Individuality vs. Equality in Kurt Vonnegut’s Short Story Harrison Bergeron

The idea behind balancing freedom and equality within a society has been in conflict since the beginning of government.  The main objective in Kurt Vonnegut’s 1961 short story, Harrison Bergeron, introduces one idea of a truly “equal” society.  The story creates an extreme example of how a society can create equality by handicapping members who are perceived as more gifted than others while removing individual freedoms from the people.  Vonnegut’s concepts of equality and freedom that society had were relevant in the 1960s and continuous.  

Harrison Bergeron’s society can most closely be compared to how communism was viewed during the 1960s.  At this time, the United States was in the midst of the Cold War and the United States had just gone through the Second Red Scare.  In Harrison Bergeron, Vonnegut mentions that “everybody was finally equal… All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General'' (Vonnegut 1).  The mentioning of a “Handicapper General '' implies that there is a higher authority that maintains equality within the society.  Similarly, the idea of communism follows this idea that almost every person will be equal, except the one central authority that has control to maintain order and equality.  The story also mentions that “while his [George’s] intelligence was way above normal, had a mental handicap radio in his ear” (Vonnegut 1).  The idea of lowering people's ability until they have the same potential as the least abled person can be related to the concept that any citizen who maintained a higher standard (wealth, skillset, job) than others in a communist government would have to be “handicapped” to ensure that everyone has the same opportunities. This handicap also represents the idea that any member of a higher standard in a communist society would have to be lowered down to the same standard as the rest of the population to remove the social hierarchy that is present in most other societies. 

Harrison Bergeron can also be viewed as an exaggerated perspective of how, during the McCarthyism era, the American government handled the fear of communism.  In the story, George’s wife, Hazel suggested that if he were to “just take out a few of them lead balls.” (So that the weight doesn’t tire him so quickly).  George answers by mentioning that he would face “two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I take out.” (Vonnegut 2). This means that any method that would go against the social norms of their communist society was punished.    This can be related to how America functioned during the McCarthy era.  The government was afraid that there would be a spread of communist beliefs so they created the fear in society that any person accused of supporting communists could be convicted of extreme punishments, such as treason.  In the story, George also asks “The minute people start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to society?”  Hazel responds by saying “Reckon it’d fall all apart.”  (Vonnegut 2) This quote explains why the government would punish society.  The government created the fears for these punishments to cover their fear of their government collapsing.  This is similar to society in the 1960s.  The United States government was afraid that if the beliefs in communism began to spread across America, the government would collapse and would turn into a communist government.

Harrison Bergeron not only addresses the conflicts between the government in the 1960s, but also the issues that pertain to our current society.  In today's society, America is continuously attempting to move towards a more equal society. But Vonnegut's story raises the question if there can be such a society that can not only be truly equal but can also maintain a standard where people can still express individuality where that society doesn't have to handicap people or create a fear of punishment for using their own individual skills in fear of a rebellion.