Conformity In Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron

In a society fill with a flock of white sheep, all thinking and acting completely identically with no proof of an individual, stood a black sheep who preached against the conformity and demanded to be deemed emperor. In the short story Harrison Bergeron, written by Kurt Vonnegut, tells a story of a society which had forced equal attributes through the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution. The story centers around Hazel, George, and Harrison. Hazel, who bore no handicaps, was the ideal member of society, she possessed average intelligence and strength. George, who was intelligent and strong, had both mental and physical handicap. While Harrison on the other hand had been held captive fore he was both a genius and an athlete and was burdened with greatest handicaps of all the citizens; he broke out of captivity and stood in front of the people, stripping off his handicaps and demanded to be deemed the emperor. He then request of the cowardly citizens for a female to stand up and become his empress, a ballerina then stands and the begin to dance with great emotion, until Diana Moon Glampers enters the room and shoots them both down in front of the public. Through out the short narrative Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut …show more content…
Citizens had became so use to the handicaps that it seems as though it had became and extension of them selves, which brainwashes the Individual to believe everything is normal. "George weighed the bag with his hands. "I don’t mind it," he said. "I don’t notice it anymore. Its just a part of me."" (Vonnegut, 2) George had became so use to the handicaps that he doesn’t even realize it there, thus creating a form of brainwash, where the individual is caged up but is unaware of it. An Individual can not take action to a problem if one doesn’t see it, or if its perceived to be