Josh Secrieru
English 10
Mr. Barazzuol
22 September 2016
American Charter of Rights and Freedoms
After reading the short story “Harrison Bergeron” (Vonnegut), one would realize that society has turned into everyone being equal, but the government is power-hungry and only wants supremacy. There are 13 amendments, which are written to describe the laws that indicate what occurs in “Harrison Bergeron.” The handicapper general, Diana Moon Glampers, is the leader of the government and she created the amendments to ensure equality. The tales setting is in 2081. The amendments from the poster explain the rights of humans in the story “Harrison Bergeron.” The 200 to 213 amendments describe that the laws are inequitable and biased. The author, Kurt Vonnegut, is satirizing in the story “Harrison Bergeron,” the concept of social equality in his futuristic world. The foremost amendment of the story “Harrison Bergeron,” is that every individual has mandatory requirements to utilize handicaps for any specific talents, which means that the government is forcing everyone to be the indistinguishable in every way. The government is on a higher hierarchy than the average citizen, which leads to being dissimilar or unequal. Another important amendment is that, if one removes their handicaps they will be confined. This amendment explains that if anyone takes off their handicaps, they will be better than everyone else and the government does not want people to be superior or inferior. The reason why the government, from the story “Harrison Bergeron,” wants everyone to be equal, is that they would have additional power than everyone and everything is uncomplicated for them. One example is, “’If I tried to get away with it,’ said George, ‘then other people’d get away with It-and pretty soon we’d be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn’t like that, would you?’” (Vonnegut). The text describes that people do not want to take off their handicaps, then they would be back to the dark ages, this shows that the government is trying to get everyone to be equal, so they would have all the authority. In conclusion, Kurt Vonnegut, is trying to show his readers that the American government today is not treating everyone equally, that they made laws which indicates that they do treat all citizens fairly and that they guarantee equal rights, but unfortunately they do not.
