Harrison Bergeron

Harrison Bergeron

Harrison Bergeron is a short story about a fictional tale on how a small family portrayed American society. Kurt Vonnegut, the author of the story uses George, his wife Hazel, and his son Harrison to describe three different levels of society in that time frame that could be used in any era at any given point. The author describes the three characters along the lines of how people in society settle in life ;bottom half, middle class, and upper class. Dystopia (Dictonary.com) was a word that I found that would describe the time for the family living in that society perfectly. It is described as a society characterized by human misery, oppression, disease ridden and overcrowding. Kurt does an excellent job of describing equality itself but rather the American society's flawed idea of equality.

Hazel is the first character that is used in the story. She is depicted to represent the lowest form of society. Most people like Hazel are easily persuaded to fall a mediocre style of living, leaching off a system that is set in place for the people that are ok with just getting by. Hazel was average and couldn't think of anything except in short periods of time. She also in a way tried to get her husband, George to go against the laws and rules of that time with attempting to suggest he release the contents of the bird shot that was in his bag that he wore around his neck. In my opinion, this falls right in line with how the lower class of people in not only that society but in todays society. The individuals who are just ok with settling also quite frequently try to bring their loved ones into the same thought process and way of thinking. She also attempted to justify to George breaking the rules because of how hard he worked each and every day and that no one would notice