"the Pedestrian" Ray Bradbury

In the second story, "The Pedestrian" Ray Bradbury describes a man, Leonard Mead, taking a walk at night in the year 2053. In the story Bradbury uses great imagery to describe the setting Leonard is walking through. Mr. Mead is walking on the sidewalk at night and he passes no one. There is no one on the sidewalk, on the street. All that can be seen is the light coming from TV's inside the houses. All the people at this time almost never go out anymore. They just watch T.V. The city only has one police car, and no driver. By mere chance, the police car passes Mr. Mead walking on the sidewalk. The car asks him why he is walking and if he owns a television. The car assumes Mr. Mead is a crazy person and it takes him to a mental institution. Crime had been virtually eliminated because of the confines of the law. Every time he is thinking about something it will give off a piercing sound in his ear to stop his train of thought. He is also physically handicapped with weights. During the story, George and Hazel are watching a program on T.V. It is a group of ballerinas dancing, all with different handicaps, one including a mask to shield beauty. Later in the show, a boy, seven feet tall I might add, comes on to the stage. He happens to be their son, Harrison Bergeron, and believes all of the handicapping is wrong and immoral. He proceeds to rip off his extremely heavy physical handicaps, and takes the mask off the ballerina. The Handicapper General, the one who put all of these laws in place shows up on the stage, and shoots fourteen year old Harrison and the ballerina, with a shotgun. George and Hazel see this on T.V. and don't even realize it is their own son being shot because of their handicaps.