How To Use This Discussion Guide

Materials Included | Begin by reading Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron” or in your copy of What So Proudly We Hail.

Materials for this guide include background information about the author and discussion questions to enhance your understanding and stimulate conversation about the story. In addition, the guide includes a series of short video discussions about the story, conducted by James W. Ceaser (University of Virginia) with the editors of the anthology. These seminars help capture the experience of high-level discourse as participants interact and elicit meaning from a classic American text. These videos are meant to raise additional questions and augment discussion, not replace it.

Learning Objectives | Students will be able to:

• Examine the difference between equality of outcome and equality of opportunity through reading Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s “Harrison Bergeron” in relation to the idea of equality presented in the Declaration of Independence;
• Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it;
• Cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text;
• Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development
• Summarize the key supporting details and ideas;
• Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text; 
• Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning and the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence; and
• Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

Common Core State Standards Addressed | Literacy in History/Social Studies

• RH.9-10.2, RH.9-10.3, RH.9-10.8, RH.11-12.2, RH.11-12.8, RH.11-12.9

English Language Arts: 

• RL.9-10.1, RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.3, RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.3, RL.11-12

Writing Prompts | Based on Common Core Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies:

• What is equality? After reading “Harrison Bergeron” and the Declaration of Independence, write an essay that defines the American principle of equality and explains how the story and the founding document views the term. Support your discussion with evidence from the texts. (Informational or Explanatory/Definition; Task 12) 
• What do we owe those of our fellow citizens who are worse off through no fault of their own? After reading the story, write an op-ed that addresses the question and support your position with evidence from the text. (Argumentation/Analysis; Task 2) 
• Would you object if society sought equality not by handicapping the gifted but by lifting up the not-gifted, say through genetic engineering or biotechnological enhancement? After reading “Harrison Bergeron,” write an essay that discusses this question and evaluates the pros and cons of “lifting up.” Be sure to support your position with evidence from the text. (Argumentation/Evaluation; Task 6)

About the Author

Summary

“Harrison Bergeron” is a satire, set in the United States of the future (2081), when, thanks to our own legislative process—the passage of Constitutional Amendments 211, 212, and 213—and to the leveling interventions and vigilance of the Handicapper General and her agents, everyone is finally equal, not just before the law or before God but “every which way.” No one is smarter, stronger, or more beautiful than anyone else. The beautiful ones are made to wear ugly masks, nose balls, false teeth, and the like; the strong and speedy are made to wear sash-weights and bags of birdshot; the naturally smart are made to wear radios in their ears, which, tuned to a government transmitter, emit “sharp noises” to disrupt their thoughts every twenty seconds or so.

In the “clammy” month of April, Harrison Bergeron, a 14-year-old, seven-foot-tall boy of superior brain, beauty, and brawn, is in jail, accused of trying to overthrow the government. His parents, George and Hazel Bergeron, are at home watching handicapped ballet on television and talking about the mind-numbing sounds that George, who is natively highly intelligent, endures from his radio transmitter. Hazel, average and unhandicapped, suggests that George bend the rules for the sake of comfort, but George defends the society and its laws: He does not want to go back to the “dark ages” of competition.

Suddenly, a news bulletin interrupts the dance program to announce Harrison’s escape from jail. Immediately thereafter, he bursts into the television studio, declaring his intention of becoming emperor. Harrison sheds his prodigious handicaps, appearing like a god. He selects his empress from among the ballerinas, instructs the musicians to play their best, and with his counterpart, leaps and dances gracefully and beautifully up to the ceiling, their love defying even the laws of gravity and motion. The Handicapper General arrives to shoot down Harrison and his partner. Hazel, witnessing her son’s death, is briefly sad. As the sound of a gun goes off in his head, George advises her to forget sad things. And so they do.

Section Overview

Kurt Vonnegut’s story paints a picture of a society that few of us would gladly embrace, even those of us who care deeply about social equality. It thus invites us to think about the society presented; its rebellious genius, Harrison Bergeron; as well as Vonnegut’s purpose.

Section Overview

Vonnegut’s satire invites us to think, first and foremost, about the implications of the pursuit of equality in relation to the American creed. But the way of life he depicts also invites us to think anew about the meaning and importance of the “American Dream,” and about whether technology helps or hinders the American character and our prospects for happiness.