Uniformity and Deformity in "Harrison Bergeron"
An exploration of the main theme of "Harrison Bergeron"
Marek Vit
In this essay, I will attempt to explore what Kurt Vonnegut
illustrated in his short story "Harrison Bergeron"--the fact that
uniformity (of any kind) leads to the loss of individuality, and
therefore to absolute deformity of humanness.
"The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal," the
story begins. "They weren't only equal before God and the law.
They were equal in every which way." (Vonnegut 1968:7) In this
haunting story, Vonnegut probably wanted to warn our society of
similar kind of equality, equality that can be fatal for human
race.
The theme of absolute equality has already appeared two
years before "Harrison Bergeron" was published for the first time
in Fantasy and Science-Fiction Magazine (1961). It was
Vonnegut's novel The Sirens of Titan. However, in this work the
theme is only a minor feature and is not really developed (see
Vonnegut 1975:158). The idea probably intrigued Kurt Vonnegut and
forced him to develop it into a short story. Those who are
familiar with Kurt Vonnegut's writing will certainly recognize
some other themes of this story. For example the fear of
de-humanization of human beings, being stuck in amber (Harrisons
inability to overthrow the system) and so forth.
In "Harrison Bergeron", Kurt Vonnegut presented a scary view
of a future society, where everyone was equal. "Nobody was
smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody
else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else."
(Vonnegut 1988:7). It was the job of the agents of the United
States Handicapper General to keep it this way. Beautiful people
had to wear ugly masks. People not heavy enough had to wear
handicap bags full of lead. Clever people had to wear a radio in
their ear tuned to the government transmitter, which sent out
sharp noises to keep people from taking advantage of their
brains. It was a world where competition was the greatest of
sins.
I think that this view can be very easily related to modern
society. People are striving for equality of some kind--equality
of races, sexes etc. People try to eliminate racism, sexism,
lookism, ableism, ageism. Even the word speciesism starts to
appear in modern dictionaries of Politically Correct language.
The society in "Harrison Bergeron" succeeded in eliminating these
prejudices--everybody got the same opportunity to do
anything--and the result was fatal.
When the power got into the hands of stupid people unfit for
governing the country, they had to find a way to protect their
position. So they came with the idea of handicaps, which brought
all the above-average people and the average people to the level
of the below-average ones. Thus, their position of power was
preserved. The result was that people lost their individuality,
lost their humanity.
Theodore Sturgeon's novel Godbody deals with a problem
seemingly distant from this, yet I think it is very similar. It
deals with human sexuality and nakedness. In the introduction to
this book, Robert A. Heinlein said:
"God must love skin since he makes so much of it.
Covering it with cloth or leather or fur in the name of
'decency' is a vice thought up by dirty old men; don't blame
it on God." (Heinlein in the introduction to Sturgeon)
A great example of such an indecent (or perhaps more
importantly, envious) character in "Harrison Bergeron" is Diana
Moon Glampers. In God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, she is described
as a "sixty-year-old virgin who, by almost anybody's standards,
was too dumb to live." (Vonnegut 1978:56) "No one had ever loved
her. There was no reason why anybody should. She was ugly,
stupid, and boring." (Vonnegut 1978:56) In "Harrison Bergeron"
she got a position at the top of the society and she wanted to
keep it. That's why she killed Harrison and the girl he danced
with. They represented a great danger. Had they succeeded in
overthrowing the system, she'd be just an unsuccessful woman on
the bottom of the society. It was vital for her to shoot them and
preserve the monstrous society.
There is a certain resemblance of the story and several
periods of human history. Dictatorships worked, and still work,
this way. A wonderful example is the communist system in some
eastern-european countries (e.g. the Czech Republic) which was,
fortunately, overthrown in 1989. People were discouraged from
thinking by themselves, discouraged from forming their own
opinions. Children were "processed" in schools to be all uniform
in mind and opinion. People were then more easily manipulable,
which was the goal of the communist party.
And this is probably what Kurt Vonnegut tried to warn us in
"Harrison Bergeron". Don't let anything or anyone deprive you of
your individuality. Otherwise you will lose your humanity as
well. If we continue in striving for equality, we could end up
like the society in "Harisson Bergeron". If we get as far as
eliminating speciesism, we can end up like in the short story by
Kilgore Trout "Hail to the Chief", where a chimpanzee became the
President of the United States.
"The chimpanzee wore a little blue blazer with brass
buttons, and with the seal of the President of the United
States sewed to the breast pocket. It looked like this:
Everywhere he went, bands would play 'Hail to the
Chief.' The chimpanzee loved it. He would bounce up and
down." (Vonnegut 1992:88)
References:
Sturgeon, Theodore Godbody
New York:
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Breakfast of Champions
London: 1992; Cox & Wyman Ltd.
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
New York: 1978; Dell Publishing
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. The Sirens of Titan
London: 1975; Coronet Books
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Welcome to the Monkey House
New York: 1988; Bantam Doubleday, Dell Publishing
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Last modified: March 11, 2002