Equality in Harrison Bergeron Essay Example

“Reality is often disappointing. That is it was now, reality can be whatever I wan’t” (Thanos). The reality of life is that things aren’t “equal” . Diverse nature is part of life, some people have advantages over others and disadvantages too. Having advantages over others is ok and it makes everyone different and unique. If everyone was equal the world would be doomed and terribly boring. The marxist literary theory discovers the problems with society such as disabling everyone’s abilities to insure everyone is equal. Harrison Bergeron is a short story that talks about a world that is finally equal but nothing truly can be equal without marxism happening. The society that has advantages over others are suffering in restraints such as Harrison Bergeron himself. When analyzing Kurt Vonnegut’s short story ‘Harrison Bergeron,’ through a Marxist literary theory lens, it is evident that the reality of equality is that nothing is truly equal and equality can only be achieved through false consciousness and ideology. 

Some citizens in the world are being oppressed and don’t even know it , an example of this is the citizens of North Korea, they think that their country is the greatest but they are being lied to, this is false consciousness. False consciousness is a massive part of marxism, it is a lack of awareness of the oppressed of their own social and economic conditions and subsequent alliance with that or whole oppresses them. In Harrison Bergeron we see that Hazel is blind to the oppression and false consciousness can be seen. “Sounded like somebody hitting a milk 

bottle with a ball peen hammer,” said George. “I’d think it would be real interesting, hearing all the different sounds,” said Hazel a little envious. “All the things they think up.”  “Um,” said George. “Only, if I was Handicapper General, you know what I would do?” said Hazel. Hazel, as a matter of fact, bore a strong resemblance to the Handicapper General, a woman named Diana Moon Glampers. “If I was Diana Moon Glampers,” said Hazel, “I’d have chimes on Sunday — just chimes. Kind of in honor of religion.” “I could think, if it was just chimes,” said George. “Well — maybe make ‘em real loud,” said Hazel. “I think I’d make a good Handicapper General.”  “Good as anybody else,” said George. “Who knows better than I do what normal is?” said Hazel. (Hazel 10). What was said here shows that  some people are aware of the oppression like George but can’t say anything because the noise prevents them from doing so. Hazel on the other hand has no idea what’s happening and actually thinks the noises are cool and interesting. The hard part about this is that some people know what’s happening and can’t do anything about it because of fear and restraints. Other people who don’t have restraints can help but don’t understand what’s going on and think everything is perfect. False consciousness controls a society to a point where people with no restraints can’t comprehend what’s happening. 

North Korea is driven by ideology, they look at their leaders and think of them like Gods. They were brought up in school to believe that is true so the political leaders have control. Every country has an extent of ideology. Ideology is the body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class or culture is a set of doctrines or beliefs that form the basis of a political or economic system. An example of this is seen with George, he’s the one being oppressed yet he’s the one who believes that this is necessary in order to have equality. “If you could just take a few out when you came home from work,” said Hazel. “I mean — you 

don’t compete with anybody around here. You just set around.” “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?” “I’d hate it,” said Hazel. “There you are,” said George. “The minute people start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to Society?”3 If Hazel hadn’t been able to come up with an answer to this question, George couldn’t have supplied one. A siren was going off in his head. “Reckon it’d fall all apart,” said Hazel. “What would?” said George blankly.  “Society,” said Hazel uncertainly. “Wasn’t that what you just said? “Who knows?” said George. The government has set an ideology so big that even the oppressed are okay with being oppressed. George is talking about being afraid of going back to the “dark ages” as Hazel agrees but is the “dark ages” really that bad, never in the story do we see someone who actually lived in the “dark ages” to talk about it. The government now has full control over everything and everyone because they believe that it’s right. The citizens like George and Hazel are being told that now is the best the country has ever been and everything before that is unequal and “dark”.

When analyzing Kurt Vonnegut’s short story ‘Harrison Bergeron,’ through a Marxist literary theory lens, the only way to truly make a society equal you have to thoroughly create false consciousness and ideology. False consciousness is the most effective tool for controlling  society, seen with George and Hazel it ensures that no one speaks up and everyone else stays shut. Ideology is all about belief and with George and Hazel. They believe that times now are better than the “dark ages” but in reality it’s not better at all. Marxism is a very powerful lens, it controls society to the point of oppression. This has truly been seen through Harrison Bergeron.