HARRISON BERGERON
Warm-Up (Friday)
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10.
Complete the Wild Things reading activity.
Observing
Originate
Accompanied
Analyzed
Insights
Suggests
Convert
Conserves
Accuracy
Dispersing
Stems - Homework
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Take out your story. You were required to use 10
of the 12 words…
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Equivocate
Superfluous
Bilateral
Unilateral
Circumspect
Commensurate
Malevolence
Neophyte
Misanthropist
Bellicose
Anthropomorphic
captious
HARRISON?
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3.
Take out your picture of
Harrison
Consider the character of
Harrison in terms of both his
physical qualities and
personality traits.
On your picture, determine why he
has been burdened with all of
these handicaps.
HARRISON A THREAT?
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Why is Harrison Bergeron such a
threat to society?
How old is he?
How does Harrison behave?
How do others react to him?
DEFINING MAP
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Create a thinking map defining the functions of
the agents of "the United States Handicapper
General”
Answer the following questions in the FRAME
OF REFERENCE:
What threats to society do such agents combat?
 What political processes could lead to such
absurdities?
 How is radical mediocrity achieved and enforced?
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MASS MEDIA
To what extent do television, radio, and the mass
media generally function like George's mental
handicap radio?
 Consider Neil Postman's observation in his book
Amusing Ourselves to Death: "this ensemble of
electronic techniques called into being a new
world-a peek-a-boo world, where now this event,
now that, pops into view for a moment, then
vanishes again. It is a world without much
coherence or sense; a world that does not permit
us to do anything; a world that is, like the child's
game of peek-a-boo, entirely self-contained. But
like peek-a-boo, it is also endlessly entertaining"
(77). "Infotainment" did you say?
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SIGNIFICANCE?
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What is the significance of the real Harrison
suddenly appearing on the TV set where his
escape from prison was being reported?
Why does he repeatedly say, "I am the
Emperor!"?
Is Vonnegut suggesting a return to
feudalism and its aristocratic political
institutions?
WHAT WAS HE THINKING?
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What is Harrison trying to accomplish?
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Harrison says "I shall now select my Empress!"
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How does the motif of the rescue of the 'damsel in
distress' translate in socioeconomic terms?
What is suggested concerning the ownership of
the means of (re)production?
WORDS HAVE MEANING…
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What is the significance of Harrison telling the
musicians, "I'll make you barons and dukes and
earls"?
What different values underlie such
ennoblement?
What role do beauty and aesthetics play in
Harrison's rebellion?
A KISS… OR MORE?
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What is the meaning of Harrison's and the
ballerina's flight-like dance and kissing?
What is meant by the statement, "not only were
the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of
gravity and the laws of motion as well" ?
HIDDEN MEANING…
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What is the meaning of Harrison and the
ballerina being shot down by Diana Moon
Glampers, the Handicapper General?
 How are we as readers supposed to react to Harrison and the
ballerina’s execution?
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What are the suggestions of her name?
What ethos (culture/symbolic meaning) is
conjured by the mythological associations of the
Greek goddess Diana and the moon?
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(e.g. coldness, sterility).
ENDING…
1.
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How do Hazel and George react to the televised murder of their
son?
Why does Hazel Bergeron forget what she is
crying about?
What is the meaning of the last words of the
Bergerons, "that one was a doozy" ?
IRONY
Dancers who can’t ______________
 Announcers who can’t ________________
 Smart people who can’t __________________
 Everyone has artificial ___________________
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SATIRE
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Vonnegut pokes fun at government policies that:
punish the gifted and successful,
 redistribute resources,
 and encroach upon civil liberties.
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The tone is satirical; the theme is serious.
(explain this statement)
EQUALITY
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What's striking about Vonnegut's story is its
hyperbole: equality is enforced in every
identifiable respect.
What are the appropriate limits to ensuring
equality and why?
EQUAL RESULTS???
"Equal is not always fair in 'Harrison Bergeron'":
The Declaration of Independence states "all men
are created equal."
 Does this mean everyone should be the same?
 Should everyone have the same results? Explain
 Some, including the government in "Harrison
Bergeron," misunderstand the meaning of
equality, thinking it guarantees equal results as
opposed to equal opportunity under the law and
in the eyes of God.
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HOW CAN BIG GOVERNMENT BE DANGEROUS?
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What could happen if the government had too
much authority?
Can you think of any past, or present,
governments that had too much power?
How does the story "Harrison Bergeron" explore
the dangers of giving government too much
authority? What are some examples?
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Read the Declaration of Independence.
 Discuss the phrase "all men are created
equal and that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness."
 What did Thomas Jefferson and other
founding fathers mean?
 How have modern politicians warped the
expression?
 Can an equality of results be obtained?
 Has equality under the law been obtained?
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THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
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Even the U.S. Constitution, a document created
to limit government, has been turned into an
instrument of oppression by Diana Moon
Glampers and her kind by adding 186
amendments to it.
How is this ironic?
REALITY…
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What actual developments, policies, trends
involving government-enforced equalizing,
"handicapping," in America might Vonnegut be
parodying in "Harrison Bergeron"?
What conceptions of equality motivate such
policies and trends?
THEME: THE DANGER OF TOTAL EQUALITY
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In “Harrison Bergeron,” Vonnegut suggests that total
equality is not an ideal worth striving for, as many
people believe, but a mistaken goal that is dangerous in
both execution and outcome.
To achieve physical and mental equality among all
Americans, the government in Vonnegut’s story
tortures its citizens. The beautiful must wear hideous
masks or disfigure themselves, the intelligent must
listen to earsplitting noises that impede their ability to
think, and the graceful and strong must wear weights
around their necks at all hours of the day.
The insistence on total equality seeps into the citizens,
who begin to dumb themselves down or hide their
special attributes. Some behave this way because they
have internalized the government’s goals, and others
because they fear that the government will punish
them severely if they display any remarkable abilities.
The outcome of this quest for equality is disastrous.
America becomes a land of cowed, stupid, slow people.
Government officials murder the extremely gifted with
no fear of reprisal. Equality is more or less achieved,
but at the cost of freedom and individual achievement.
THEMES: THE POWER OF
TELEVISION
 Television is an immensely powerful force that sedates, rules,
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and terrorizes the characters in “Harrison Bergeron.” To
emphasize television’s overwhelming importance in society,
Vonnegut makes it a constant presence in his story: the entire
narrative takes place as George and Hazel sit in front of the TV.
Television functions primarily as a sedative for the masses.
Hazel’s cheeks are wet with tears, but because she is distracted
by the ballerinas on the screen, she doesn’t remember why she is
crying.
The government also uses television as a way of enforcing its
laws. When dangerously talented people like Harrison are on the
loose, for example, the government broadcasts warnings about
them. They show a photograph of Harrison with his good looks
mutilated and his strength dissipated. The photo is a way of
identifying the supposedly dangerous escapee, but it is also a
way of intimidating television viewers. It gives them a visual
example of the handicaps imposed on those who do not suppress
their own abilities.
Television further turns into a means of terrorizing the citizens
when Diana Moon Glampers shoots Harrison. The live execution
is an effective way of showing viewers what will happen to those
who dare to disobey the law.
MOTIF OF NOISE
The noises broadcast by the government increase in intensity and
violence during the course of the story, paralleling the escalating
tragedy of George’s and Hazel’s lives.
When the story begins, a buzzer sounds in George’s head as he watches
the ballerinas on TV.
As he tries to think about the dancers, who are weighed down and
masked to counteract their lightness and beauty, the sound of a bottle
being smashed with a hammer rings in his ears.
When he thinks about his son, he is interrupted by the sound of twentyone guns firing, an excessively violent noise that foreshadows
Harrison’s murder.
Thoughts about the laws of equality and the competition that existed in
the old days are shattered by the sound of a siren, a noise that
suggests the extent to which the government has literally become the
thought police.
As Harrison barges into the television studio, George hears a car crash,
a noise that connotes the injury of multiple people. The noise that
interrupts George roughly at the same time that his son is being
executed on live TV is described only as “a handicap signal,” an
ominously vague phrase.
Vonnegut suggests that the noise is so awful that it can’t be mentioned,
just as the murder of Harrison is so awful that George and Hazel
can’t fully comprehend it.
The final noise George hears is that of a riveting gun, an appropriate
echo of the way Diana Moon Glampers killed Harrison.
SYMBOLS: HARRISON BERGERON
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Harrison represents the spark of defiance and individuality that
still exists in some Americans. He has none of the cowardice and
passivity that characterize nearly everyone else in the story.
Rather, he is an exaggerated alpha male, a towering, brave,
breathtakingly strong man who hungers for power.
When he storms into the TV studio and announces that he is the
emperor, the greatest ruler who has ever lived, he sounds powermad and perhaps insane. At the same time, however, his
boastfulness is exhilarating. It is an exaggerated expression of
the defiant urge to excel that some Americans still feel.
When Harrison rips off his steel restraints and handicaps, the
physical strength and beauty he reveals reminds some viewers
that underneath their own restraints and handicaps, they too are
still talented or lovely.
But in the end, Harrison, symbol of defiance, is killed in cold
blood by Diana Moon Glampers, the administrator of government
power. The quick, efficient murder suggests that if a defiant
spirit still exists in America in 2081, its days are numbered.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN????
WHAT HAS THE ARTIST DEPICTED?