People always complaining that they want to live in equality, and they look on what they don’t have instead of making themselves better. Everyone is unique in his/her own way. People think that they can all live with equal resources and opportunities. However, this is never can be the truth. In the short story ‘Harrison Bergeron’ by Kurt Vonnegut, it shows that even though the government thought they are making everyone live in an equality, they proved how dangerous equality can be. In addition, when everyone was okay living in an average existence instead of showing their abilities, Harrison Bergeron faced all the dangerous and refused to live in a torture life under the name of equality. Harrison is a hero in a society that’s accepting how the government is treating them.
Government’s belief of making people live in an equal life they made sure that “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else” (Vonnegut 1). So, they created an idea which is anyone who has a unique characteristic will have to have a handicap that lead him to be in pain. While the people that don’t have these unique characteristics, will be living their lives without pain!
For example, one of the characters (Hazel) had an average intelligence, while her husband (George) his intelligence was way higher than her. So the government created a device for the people who have a higher intelligent than other to wear it on their ears that device was, “Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (Vonnegut 1). This is a brief example that proves people could never live in an equal life. George didn’t choose to be intelligent. He was born like that, so no one should punish him by torturing him every time he thinks. That’s not equality.
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Not because his wife is less intelligent which also, she didn’t choose to be like that, gives her the opportunity to live a normal life. In my eyes, this is not equality. People have the right to live a normal life without pain and use their intelligence or anything that they have. And the people think that they don’t have the same characteristics as others, they’re wrong because everyone is unique in a different way. Another example show that the government is cruel. One of the ballerinas was having many handicaps, which means the more handicap, the more characteristics you have, and others don’t. “She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred-pound men” (Vonnegut 3).
The government was torturing her by making her wear 200 pounds of bags to make her less beautiful. This is not equality, that’s cruelty. Again, she didn’t choose to be beautiful and talented. She has the right to live a normal life and to enjoy her talent. People decided to live in this life and to not take an action. They decided to give up their lives to an unfair system called “living in an equality life.” Until Harrison Bergen came and faced the law and the system.
Harrison Bergen’s reputation was miserable. The media showed him as a criminal who “escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government” (Vonnegut 3). Harrison doesn’t agree with how the government is ruling the society, he was the only who was against the government and wanted to do a change. He wants to tell people that you enjoy your life without being handicapped and you’re not. Harrison is an actual hero; he sacrificed his reputation and life in order to get justice to the rest of the society while everyone else is a rule follower.
Since Harrison is “a genius and athlete” (Vonnegut 3), he’s is considered one of the unfair people in the society because of his characteristics that may other people don’t have. Instead of the society push each other to be better, they take teacher other down thinking that they’re equal. Harrison appeared live on the tv broadcast to show the people what the government has been doing to them and no one is taking an action. As it was mentioned before there was a ballerina that was carrying 200 pounds to make her a handicap, that ballerina must be unique in somehow to the point that the government is torturing her in that way. Therefore, Harrison, took an actin toward that ballerina. “A moment passed, and then a ballerina arose, swaying like a willow. Harrison plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy. Last of all he removed her mask. She was blindingly beautiful” (Vonnegut 4). Harrison did that to show the world what the government has been hiding.
This blindingly beautiful woman can’t live her life as any normal human just because she’s beautiful. He wanted to tell people that the live that they have been living in is not equal as the government has been saying. It’s actually a torture and unfair to everyone and teach people how to not push each other forward. The government created a kind of a jealousy and cruelty between people. ‘If I tried to get away with it,’ said George, ‘then other people would get away with it-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.” (Vonnegut 2). This a prove right here when George just mentioned to Hazel how would she feel if everyone escaped from their handicap, she simply said, “I would hate it.” The government turned people to be cruel and want to see others be in pain because they’re unique. Harrison was being selfless; he didn’t want anything except making a better society for people to live in. And he ended up by dying by shotgun because he was the only hero the stood up against the laws.
Finally, Harrison was a real hero. He tried to free people and open their eyes on the truth which that they’re living in a cruel not an equal society as they have been told. Many people get jealous when others have a unique characteristic that they don’t have. Those people think that just because others are different in some way, it means that they’re not good enough. The government wasn’t just torturing people they also taught them how to be selfish and to stay where they are without trying to be better. Harrison was the only one who accepted that people are diverse and that each one is unique in a different way and doesn’t mean that these people can’t live a normal life expressing their talents. Harrison was a hero in a society that brought each other down.
