Summary Of Kurt Vonnegut: A World Without Competition

Vonnegut has created a world without competition, without a driving force for greatness, and without a tool to motivate ambition. However in this non-competitive culture no one seems to care that they have been stripped of such an amazing tool to success. When George, the genius father to Harrison, replies to Hazel, the dimwitted wife to George, about not having to compete with anyone at home he says, “‘And pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again , with everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn’t like that, would you?’ ‘I’d hate it,’ said Hazel” (301). It is evident that George and Hazel have totally given up on the idea of competition and even have come to hate it. When George says “You wouldn’t like that, would you?” and when Hazel responds with, “I’d hate it.” it informs the reader to how these two characters have
truly given up on their ambitions , and their willingness to push society and mankind towards greater things. Consequently due to this horrible way to view competition the citizens of 2081 America have stopped striving for greatness and have lost their ambition to fight and work for the things they love and enjoy. Unfortunately forcing this way of thinking upon the citizens is too important to equality to have it any other way.
In the same conversation between George and Hazel, Vonnegut’s fictional society continues to push this idea of competition being a negative concept through the character of Hazel.
For this complete and utter equal society of 2081 competition would be a terrible thing to reintroduce. Their sense of equality would be shattered, and the constant shared feelings of either pain, fatigue, or sadness would be eliminated. Although reintroducing competition would have good attributes it would also bring all of its negative attributes such as stress, anger, and depression. These qualities would surely bring about the terrors of the “dark ages” again. Hazel stresses this ideas of the a world without competition is better than a world with, when she responds to Georges question by saying, ‘“Reckon it’d fall all apart”’(301). Through qualities like anger, stress, and depression that are all results of competition, a society like 2081 would most definitely fall apart. Due to these results of competition and others like it, competition should most certainly should not be reintroduced for the sake of the society’s current
stability.
Of course there's also a strong argument on why competition should be reintroduced to the society of 2081. To bring competition back to into a society like 2081 would be revolutionary, and would bring a new sense of life into the world of the everyday person. Competition would allow for new innovations, leaders that could rocket society towards greatness, and inconceivable amounts of progress and development for a better and more successful world. Naturally these are all foreign or hated ideas by the vast majority of the current society of 2081. Not to Harrison though, he understood what his society was holding him back from, so when he breaks into the dance performance and presents his own greatness, he shows his world what even his own competition against society has allowed him to do. He presents his skill and grace when he and his empress have an, “ explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang! Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well. They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun” (304). As soon as Harrison finally lets the world see his spoils of competing against society it reveals an, “explosion of joy and grace,” nowhere else in this society is there explosions of joy and grace. Therefore for this society to finally live and even thrive again the reintroduction of competition is imperative.
Although competition would shatter all equality and normalcy from the society of 2081, ambition, progression, innovation, joy, and plethora of other attributes would be able to flourish once again in their society change the everyday lives of every citizen. This is what competition can do and this is why competition should have its place in the society of 2081.