Harrison Bergeron
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"Harrison Bergeron" is a dystopian science fiction short story written by Kurt Vonnegut and first published in 1961. It deals with egalitarianism. The theme 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 in October 1961, the story is now available in the author's collection Welcome to the Monkey House.
This equality has been achieved by handicapping the most intelligent, athletic or beautiful members of society down to the level of the lowest common denominator, a process central to the society which is overseen by the United States Handicapper General, who at the time of the story is the shotgun-toting Diana Moon Glampers. A highly similar (though less developed) version of this idea appeared in one of Vonnegut's earlier works, The Sirens of Titan.
The story was adapted into a TV film in 1995 starring Sean Astin. It also formed a segment of the 1972 TV production and book Between Time and Timbuktu.
[edit] Plot
The title character has exceptional intelligence, height, strength and beauty. As a result he has to bear enormous handicaps. These include distracting noise, three hundred pounds of excess weight, eyeglasses to give him headaches, and cosmetic changes to make him ugly. Despite this he is able to invade a TV station and declare himself emperor. As he dances with a ballerina whose handicaps he has also discarded, both are shot dead by the Handicapper General. Added poignancy is created by the framing story in which Bergeron's parents are watching the TV, but cannot concentrate or remember the incident.
Symbols in the story:
Control, Communism, Difference/ Strength, (forced) Equality, Dictatorship, Violent solutions, Conformity (to rules), Lack of opportunity/ competition/thought, Attempt to go against - opposing
[edit] TV film
In the TV film, after the handicapping devices are discovered to be ineffective against Bergeron, he is recruited to the secret unhandicapped elite who keep society running. Bergeron eventually hijacks a TV station to bring some culture to the masses before committing suicide; most of the viewers are unable to appreciate it, but the film ends with an optimistic note by showing that a few people did get the message.
[edit] External links
| Novels | 1950s: Player Piano (1952) • The Sirens of Titan (1959) 1960s: Mother Night (1961) • Cat's Cradle (1963) • God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine (1965) • Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade (1969) 1970s: Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye, Blue Monday (1973) • Slapstick or Lonesome No More (1976) • Jailbird (1979) 1980s: Deadeye Dick (1982) • Galápagos (1985) • Bluebeard (1988) 1990s: Hocus Pocus (1990) • Timequake (1996) |
| Short story collections | Canary in a Cathouse (1961) • Welcome to the Monkey House (1968) • Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) |
| Collected essays | Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974) • Palm Sunday, An Autobiographical Collage (1981) • Fates Worse than Death, An Autobiographical Collage (1990) • God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (2001) • A Man Without a Country (2005) |
| Plays | Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970) • Between Time and Timbuktu, or Prometheus Five: A Space Fantasy (1972) • Make Up Your Mind (1993) • Miss Temptation (1993) • L'Histoire du Soldat (1993) |
| Adaptations | |
| Stage | Welcome to the Monkey House (1970, 1974) • Sirens of Titan (1974) • Cat's Cradle (1976) • God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1979) • Breakfast of Champions (1984) • Requiem (Stone, Time, and Elements: A Humanist Requiem) (1988) • Slaughterhouse-Five (1996) |
| Film | Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) • Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) • Next Door (1975) • Slapstick of Another Kind (1982) • Mother Night (1996) • Breakfast of Champions (1999) |
| Television | Displaced Person (1958, 1985) • EPICAC (1974, 1992) • Who Am I This Time? (1982) • All the King's Horses (1991) • Next Door (1991) • The Euphio Question (1991) • Fortitude (1992) • The Foster Portfolio (1992) • More Stately Mansions (1992) • Harrison Bergeron (1995) |
