The Whole Essay!

Refer to the last blog posts for the prompt/outline.
Well, here it is the whole shebang!

Handicaps as Symbols in “Harrison Bergeron”

The symbols, George’s sound in his ear, and the ballerina’s weights, are used by Vonnegut in his short story, “Harrison Bergeron” to create absolute, forced equality in his futuristic community. At the beginning, the symbols show the burden of complete, forced equality and then how progress is halted when all people care about is utter equality. Later, the symbols show how the handicaps, now representing the affliction of absolute equality and the rarity of progress, create problems with relationships.Vonnegut is able to the use symbols, the sound in George’s ear and the ballerina’s weights, to show how complete equality has a negative effect on the progress of thoughts, relationships, can prohibit excellence.

At the start of the story, the physical handicaps, weights on the ballerinas, and the mental handicaps, the sounds in George’s ear,represent the burden of absolute, enforced equality. George and Hazel are watching ballerinas dance beautifully on TV at the beginning of the story. To keep all of the ballerina’s dancing equal they “were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot” (Vonnegut 1).  Not only do they have to bear those weights while they are dancing, it is a burden because of the enforced equality. The physical handicaps that were imposed on the dancers, show the onus the enforced equality.

Moreover, the mental handicap in George’s ear is placed there so “people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (Vonnegut 1).   Vonnegut describes George as having above-average intelligence. However, in this futuristic utopia, above-average is not okay, unless everyone is. Consequently George’s intelligence made him have “a little mental handicap radio in his ear,” (Vonnegut 1) and “would send out some sharp noise” (Vonnegut 1) to prevent un-equality in intelligence and eventually the progression of thoughts. Since the above average intelligence is unable to think about things in depth, only the surface of the topic is brushed and is unable to make connections to create progress. The handicaps enable equality, but disable the ability to form complex comments that will eventually lead to the development of even more elaborate comments, all because of forced, later unwanted, equality.   

As the story progresses, the symbols come to symbolize progress, specifically how progress is halted  when all people care about is absolute equality that is created by the handicaps. While the couple is watching TV when the ballerinas were on “George [is] toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped” (Vonnegut 1).   However, as soon as he tried to make progress, or evolve,  his thoughts the mental handicap sounded. Consequently, the notion “didn’t get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts” (Vonnegut 1).  George’s mental handicap limits his ability to form advanced thoughts that could and most likely will  lead to progress, and his ear radio will always ruin and diffuse his potentially intelligent comment. Most people are masked by these handicaps, making them unaware of the side effects, especially no progress, which leaves them bewildered and perplexed when the handicaps disrupt relationships . Yet, some people will also recognize those side effects and take action to break free of these handicaps, in the form of relationships to mock the fact that handicaps, the sound in George’s ear and the ballerina’s weights, can break down relationships.

When the end of the story arrives, the symbols finally illustrate the harm to relationships and the rebellion of the handicaps through the creation of other relations. In attempt to rally the rebellion, Harrison picked a ballerina from the crowd and “plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy” (Vonnegut 5). He removed all of the ballerina’s handicaps and declared her his Empress to rebel against the government and show that absolute equality is useless. By Harrison taking off the ballerina’s weights, he creates a relationship as “Harrison and his Empress” and enables rebellion. 

In another instance after the couple watched the horror of Harrison on TV, a relationship was destroyed; the connection was lost between Harrison and his parents. George goes to get a drink and comes back to Hazel crying and says to “‘forget sad things,’ said George. ‘I always do,’ said Hazel’” (Vonnegut 6) and then promptly heard, “the sound of a riveting gun in his head” (Vonnegut 6). In the first part of the quote, George was telling Hazel to forget Harrison dying on TV. At this point the  relationship and connection between Harrison and his parents is destroyed. When George hears the sound of a gun, it emphasizes the fact that the mental handicap ruins any hope of reconnecting with his son, and even the mourning over the death of Harrison. 

Vonnegut uses this story mock absolute equality. He is trying to tell us that when everybody is equal, it will be horrible,not worth it and that people should focus their energy somewhere else, such as trying to create progress and increase the complexity of their thoughts. Through the symbols, he shows the reader that equality is harmful and that there should be people who are better than the average and even people who are below average. By not limiting what people can accomplish, like removing the handicaps in the story, it will eventually demonstrate to us how excellence can better the prosperity.

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Revised Intro and outline to Short Works Essay

Here is a revised introduction and outline to the Short Works essay mentioned in the last post.

The symbols, George’s sound in his ear, and the ballerina’s weights, are used by Vonnegut in his short story, “Harrison Bergeron” to create absolute, forced equality in his futuristic community. The symbols show the burden of the involuntary, complete parity, and how progress is seized when there is utter equality. Later, the symbols show how the handicaps, now representing the affliction of absolute equality and the rarity of progress, create problems with relationships. Vonnegut is able to use symbols, the sound in George’s ear and the ballerina’s weights, to show how outright impartiality has a negative effect on the progress of thoughts, relationships,  and can prohibit excellence.

Outline:

I.                   At the start of the story, the physical handicaps, weights on the ballerinas, and the mental handicaps, the sounds in George’s ear, represent the burden of absolute, enforced equality.

a.       “They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot.”

b.      “And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear”

c.       “the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains”

II.                As the story progresses, the symbols come to symbolize progress, specifically how no progress is made with absolute equality created by the handicaps.

a.       “But he didn’t get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts.”

b.      “George was toying with the notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped.”

III.             When the end of the story arrived, the symbols finally illustrate the harm to relationships and the rebellion of the handicaps through the creation of other relationships.

a.       “George came back in with the beer, paused while a handicap signal shook him up. And then he sat down again. "You been crying" he said to Hazel… "Forget sad things," said George. "I always do," said Hazel. "That's my girl," said George. He winced. There was the sound of a rivetting gun in his head.”

b.      “Harrison plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy.”

Introduction to the Short Works Essay

In my English class we were given an essay that we will write overtime with an elaborate process. The prompt is to chose one author's text that we read for summer reading and explain how this writer utilizes one of the following literary tools-- characterization, symbolism, irony, tone-- to make a comment or pose a question about the challenges we face when trying to live as individuals in the world.

I chose to write about the symbolism in "Harrison Bergeron" By Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

For this blog post we are required to post our introduction of the essay.

My introduction:

Vonnegut in his short story, “Harrison Bergeron” is creating a community where everyone is absolutely equal; nobody is more exceptional or better looking than another. If person has special brain power, they get a sharp noise sent to them at random times in the day so they will not use their brain to an advantage. In this futuristic culture, equality was prized and handicaps, like the sharp noises sent to exceptional brains, were placed on people that the higher authorities thought would be better than anyone else, to keep complete parity. Vonnegut satirizes the fact that everyone should be equal and uses the symbol of handicaps to portray his stance on the topic. The symbol, handicaps, is used by Vonnegut to contribute to the absolute equality in a large group of people, so that Vonnegut can satirize how equality can hurt us, which consequently creates people who resist the handicaps, and with these handicaps it hinders the ability of other individuals to recollect the memory of those rebels who are skeptical of the norm and strive for a change in the system.