Theme

Theme is a concept that can be related to all works of literature ranging from short stories to novels. Theme, which is sometimes used in the same sense as motif to signify recurring concepts in literature, refers mainly to the arguments or general ideas expressed by a literary work, whether it is implied or explicitly stated. In the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. theme played a vital role in the stories general setup. “Harrison Bergeron” theme was on a general basic of equality. Equality is a subject that is very touchy and most do not know how to conquer or talk about it, but Vonnegut captured it in his story “Harrison Bergeron.” According to Vonnegut and his them equality could be obtained by these three main objectives. The three main objectives were to 1) make everyone have the same intelligence, 2) make everyone the have the same strengths and weaknesses, and 3) make everyone look alike.

One of the three main objectives that were used in the story “Harrison Bergeron” was that everyone must look alike. This was accomplish by there not being makeup for women, handicaps for all people, and other accessories put on the body to make a person seem as if they had no strengths or weaknesses. An example of this happening was when Hazel and George were having a conversation while watching ballerinas and the conversation went blank because of a loud noise in George’s and the ballerina’s ears. It was stated in the story that “Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant that she couldn’t think about anything in except in short burst. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. . . Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people . . . from taking advantage of their brains (Vonnegut 235).” This showed in the story how the author tried to make everyone have the same intelligence.

Another one of the main objectives in the story “Harrison Bergeron” was that everyone must have the same strengths and weaknesses. It was shown an ample amount of times in the story that “all this quality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the constitution (Vonnegut 234).” One person that was really affected by this amendment, because he was considered strong, was Harrison. He was taken from his parents at the young age of 14, and had many handicaps. “Nobody had ever borne heavier handicaps (Vonnegut 236)” than Harrison. The government knew that he was of the strong, and the ladies considered him handsome, so they made sure that his handicaps