- 29 Mar, 2021
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- 2 Mins Read
Vonnegut stories
Read the story and discussion questions!
Describe Vonnegut’s America. Are there positive aspects of this society? What is lacking?
Why do you think it adopted its practices of making everyone equal in brains, beauty, and brawn?
Is it a good thing for people to believe that no one is better than anyone else? Would it be a good thing if, in fact, no person were better than any other person?
What do you make of Harrison Bergeron himself? Does he represent the American dream to “be all you can be?”
What do you admire about Harrison? Are there aspects of his behavior that concern you?
With whom do you think Vonnegut sympathizes in the story? Does he present Harrison as a hero, or is the story heroless? Why?
What is being satirized in this story? Why do you think Vonnegut wrote it?
Is Vonnegut’s story finally a cautionary tale about the importance of freedom? Of individuality? Of human excellence? Or is he aiming at something else?
Harrison Bergeson
Read the story and discussion questions!
The painting at the center of the story is called “The Happy Garden of Life,” which is clearly meant to be a metaphor or an allegory for the society as a whole. How accurate is this metaphor? What about the other metaphors in the story–do they illuminate or conceal? (You may want to
AFTER READING BOTH STORIES AND ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS.
Compare and contrast the two Kurt Vonnegut short stories “Harrison Bergeron” and “2BR02B.” Find three ways the stories are similar and three ways they differ. (Other than they share the same author).
ask the same questions about the metaphors you encounter on a daily basis.)
Dr. Hitz makes the case that population control increases human happiness, but the painter sees the mechanism of control as “grim.” At the same time, the painter also considers “war, famine, and disease” to be even less appealing than the Federal Bureau of Termination. Whose account do you find more convincing?
As an artist figure, we might think of the painter as a stand-in for Vonnegut himself. Do you think that the painter is expressing Vonnegut’s own ideas? Why or why not?
4. What do you think is the significance of Wehling’s offhanded comment that he is “the invisible man”? How does this description relate to the rest of the story?
Early in the story, the painter tells the orderly that he won’t die at the hands of the Federal Bureau of Termination. However, by the story’s end he “loses his nerve.” How does this change your impression of him as a character?