Harrison Bergeron, of the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegutjr., is different. He is stronger, smarter, and generally better than the rest of the enslaved populations Harrison sees himself as the new era, the person that will end the “equality” madness, the Us government views him as a criminal and a freak, while the general population can’t really make sense of him. In 2081, everyone in the United States is handicapped, no one is above average and everyone is “equal”, Except for Harrison Bergeron, no matter what the United States government does he beats it Stemming from his undeniable awesomeness comes a skewed vision of himself and he world. To him, he deserves to be ruler, so when he eventually breaks out of the government’s newest restraints he declares himself the new emperor of the United States His short reign was influenced by his vision of himself as the savior to the people of the United States.
He thinks he can save the people from their current enslavement. Although Harrison attempts to free the American people he lacks the compassion to help them and instead uses the opportunity to better himself. The reality is that some things take a movement instead of one person, while Harrison views himself as the human form of an all-powerful god, the government and its people see him very differently. The United states government views Harrison as a criminal and someone that is cheating their system, he broke through or beat every single handicap given to him by the government. The United States believes it is unfair for one person to be so perfect, so they made it their responsibility to stop the outlier and uphold the system they know is right just. Because of Harrison’s god-like powers the Government elects to (successfully) send their very best, the handicapper general, after Harrison.
The people on the other hand, see Harrison much differently because of their either stupid or enslaved minds, the general population doesn’t put together thoughts very well and has a poor attention span. So, when his parents’ television burnt out his own mother quickly forgets who it is and what had happened, all she can remember is that something very sad happened. By this logic, the rest of the citizens would barely register that something had happened and might have even thought it was part of their show Harrison Bergeron viewed himself as a god and lead him to an untimely death, however, the United States government believes that they did the right thing and that their motives are justified.
