As I read this story I was continually in awe of Mr. Vonnegut and all the detail he thought up. He puts the story in the year 2081. The American government made a law that everyone should be created equal. So anyone that is born smart, strong, tall, or anything else that had an advantage over someone, had a handicap put on them. In that time there is a Handicapper General (kind of like the Surgeon General now-a-days)that issues the handicaps to people.
Mr. Vonnegut does a great job of characterization in Harrison Bergeron. In the story he shows a married couple living in 2081. The wife, Hazel, is an average person that doesn't have or need any handicaps. The Husband, George, has intelligence way above normal so the Handicapper General put a government transmitter in his ear that sends short bursts of sound about every twenty seconds that makes him lose his genius thoughts. George is also stronger than some people so the government makes him wear bags of bird shot around his neck to slow him down. The problem with the story is that George and Hazel have a son, Harrison Bergeron, who is seven feet tall, athletic and extremely smart. The H-G (Handicapper General) had to put super pair of earphones on him because the little radio transmitters wouldn't work on him. They also put special glasses on him so that he would be half blinded and have raging headaches. Because he was so strong the H-G put 300 lbs. of scrap metal on him. The crazy thing about this is that Harrison is only fourteen years old. The H-G threw Harrison in jail because they heard rumors about him thinking about overthrowing the government.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. does a wonderful job of showing character. After all this story is all about people's character and their traits.
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