Short Story Posts for week of September 24th

“Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., is an extremely interesting short story that provides the reader with a glimpse of a scary future. “Harrison Bergeron” is a story set in 2081, that is very short, but its message hits hard. The story is about a society where all individuals are set to be “equal”. To me, the beauty of the story is the irony of the “equality” itself.

Though in the story, everyone is “dumbed” down to create equality, the “dumbing” down only emphasizes the true inequality of the characters throughout the story. Vonnegut writes, “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else…” These statements seem very frightening, for they suggest that all members of the society will seemingly voluntarily diminish their strengths so that they can all be equal.

The irony of the story is seen in the handicapping of the characters itself. The handicaps that ensure equality are in humorous forms: a mental handicap in the form of a radio that bursts random sounds to impede thought process; weights that limit excessive strength; and masks to prevent showing more attractiveness. These handicaps, though meant to hide strengths, actually reveal prominently individuals’ true strengths and weaknesses. Examples are seen with George and Hazel. George’s handicaps of his hearing impediment and the weight show that he truly is an intelligent and strong man, by contrasting his impediments with the truly average Hazel. Hazel is symbolic of the truly average, no-handicap-needed, individual that the handicap program seeks to emulate. When Hazel feels envious of George’s mental handicap, George is shown to be above average because he has to have the mental handicap. This shows that though the handicaps try and hide strengths, the handicaps do no good at all.

The irony continues with the character of Harrison Bergeron. The handicaps used to equalize Harrison Bergeron also serve the opposite purpose of the handicaps. Ironically, Harrison is described as “a genius and an athlete” which should not make sense if all the individuals of the society are of the same mental capacity and athletic ability. Yet, the handicaps continue to elevate Harrison. “Nobody had ever borne heavier handicaps…Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides... And to offset his good looks, the H-G men required that he wear at all times a red rubber ball for a nose, keep his eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random. (44-57).” The fact that the Handicap General tries to handicap Harrison so much shows that Harrison is truly an extraordinary being (who is strong, handsome, and intelligent). Harrison’s excessive handicaps show that he must be handicapped so much, because he is normally much better than average, to be lowered down to average; Harrison’s handicaps decorate him as a unique individual. It is interesting to see that Harrison must become so ugly, probably uglier than average, to hid his beauty; he must carry way more pounds than the average man to hide his strength; he must wear earphones, while everyone else must just have radios. Is this fair? Is this equal?

One of the most interesting ideas about Vonnegut’s story is that the story itself is not plausible in relation to progress. If a society was based on true equality, by handicapping above average intelligence, then the society would not be able to progress at all. In fact, the Handicapper General would probably not even have the intelligence to handicap the other members of his society. I believe that if this handicapping equality existed, societies that used this practice would die out after a period of Dark Ages.

“Battle Royal”, by Ralph Ellison, is a very interesting short story. What I like about Battle Royal is how the grandfather’s words come back to haunt the narrator. At the beginning of the story, the grandfather warns the narrator to appear willing to please white people, but really just to deceive the white people inside.

As the narrator approaches the battle scene, he is confronted with the words his grandfather gave him. The narrator is entered into a battle with another boy, a battle that the white men feel immense pleasure in watching. The narrator tries not to deceive the white men into feeling pleasure in watching the fight, but instead he tries to flee from the battle by bribing his opponent. When the narrator fails to deceive the white men, he goes against his grandfather’s words, and he only ends up in more trouble. He gets electrocuted and humiliated further.

I believe that if the narrator submitted to the pressures of the white men by really submitting to the fight, the narrator would not have felt so much misery in the story. The narrator could have faked being beaten, to please the white men, or he could have kept trying to save himself by trying to bribe his opponent; the narrator chooses the second option. If the narrator listened to his grandfather, he could have escaped so much trouble. The last line, “I awoke with the old man’s laughter ringing in my ears” serves to show that the grandfather is laughing at his grandson’s apparent foolish decision. Though the narrator’s decision to fight against the white men may seem better, more noble than submitting to the white men or trying to deceive them, the grandfather’s saying shows that the easy way out is less painful and trying to fight against only ends up in more pain. (977)