“Harrison
Bergeron” begins, “THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal.” Upon
reading that and knowing that this piece was dystopian, I braced myself for any
horrific practices or polices within this society. So it was not to my surprise
that striving for equality in this society was taken to extremes. Equality
meant that everyone was literally the
same in every way due to new amendments and the United States Handicapper
General. These amendments made it possible for people to have the same
intelligence by having a mental handicap radio or if someone looked very
different from everyone else, they’d have a physical handicap, or both.
As
I was reading this, I thought back to Ayn Rand’s Anthem, wherein their society also strived for equality by taking
away individualism and controlling for every aspect of the citizens’ lives—
from what their jobs were, to when they mate, where they live, etc. However,
there was no physical handicapping that took place within that society as
opposed to the one in “Harrison Bergeron.” It was interesting, but at the same
time creepy to read about a society where the government strips people of their
individuality by making them physically unable to do things that would make
them seem more than average. This included making it difficult for citizens to
think for themselves, or by concealing their true heights or beauty through metal
handicaps. While in Anthem, the
government tried to prevent citizens from rebelling by placing them in jobs
that did not suit their intelligence; in this literature, the government
prevented rebellion by having a loud sound go off in the citizens’ heads that
they considered smart, every time their brain was trying to make sense of what
was going on. There was no doubt that this was a dystopian society because
natural human rights and individuality was taken away.
One
thing that was very different in this piece as opposed to other dystopian
literature was the fact that the protagonist, Harrison Bergeron, was not
successful in trying to break free of the government. While he tried to make a
scene in front of the television broadcast and rip off all of his handicaps, he
only ended up getting shot and killed by the handicap general. His own parents
could not even react to what happened because the handicaps produced a
distraction making them forget what they were watching and their train of
thought. When Harrison was shot, his rebellion died instantly. In most
dystopian literature, the protagonist is able to either break free of governmental
control by running away, as seen in Anthem
by Ayn Rand, “Welcome to the Monkey House” by Vonnegut and other works. The
protagonist also usually has a longer life span. The only other dystopian
literature that I have noticed sort of connects with what happened to the
protagonist is Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell.
In the novel, the protagonist ended up
being tortured by the government (The Party) until he believed in everything
The Party said. In both cases of Harrison and the protagonist in Nineteen Eighty-Four, their attempt to open the eyes of
the citizens to the truth of the government failed.
I
liked this piece a lot because the brutal truth of the society’s governmental
control was introduced right away. It was enticing as well as horrifying
reading about a society that strips individuality by physically altering its’
citizens. While this piece screams collectivism; it takes a different approach
compared to other dystopian literature because the focus was mainly on a person’s
physical appearance and mental states being fixed so that everyone was equal. Of course this would never happen
in real life because it is inhumane to place metal handicaps on people, but to
imagine it happening in our own world is something to really think about.
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