`` Harrison Bergeron `` By Kurt Vonnegut - 1875 Words

The year 2081, and everybody was finally equal in every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else† (Vonnegut 864). In the futuristic short story, â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. illustrates a government implemented law of equality forced upon a society. Vonnegut a social commentator utilizes satirical events in the story to illustrate irrational thoughts and ideas from society. Satire is a special form of literature that seeks to expose foolish ideas and customs in a society. Satire does not lecture; instead, it exaggerates a part of society and lets the readers decide what to do about it, if anything. Most of the time,†¦show more content†¦The Slaughterhouse-Five was a satirical masterpiece claiming to be his greatest achievement. Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people s stupidity or vice s, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues the last of Vonnegut achievements was his novel Timequake and collection of essays A Man without a Country. He later died due to a fall on the steps of his home in New York on April 11, 2007. â€Å"Harrison Bergeron† is one of Vonnegut’s most significant stories. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1961 and was later republished as part of the short-story collection Welcome to the Monkey House in1968 (Parr).Set in a dystopian America; it is often interpreted as a sweltering appraisal of strict governments. A dystopian setting often depicts characters that think technology and/or big government are trustworthy and will always protect them or save them. A dystopian society is also one that has lost ascetics of a culture, including art, music, drama, athletics, and/or creative expression. The settings in dystopian novels or stories are always bleak, oppres sive and offer no hope or individual freedoms for the masses. Individuals and even entire family units are sometimes distracted by technology, and they have sometimes fallen prey to a consumer mindset.