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.
