Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut is a story set in a
future where everyone is exactly equal. It’s sort of the short story equivalent
to an Ayn Rand novel. When reading, it also reminded me of The Trees by Rush, a favourite song of my families for long car
rides to the cottage. Harrison Bergeron revolves around the theme of strict
equality and gives an extreme case of what this can do to a society. I decided
to read this story because I’ve wanted to read Slaughterhouse 5 for a while
now, but haven’t been able to get around to it. It doesn’t look like it will
happen this year either so I decided to just wet my appetite with a short story
by Vonnegut instead.
After reading this a couple of times…I’m not quite sure what
to make of it. I think I really liked it... I think? I think it caught me by surprise.
It seems so simple and ridiculous that it shouldn’t be taken seriously and yet,
I couldn’t help but be drawn in by the images of it. I have a very distinct
picture in my head about how it would all look. The images in my head really contrast the
normalcy of the Bergeron family in their house with my idea of how bizarre
Harrison would look like with all his “handicaps.”
I think I was also surprised by the story because the
opening little bit didn’t prepare me for how much I would feel later on. I
found that until I came to the part where Harrison appeared on the TV and
proclaimed himself Emperor, I wasn’t really engaged with the story. However, as
soon as Harrison appeared I was amazed. There is a deep beauty in the simple
writing of Vonnegut at this point. Just the divergence from the strange
normality of the beginning of the story to the crazy claims of the 14 year old
and his short love with his Empress left a deep impression on me.
Then the story became deeply simple…and sad. All it took to
destroy the love and beauty was a double barrel shotgun. Both the Emperor and
Empress die and the story returns to Mr. and Mrs. Bergeron. The sad routine of
their lives carries on without thought of what happened, or what could have
happened. When reading, I went from really happy to really sad very quickly. Again,
another twist, just as I started getting in the story, really enjoying it then,
BOOM! and I’m back to feeling ambivalent about the story, but this time also
deeply sad. But then as a final surprise, the last line literally made me laugh
out loud…weird story.
As I reflect back on this story now I think I can say that I
really do like it. Moreover, I think I like it for all the reasons why I wasn’t
sure if I liked it at first. At the very least it was a really well written
story as it definitely allowed me to enter the narrative and to feel what was
going on, even if those feelings were not happy. Now excuse me while I pour
myself a stiff drink and wallow in sadness for a little while.
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