Perspectives

Indhold

Literary perspective
Works in the same genre or by the same author

Literary perspective

The short story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut falls into the sub-genre of dystopian fiction, which often explores dark and problematic aspects of societies. Dystopian fiction is usually found in science-fiction genre.

One of the characteristics of dystopian fiction is the use of propaganda to control the citizens. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the TV is a symbol of propaganda because Harrison’s execution is seen by all the citizens watching TV at that moment. Then, dystopian fiction deals with the oppression of certain categories of people. In Vonnegut’s story, the beautiful, the strong, and the most intelligent are artificially handicapped and forced to become mediocre. Another feature of dystopian fiction is the idea that conformity is better than individuality. In “Harrison Bergeron”, individuality is p...