dark sense of satire throughout the story. He creates this world as a way to everyone that nobody will ever be fully equal, and to want such a thing would lead complete disaster. For a unified society to become completely equal, every single individual’s uniqueness
would be rendered as nonexistent, causing an almost complete downfall for that society. Vonnegut also deploys the technique of irony. One example being the over excessive amounts of amendments to the Constitution. These amendments were created to “perfect” society as a whole but hardens citizen’s life, such as Hazel and George. Hazel says to George: "If you could just take a few out when you came home from work. I mean-you don't compete with anybody around here. You just sit around." Hazel and George then talk about the fine and jail time that is associated with removal of some weight. Vonnegut concludes with the death of Harrison and the ballerina, this representing that any signs of rebellion or self-representation will not be tolerated.