Harrison Bergeron

Outer characterization

Harrison Bergeron is one of the main characters in the short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. He is a 14-year-old boy who is taken away from his home by the authorities (p. 1, ll. 8-10) and imprisoned (p. 3, ll. 25-27). The media describes him as “a genius and an athlete” (p. 3, l. 27) and as “extremely dangerous” (p. 3, l. 28). He is “seven feet tall” (p. 3, l. 32). 

Harrison Bergeron is described as “a walking junkyard” (p. 3, l. 41), carrying “three hundred pounds” (p. 3, ll. 41-42) of artificial handicaps:

Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him...