Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

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Summary: Harison Bergeron takes place in the future, the United States has created equality amendments to the Constitution which has in turn created the Handicapper General. It is the goal of the H-G to keep everyone exactly equal, so if you are too smart or too strong you will be handicapped to bring you to average level.

Characters:

Handicapper General - is in charge of keeping people exactly equal

George Bergeron - above intelligent, and physical man he is handicapped

Hazel Bergeron - exactly average woman

Harrison Bergeron - Son of the Bergeron's, he is far beyond average and no equality impedance can hold him back

Diana Moon Glampers- head of the Handicapper General

Section One:

OTHER NOTES:

Harrison is taken away by the Handicapper General
George has way above normal intelligence, so he has a mental handicapper that makes a sharp noise in his head every twenty-seconds to keep him from thinking
Hazel is completely average
Hazel thinks some dancing is pretty, George sees the same dancing and thinks anyone could do it because of all the handicaps the dancers are wearing; He begins to think that dancers shouldn't have to wear handicaps when his mental handicapper goes off
The TV show is interrupted to announce Harrison has escaped jail and is dangerous; he was wanted for plotting to overthrow the government
The show announces that Harrison is a "genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped"
Harrison outgrew every handicaps; "instead of a little ear radio for mental handicap , he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick, wave lenses besides. The spectacles were intended not only to make him half blind, but to give him whanging headaches"
Harrison is so strong he has scrap metal hung instead of normal pieces of metal, and he is so handsome he must wear a red rubber ball for a nose and shave his eyebrows off
Harrison breaks into the news room, claims he is the Emperor and destroys all his handicaps
Harrison takes his Empress for the first girl not afraid to claim him; they dance without the hindrances and the musicians play without their handicaps too
Harrison and the girl dance a dance that seems beyond imagination and then the get gunned down by Diana Moon Glampers
George notices Hazel is crying, ask why she says she can't remember; George says she should forget sad thing which she replies "I always do"
George has the noise go off in his head and forgets anything that was occuring even recently
The Handicapper General must make everyone equal by supplying people above average with handicappers of some nature
Harrison is trying to rebel by showing people above average is something to strive for not knocked down
Harrison fails his rebellion because the smart people have their thoughts scrambled and the dumb ones just follow life without thinking