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Kurt Vonnegut's short story Harrison Bergeron is acclaimed for its symbolism. Beyond its literal meaning, what deeper and figurative messages does it convey - specifically, in relation to utopianism?

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I've always taken the story to be a metaphor for the cost of civilization on the individual.

The basic idea of Harrison Bergeron is that, in a future USA, people are declared to be equal. In order to accomplish this in fact, exceptional people are "handicapped". Someone who is handsome is made to wear an ugly mask, a strong person has to wear weights that make them effectively weaker, and an intelligent person has a device that interrupts their train of thought at random times. These devices are mandated by law. (It is implied that these are examples, and that there are other such devices.)

Consider real-world "equalizing" mechanisms: ramps for wheelchairs, braille on ATMs, subtitles on TV shows, and so on. The story turns this on its head. Isn't being less intelligent or ugly also a disadvantage? What if we decide to "punish" the exceptional? What would the world look like?

The cost to civilization in the real world is that we have to pay for wheelchair ramps in new construction, commission studies to determine if signs need to be accessible, and so on. The cost to the topsy-turvy world in Harrison Bergeron is that creativity and spontaneity are stifled as the cost of equality.

(Of course, all of this was written before ablest theory became popular. I wonder how Vonnegut would have written this story had he written it now?)

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  • Is this the sort of answer that makes sense on this site? If not, please leave feedback in the comments and I'd be happy to update this. Oct 29, 2011 at 15:07
  • If you consider in this that everyone would have to be "brought down" to the lowest common denominator as far as intelligence (only one aspect of being equal), that would leave for a very dumb society. I think Vonnegut was spot on with this short story. Sep 5, 2014 at 14:33
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This short story is an allegory pertaining to socialism and particularly Marxism. Its tongue-in-cheek humor of the problems that would exist in a world that demands equality was a product of fear of the nuclear bomb during the Cold War. This humor was labeled "black humor" or "dark humor" which is present in a lot of Vonnegut's work, as comedic relief for the political problems at the time.

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It's not about the evils of communism, for Vonnegut himself was a borderline Marxist. Notice how Harrison Bergeron doesn't come to free everyone, he comes to take over. The whole story is saying that absolute power by a group or by a single person are both bad.

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I would have to disagree and say it has to do a lot with Marxism and communism because in the end Harrison, the rebel against this communistic-appearing USA, is killed by Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General who for the most part runs the government. I believe that Vonnegut had the communist government win in the end because he was a Marxist himself.

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I see it more as a satire on conformity, and on the tough time bright kids were apt to get at the hands of their "peers" - especially at the time of writing. This is what their more "normal" classmates would have done to them if they could.

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