are several similarities between the short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut and the novel 1984 by George Orwell. Both stories are set in the not so distant future where the government has complete control over the population, forcing the people to conform to the rest of society, all while the protagonist is fighting to break from the conformity and establish their own identity. Although both protagonists are fighting against the conformity that their government has placed upon them, their demise and how their society has got to the point where conformity is a norm is quite different.
To understand the underlying story line of each story, one must know about the time when the story was written. Harrison Bergeron, was written by Kurt Vonnegut in the early 1960s, during the civil rights movement in the United States. This time frame can be seen in the storyline of Harrison Bergeron as all the people where trying to achieve equal rights. However, the people of Harrison Bergerons world were forced into having equal rights, not fighting to gain it. 1984 written by George Orwell, was written in 1949 after the end of World War II. Orwell wrote 1984 after watching the rise of powerful dictators such as Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin who supported a totalitarian government style. The difference being between reality and the book being that these dictators had already failed, while the government in the novel was still fully in power.
Harrison Bergeron like 1984 is set in the future, many years after the story has been written by the author. Harrison Bergeron is written to take place in 2081, one hundred and twenty years after the story was published by Vonnegut. While 1984 is written to take place in 1984, thirty-five years after Orwell published the story. Although the amount of time ahead of the present the story is set to take place, the concept of why it is done so is the same. Both Vonnegut and Orwell are satirizing a utopian society that has been created and are pointing out their faults. The utopian society that both authors speak of has already begun to set foot into their world and although not necessarily aimed at being a politically moving story, both set fear into the current society so that the current society wont let what happens in the story happen in real life. By setting the story in the future both authors are able to predict what will happen to society if it stays on its current pathway. Furthermore it allows Vonnegut to mock current citizens willingness to say they have unwanted freedoms, and allows Orwell to strike fear into those that have no idea what communism could do to the West.
Another similarity in both Harrison Bergeron and 1984 is the government being able to hold absolute control over all the citizens of the society and have the ability to make them conform all while not conforming themselves. In Harrison Bergeron the people have given over all control to the Handicapper General and their agents, and by doing so the people have given the government absolute control over every aspect of their lives. The government has used this power to force the people to conform to being equal to one another in every which way. The people were given mental, visual, speech, beauty, and strength handicaps in order to make them equal to those of lesser abilities. However, despite making the average citizen equal in every way, the government officials are not equal. On the contrary, they can not be. In order to enforce the equality the agents as well as the Handicapper General must be the best of the best and therefore must be without handicaps themselves. So there is a loophole in society, not everyone is in fact equal.
In the same respect, in 1984 the Party has overtaken all control and has oppressed the citizens into a society where they are to conform to not having any free thoughts, sex, or expression of individuality. They are always watched thought telescreens and their thoughts are even monitored. The Party while using its power to make sure that its citizens conform to their ideal society so they are oppressed enough not to overthrow them, does not appear to monitor its own higher level officials. The officials that work for offices such as the Thought Police would be the ones looking for criminals, not the ones suspected to be criminals, therefore their level of monitor (if there is any at all) is bare minimum. In both Harrison Bergeron and 1984 despite individuals of the society knowing that the government has unattested control over them, they can not do anything about it, because they are forced to conform. Meanwhile the government is not forced to conform themselves and can stop any a rebellion shortly after one can break from the conformity of society.
An additional connection between Harrison Bergeron and 1984 is that both protagonists in the stories are the ones that break from the conformity of the society, even if it is just momentarily. In Harrison Bergeron, Harrison breaks out of prison (he has been put there since he is underhandicapped and considered dangerous) into a TV studio at which he takes over the program and breaks from his handicaps on television. He then selects a beautiful ballerina to dance with him and while he has the attention of the whole world he has truly shown everyone what can be done if one is willing enough to challenge authority. While in 1984, Winston has a sexual relationship and commits thought crimes by writing his thoughts and feelings in an illegally purchased diary. Although Winston does not set out to overthrow the government himself, he dislikes the party and is willing to go with a cause that could overthrow the Party that he despises so much. Both Harrison and Winston must overcome the obstacles of breaking from conformity in order to commit the heinous crimes towards their government, although not to the same extremes or consequences.
The outcome of Harrison and Winston after their breaks from conformity is quite different. In Harrison Bergeron, Diana Moon Glampers charges into the studio and without any warning shoots Harrison and the ballerina dead with a double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun. There was no warning for Harrison and his ballerina, they were not given an opportunity to put their handicaps back on like the musicians were given. But in 1984, Winston is taken to the Ministry of Love were he forced to spend months getting tortured and brainwashed by the Party until he is forced to face his worst fear, at which point his spirit is broken and he is allowed to be released back into the outside world because he has learned to love Big Brother. Harrison Bergeron unlike 1984 has the punishment for breaking from conformity as death and does not allow those who oppose the government to go into rehabilitation like the people of 1984.
Finally, how the people of Harrison Bergeron and the people of 1984 got into the government situations during the time of the story is dissimilar as well. In Harrison Bergeron the people gave away their individuality and gave the government the authority to enforce equality by making the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution. This meant that there had to be two-thirds majority in both houses or three-fourths of the state legislatures must have approved these amendments. This meant that THE PEOPLE had to have elected that their society be equal in every which way. But on the contrary, in 1984 the Party took over and seized control of the government by putting all the citizens under their rule. This totalitarian government seized all power and put its own officials into power. There were no elections, nor was their any say in this government by the people. However, this can not be absolutely determined because the Party continuously rewrites history as to cover its own tracks. Nonetheless both societies had to allow themselves to be taken over by a new government.
Both Harrison Bergeron and 1984 can be considered in the same genre of reading due to the many similarities of the story lines, but at the same time the background of the story is quite different. Both Vonnegut and Orwell create the allusion that these stories can take place in the near future if society allows the government to obtain total control of their lives and forces them to conform to basic standards for society and not be allowed to express their own voice. All while reminding us that even thought the idea may be the same in what the government is trying to accomplish the outcome and how the government first came into power will never be the same from story to story.
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