Harrison Bergeron By Kurt Vonnegut Jr Theme example essay topic

Theme is a concept that can be related to all works of literature ranging from short stories to novels. Theme, which is sometimes used in the same sense as motif to signify recurring concepts in literature, refers mainly to the arguments or general ideas expressed by a literary work, whether it is implied or explicitly stated. In the short story "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. theme played a vital role in the stories general setup. "Harrison Bergeron" theme was on a general basic of equality. Equality is a subject that is very touchy and most do not know how to conquer or talk about it, but Vonnegut captured it in his story "Harrison Bergeron". According to Vonnegut and his them equality could be obtained by these three main objectives.

The three main objectives were to 1) make everyone have the same intelligence, 2) make everyone the have the same strengths and weaknesses, and 3) make everyone look alike. One of the three main objectives that were used in the story "Harrison Bergeron" was that everyone must look alike. This was accomplish by there not being makeup for women, handicaps for all people, and other accessories put on the body to make a person seem as if they had no strengths or weaknesses. An example of this happening was when Hazel and George were having a conversation while watching ballerinas and the conversation went blank because of a loud noise in George's and the ballerina's ears.

It was stated in the story that "Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant that she couldn't think about anything in except in short burst. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear... Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people... from taking advantage of their brains (Vonnegut 235)". This showed in the story how the author tried to make everyone have the same intelligence. Another one of the main objectives in the story "Harrison Bergeron" was that everyone must have the same strengths and weaknesses.

It was shown an ample amount of times in the story that "all this quality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the constitution (Vonnegut 234)". One person that was really affected by this amendment, because he was considered strong, was Harrison. He was taken from his parents at the young age of 14, and had many handicaps. "Nobody had ever borne heavier handicaps (Vonnegut 236) " than Harrison. The government knew that he was of the strong, and the ladies considered him handsome, so they made sure that his handicaps would make him look as if he was a hideous creature. This is one main point which showed that everyone must have the same strengths and weaknesses and if they did not and broke loss of the handicaps they would die or be kill like Harrison was.

Last but not least, one of the themes objectives was to make everyone look alike and be or the normal and not elite. This is something that truly can not be accomplished but since this is a Sci-Fi story the author tried. This objective was tried and not accomplished even though they had many handicaps and the government tried to used different used of betrayal. It was stated that "Harrison Bergeron... has just escaped from jail... He is a genius, athlete, is under handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous (Vonnegut 236)". This in a small form shows how they wanted everyone to look alike but they just could not succeed.

Equality is a very funny subject that touches on the issue of being "normal" or be called the wonderful word "different". Who makes the outlines for what is "normal" and what is "abnormal?" Everyday Americans, Asians, and many other cultures are what set the "norms" and "diffs" of society. I can relate to this story because I am a Haute Couture designer and everything I do or even make is not considered normal; but if a star of someone with a name was to wear what I made it would be considered "Normal". It would be nice if one day everyone could just be themselves without being judge on what is "normal" and what is "different". Kurt Vonnegut started a good trend in story writing but not caring what others thought of his Avant Garde writing. Who will be the next to follow in his footsteps?