Harrison Bergeron - Vonnegut's Message

        In Vonnegut's short story, Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut tries to get his readers to appreciate and value what makes them different. Vonnegut twists our perception of "equality is the way to a utopia" and tries to make us see that in a different light. Whilst being equal has its advantages, everyone would be the same. People wouldn't have their own weaknesses or strengths, nobody would have their own individual talents. The dystopia Vonnegut has created clearly demonstrates his perception on the topic of individuality and the keeping of one's character. In the story, the ballerinas are ridded of their physical talent by the government adorning them with handicaps. "He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They weren’t really very good-no better than anybody else would have been, anyway.They were burdened with sash-weights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in." (Page 131) The ballerina's here are being oppressed from showing off their own talents. The equality is oppressing them and their identity. Harrison Bergeron's abilities, appearance and knowledge had attempted to be taken away from him by the government. "The rest of Harrison’s appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever born heavier handicaps. He had outgrown hindrances faster than the men could think them up. Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides. Scrap metal was hung all over him. Ordinarily, there was a certain symmetry, a military neatness to the handicaps issued to strong people, but Harrison looked like a walking junkyard. In the race of life, Harrison carried three hundred pounds. And to offset his good looks, the men required that he Wear at all times a red rubber ball for a nose, keep his eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random." (Page 134) Harrison is not allowed to keep his looks, mind and strength for fear that he may be better than everyone else, which would upset the equality. All that makes Harrison, Harrison, has been taken away from him by the government. George's intelligence had also been ripped away from him. George wore a mental ear handicap that played a loud, excruciating sound in his head every twenty seconds. This was to mess with and interrupt his train of thought. The government wants everyone to be as smart as each other, not have some be smarter than the others. "Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking
unfair advantage of their brains." (Page 130) Hazel isn't required to wear one as she is of average intelligence, the same level they are dragging everyone else down to. Hazel isn't the brightest person yet the government seems to see this as being ideal. Vonnegut's dystopia is a place of equality and oppression. There is no such thing as a utopia as all things have repercussions. In Vonnegut's dystopia, complete equality is put in place at the expense of individuality and uniqueness. Vonnegut shows his readers that equality is an acceptable way of life to an extent. People should learn to cherish their differences  The degree of equality in the Vonnegut's dystopia is out of hand, making it a dystopia.