1 Paragraph Essay on Harrison Bergeron

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr is more than a simple satire. This short story tells the tale of a society broken down by equality. Very similar to A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, this story talks about something we should have but takes it so incredibly far it becomes incredible. The real story is not so much directly in the writing as it is in reflection upon the writing. We live in a society where rights (or the removal of rights) are often taken too far but this pushes the right to equality to a point of insanity and hypocrisy. What we see here is if everyone is equal (which is impossible) then society stops its growth. While the story doesn't point this out, it can be seen. Dancers have their dances ruined by weights and headphones while other perfectly strong or smart people are similarly encumbered. They ask for equality in the story yet they have someone who has so much power that she can kill people at a whim like she did with Harrison and the dancer. So, the moral of this story (I think) is that we should accept people as they are as opposed to trying to bring everyone to a level of equality.