Harrison Bergeron Totally Explained

Everything about Harrison Bergeron totally explained

"Harrison Bergeron" is a dystopian science fiction short story written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and first published in October, 1961. The theme of the story is egalitarianism and is set by the first line: "The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal." Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the story was re-published in the author's collection, Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968.

Plot summary

In the story, societal equality has been achieved by handicapping the most intelligent, athletic or beautiful members of society down to the level of the highest common endowment. This process is central to the society, designed so that no one will feel inferior to anyone else. This is overseen by the United States Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers.
Harrison Bergeron, the protagonist of the story, has exceptional intelligence, height, strength and beauty. As a result of this he's to bear enormous handicaps. These include headphones that play distracting noises, three hundred pounds of weight strapped to his body, eyeglasses designed to give him headaches, and cosmetic changes that make him ugly. Despite these societal handicaps, he's able to invade a TV station and declare himself emperor. He strips himself of his handicaps, then dances with a ballerina whose handicaps he's also discarded. Both are shot dead by the brutal and relentless Handicapper General. The story is framed by an additional perspective from Bergeron's parents, who are watching the incident on TV, but because of their handicaps can't concentrate enough to remember it.
A highly similar (though less developed) version of this idea appeared in Vonnegut's earlier novel, The Sirens of Titan.

TV film

In the 1996 made for television movie, after the handicapping devices are discovered to be ineffective against Bergeron, he's recruited to become a member of the secret unhandicapped elite who keep society running. Eventually disgusted by their duplicity, Bergeron commandeers a TV station in order to broadcast censored materials to the masses. Bergeron is eventually stopped by the government, and later forced to apologize claiming that the incident was an act. During this on-air apology, Bergeron breaks from his script and commits suicide after explaining that it wasn't an act. The film shows Harrison's son as he watches old clips of his father from TV. The mother of Harrison's child, a now lobotomized former member of the elite society, hears Harrison's voice as her son watches the television, and clearly recalls something of Bergeron.

Adaptations and references

One segment of the 1972 teleplay Between Time and Timbuktu was based on the story, and it was later adapted into a TV movie, Harrison Bergeron (1995) with Sean Astin in the title role.
In 2005 the story was quoted by attorneys in a brief before the Kansas Supreme Court. Vonnegut was quoted as saying that while he didn't mind the story being used in the suit, he disagreed with the lawyers' interpretation of it.
"Handicapper General," therefore, has entered colloquial use as a pejorative term used to describe a person or institution that seeks to achieve equality of outcome by leveling down rather than leveling up, for example, a school system that cancels advanced classes out of a fear of elitism.
The hardcore band Snapcase referenced the story in the song "Harrison Bergeron" on their 1997 album Progression Through Unlearning.
In season 1 of Frisky Dingo, the Xtacles, when asked about "Flowers for Algernon" confuse it with Harrison Bergeron, Tom Bergeron, and finally Agamemnon.

Further Information

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