Harrison Bergeron

The opening paragraph involves worldbuilding as is typical of science fiction. It explains that, based on amendments to the Constitution, the government enforces total equality. The use of hyperbole, comedy, and worldbuilding indicates the story is a work of political satire. It also explores different senses of “equality;” the narrator clarifies that people are equal not only before God and the law but also in attractiveness, physical ability, and intelligence.

The “Handicapper General” enforces total equality by placing handicaps on people who are above average in ability or attractiveness. The Handicapper General enforces equality in three ways: first, by imprisoning perceived enemies of the state, as when the H-G men take Harrison away; second, by threatening fines and jail time for dissenters, which George fears might happen if he takes off his handicap; and third, by handicapping exceptional people. For example, loud sounds erupt in George’s earpiece whenever he begins to think.

Hazel is a flat character, a caricature of the common citizen. She would rather become the Handicapper General than rebel against her. George is prone to reflection, which is why his earpiece emits noise to scatter his thoughts, but he is also a flat character, a caricature of the citizen who is capable of thinking contrary to the state but chooses not to due to fear and coercion. George does not take off his handicaps despite the pain they cause him because he fears the fines and jail but because he believes disobedience would lead to societal collapse. George and Hazel implicitly support Diana Moon Glamper’s tyranny. They see it as justice and as better than its opposite: the dark times in the past.

An announcer and a ballet dancer announce Harrison’s escape, asking viewers to “not attempt to reason with him” (23). Harrison comes into the studio and disrupts the broadcast. He rips off his handicaps and the handicaps of others. He is presented as a protagonist who opposes a tyrannical state. However, he also rules by force, making him an antihero. Unlike the state, which imposes equality, Harrison imposes hierarchy. He invites the women in the audience to claim their place as his empress. After this, he tells the musicians that if they play their best, he will make them “barons and dukes and earls” (24). Like the state, he uses violence as a means of control. He snatches musicians, waves them like batons, and slams them into their chairs.

The Handicapper General puts down Harrison’s rebellion with violence that exceeds his, shooting Harrison and the ballet dancer with a shotgun, then threatening the musicians. The Handicapper General uses violence to control dissidents like Harrison and to brainwash obedient citizens like George. After Glampers shoots Harrison, the sound of a shotgun rings in George’s ear so he cannot process what he saw. Hazel and George are incapable of contemplating what happened. They forget about it immediately: George’s thoughts are scattered, and Hazel is forgetful to begin with. The state holds power through coercion, the rebels take power through coercion, and the common citizen is complacent.