Harrison Bergeron Theme Analysis

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Everybody has been in a situation where you act before you think and your consequences were alarming. In Kurt Vonnegut, Jr’s story, “Harrison Bergeron,” everyone is equal. Nobody is better looking, smarter, stronger, or quicker than anyone else. Those with an basic intelligence are not able to focus on any of their thoughts except in short bursts. Other people with above normal intelligence had to wear a little handicap transmitter in their ear. Sharp noises come from the earpiece every 20 seconds to keep them from having any advantages in their concentration. Harrison, a 14 year old genius, has outgrown these hindrances faster than the government can make them. Instead of Harrison was held in jail because they suspected him of plotting to overthrow the government. In this tale, there is a theme that stands out -- for every action there is a consequence. However, another theme comes to mind -- equality is not always a good thing.
In the tragedy, …show more content…
A quote from the story that helps to explain this theme is - “If Hazel had not been able to come up with an answer to this question, George, could not have supplied one. A siren was going off in his head.” If nobody can supply answers how would our world benefit if all we had were questions? These questions could not be answered because the smarter people had to wear a transmitter in their ear, which broke their thought processes. Vonnegut wrote, “Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” If everybody is the same then how do we get anything done. We are only as smart as those around us. If that is all we know, nothing else would, or ever will be, discovered, invented, or changed. Connecting the dots, you find that equality is not a good thing and is displayed in the tragedy of Harrison’s
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