Harrison Bereron

      This is Lena Gruber. 

      "Harrison Bergeron," by Kurt Vonnegut, is a short story that introduces the reader to society in year 2081. Everyone is equal at this point in time. This is no secret and is stated in the first sentence. Utopias are "the perfect world." It is when there is ultimate harmony in a society but it usually requires real social and economic methods to obtain. Utopias usually end up being Distopias in disguise, because though societies are able to maintain a constant harmony within a society, the methods that they use often leave the citizens feeling like they are lacking something or are not happy, just stable. 

      Many utopias and distopias prove that equality is not actually the answer when it means forcefully removing people's individuality. Many stories like this one incorporate philosophical ideas that prove that for a society to function people must be common while also being different. In the story everyone is forced to have handicaps that create, in the end, equality. Highly intelligent people must have an ear piece or even head phones that make loud sounds to stop over thinking and beautiful people must where horrifyingly ugly masks that are uglier depending on how beautiful one is. 

       In the end of the story, the reader is stuck. The reader doesn't know whether it is better for this couple to remain forcefully handicapped. This dilemma develops because surely the characters seem like they are in pain but they are not really aware of the pain they are feeling. Is it better to be numbingly depressed from normality or overwhelmingly in pain but at least being able to feel something. Without these handicaps the are smarter people, prettier people, competition. Competition is what create the dysfunction of society. At least these people had a meaning in life, to be better and to compete. Life without desire, according to many philosophers leads to depression. How long can a society go on if everyone has no motivation and desired. A depressed society does not exist because they do not last; it leads to its corruption.

      This short story has no "right answer." It doesn't say whether it's good or bad that there is total equality. The truth is is that we have not yet found the perfect society. So far every society has its flaws that is why there is so much political controversy that exists today. The reader realizes by the end that every method is dysfunctional in some way and the key is to always keep trying to find a better way that doesn't leave everyone forgetting beauty and their own desires.