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Read the following excerpt from Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron":
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April, for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.
It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.

Identify Vonnegut's message in "Harrison Bergeron," and explain how he uses irony and a dystopian setting to convey that message. Make sure to cite specific examples from the excerpt to support your response.

Respuesta :

Vonnegut's message is that equality is gone wild in this world, being understood far too literally. Instead of being just a social regulator, in the sense that all people have equal rights while being mutually different, the concept is turned upside down - all people are literally equal, with their uniqueness being turned off by the government. Vonnegut frequently uses irony here - "everybody was finally equal", saying that the humanity had spent so much time and effort to achieve this goal. Everything works according to the principle of equality: the Constitution is adjusted, the government protects it, and there is even a special institution, the United States Handicapper General, which makes sure nobody transcends the limit of "perfect" averageness.