Harrison Bergeron is a short story by Kurt Vonnegut. It tells the story of a dystopian world where everyone is equal ”every which way”. In this world of equality smart people are forced to dumben down to the intelligence level of the least smart. Basically making everyone equally dumb. Smart people are forced to wear equipment meant to stop strains of thought. Equality is also extended to physical qualities for instance everyone is the same height and beautiful people are forced to wear ugly masks.

The story is told from the eyes of two parents, George and Hazel Bergeron whose 14-year-old son Harrison is taken away into a prison for being too perfect. George was also similar to his son and had to bear a heavy bag full of lead balls and a ”mental handicap radio” in his ear. His wife, Hazel, on the other hand was ”average” intelligence which meant a very short attention span. Hazel is the ideal kind of person in the society, the kind the whole society was made for. In other words she’s the ”winner” in the society as in the normal world there would be many people much smarter than her. The son Harrison was so smart he became a menace to the society and an enemy of state. After being locked in prison with extremely severe handicaps he still managed to break out and cause havoc on live TV. Harrison recognized his own intellectual and physical superiority over the other severely dumbed down people and got the idea he was supposed to lead them.

Compared to present day America this dystopian world has several differences concerning peoples rights and freedoms. The dystopian world doesn’t allow people to freely live their lives unless they’re absolutely ”normal” and proceeds to limit the freedom of anyone better. The rights are the same but the society removes the means to exert these rights.