In 2081 everyone was equal and the same. If you were superior to someone in any way theylimit you to make everyone equal in every way. In this society if you stick out from the crowdpeople get jealous and limit you and discriminate against you.
The characters in this rare Harrison, George, Hazel, and the handicapper general. The characters are all equal and alsoknown as handicapped to limit the strong or pretty people to make everyone equal. Thehandicapper general is in charge of keeping everyone the same. This story starts off with Hazeland George watching the ballerinas dance in an awkward manner because they have to haveweights to limit themselves from being too good. Harrison is 14 and 7 feet tall and he isn’t happy with being handicapped and disagrees withthe government.
In the story it says Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen, she said in a gracklesquawk, has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow thegovernment. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded asextremely dangerous (Vonnegut 2). If the government didn’t do this he would not be upset andcould be superior in his own ways to everyone and makes him special. Harrison is in jailbecause he was planning to overthrow the government and considered insane. He always hasheavy weights to handicap him for being better than other people. He breaks out of jail andinstead of using violence to overthrow the government he goes on tv, takes off his handicapsand dances with a pretty ballerina with her handicap off and gets shot by the handicap general.
Hazel is the mother of Harrison that is not handicapped and she watches the ballerinas withGeorge on tv together. She is also mentally slow and cannot focus for very long. In the story itstates Only, if I was Handicapper General, you know what I would do? Said Hazel. Hazel wasa strong resemblance to the handicap general, a woman named Diana Moon Glampers. If Iwas Diana Moon Glampers said Hazel. I’d have chimes on Sunday” just chimes. Kind of inhonor of religion(Vonnegut 2). She is saying how she wants some sort of respect or honor in areligion. George is Harrison’s father and he has an intelligent mind so he was handicapped on thehead. In the story it says And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a littlemental handicap radio in his ear(Vonnegut 1). If the government didn’t do this he would behappy and and could be himself and would be able to use his brain for good and not be keptaway. George has a thing in his ear all the time so he doesn’t think to fast and disrupts histhinking with noises. He tries to think of things that will interfere with the government but theystop him with the headphones that he always have to wear by law.
In conclusion the characters all represent something in human nature for example, Harrisonrepresents freedom and the government doesn’t want that because they want everyone to beequal. Hazel and George are the example of the people that follows the laws. They sit back anddon’t retaliate because they can’t do anything about it.
