Social Inequality In Harrison Bergeron

Today’s society is exceedingly opposed to standards set by the media. Equality is claimed for everyone with constant arguing amongst the population about what is socially or politically acceptable vs. what is not. Harrison Bergeron opens a window for us to see how much equality is too much. Where is the line that ought not to be crossed and what will the negative repercussions if it is? Vonnegut vocalizes this concept so clearly and brilliantly; whether societal equality can turn to mistreatment and what the consequences will be when it does. By the second paragraph in Harrison Bergeron, the concerning health risks inflicted upon the citizens by the Handicapper General reveal themselves. “…he didn’t get very far with it [the thought]
“’All of a sudden you look so tired,’ said Hazel… She was referring to the forty-seven pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag which was padlocked around George’s neck” (Vonnegut 40). Consequently, hanging cumbersome, heavy weights off of people twenty-four/seven will cause serious marring to the spine, knees, shoulders, and other various joints and appendages. All of these things factor in to create a poor quality of health for the citizens living under the Handicapper General.

People in Harrison Bergeron are forced into wearing excessive handicaps to make everyone’s skill sets equal, identical; one is left to question how this affects the productivity of society. In the text, a dialogue is shared between George and Hazel, the topic regarding what would occur if everyone removed their handicaps. Hazel reckons “it’d fall apart.” To which George replies, “What would?” This shows that George simply forgot about what Hazel and he were
This dehumanizes a person and gives them more of a mechanical persona. “And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron’s fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away. It was tragic alright, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very hard” (Vonnegut 38). George and Hazel’s son are forcibly taken from them and placed in prison. Most parents would become distraught and fight for their child to be returned to them safely. George and Hazel, however, cannot because they aren’t allowed to think in-depth about anything which directly correlates to their raw emotions. In the narrative, Hazel sees her son murdered by the Handicapper General and begins to sob, as any sympathetic mother would. George questions why she is upset to which she responds “I forgot…something real sad on television.” George asks what it was, but Hazel can’t formulate a clear answer as to what she saw. So George tells her to “forget sad things,” to which she responds with, “I always do” (Vonnegut 44). The government has completely robbed its citizens of emotions, leaving them immensely passive even when a person was just murdered by their own head of government before their own eyes. When you take away the more imperfect and painful moments in a person’s life, there cannot be any of the wonderful ones. Without their emotions and deeper