Harrison Bergeron

Harrison Bergeron Summary | Detailed Summary

"Harrison Bergeron" is a short story set in the year 2081. It takes place in the United States of America, in the living room of George and Hazel Bergeron. This is a time when the 211^th, 212^th, and 213^th amendments to the Constitution have made equality the law. This means that all people are seen as equal in every way, in intelligence, in beauty, in athleticism, and in talent.

People who seem to be above average in any area are given handicaps by the United States Handicapper General. These handicaps are forms of physical handicaps that are placed upon the individuals in order to bring them down to an average level. For example, a strong man may be given a forty-seven pound bag of birdshot to wear around his neck. Those who have above average intelligence are given little radio transmitters that make obnoxious noises inside their heads every twenty seconds. These transmitters are designed to prevent anyone from thinking about any one thing or idea for more than twenty seconds at a time.

Hazel Bergeron is considered to be of average intelligence, which means that she naturally cannot think of anything for a long period of time. She cannot concentrate on any single idea for more than a few seconds. Her husband, George, is of a higher level of intelligence, though. George wears a radio transmitter in his head, as a result. Anytime he begins to think of something new, a horrible noise explodes in his head causing him to lose focus and become mentally disoriented. Hazel and George have a fourteen-year-old son named Harrison. Harrison is absent from the initial action of the story, though the narrator mentions that he has been hauled away to prison recently.

As the story opens, Hazel and George are in their living room watching ballerinas on television. Even the ballerinas are not allowed to be particularly talented at dancing. Nor are they allowed to display their beauty. They wear ugly masks and carry bags of birdshot tied to their bodies to weigh them down. Two of the ballerinas seem to be wearing radio transmitters in their heads, because each time George gets zapped with a new sound, the two ballerinas on television wince in agony as well.

As George and Hazel watch the ballerinas, they try to have a conversation, but everything they say either gets interrupted by the noise in George's head or by Hazel's loss of focus. At one point, Hazel makes the point that she believes she would be a good Handicapper General. George says she would be just as good as anyone else would be. The two of them even have trouble recalling parts of the conversation from one sentence to the next. Suddenly, though, the television show is interrupted by Breaking News.

The announcer tries to speak, but his speech impediment prevents him from getting the message across clearly. Therefore, he hands the message to one of the ballerinas to read. The Breaking News is that Harrison Bergeron has just escaped from prison. A picture is shown on the screen of him, reflecting that he is seven-feet tall. The ballerina-announcer says that Harrison is a genius and he is very athletic. He is to be considered dangerous, and anyone who sees him should avoid making any conversation with him. Harrison carries three hundred pounds of scrap metal and iron as his handicaps. He is made to wear special glasses that make him almost half-blind and give him terrible headaches. Harrison also has to wear a red rubber ball on his nose in order to offset his better-than-average good looks. Harrison is so intelligent that the traditional radio transmitter is not a strong enough handicap for him; he has to wear huge earphones strapped to his head instead. He is under arrest for attempting to overthrow the government.

Just as the ballerina is describing the fourteen-year-old genius fugitive, the studio begins to shake, as if an earthquake is striking. Suddenly, Harrison Bergeron is in the studio. He is a giant, and he is shackled with huge pieces of iron and scrap metal tied to him. He rips off his handicaps and declares himself the emperor of all the land. He wants to claim an empress to be his mate, and tells the ballerinas that the first one who volunteers will be his mate. A beautiful woman rips off her mask. Harrison and his lady begin to dance as he commands the musicians to tear away their handicaps so they can play phenomenal music. The music becomes more sensual, and the couple dances and soars into the air, kissing the ceiling at one point. As they dance, the H-G men arrive and immediately shoot Harrison and the ballerina dead on the spot. The men command the musicians to replace all of their handicaps or they too will be shot within ten seconds. The musicians comply.

Back in the living room at the Bergerons' house, George and Hazel have just witnessed the murder of their son on live television. Hazel is crying and George is hearing a tremendous round of gunshots firing in his head. Once the noise in his head stops, George asks Hazel why she is crying. She says she cannot remember exactly, but she knows she saw something sad on television. George himself has no idea what was so sad on television either.