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  • Essay / Individuality in "Harrison Bergeron" By Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

    Harrison is far from ordinary, he is depicted as "exactly seven feet tall...Harrison's appearance was Halloween and Hardware" (Vonnegut 197). Harrison being so young, he did not accept disabilities like his father and so was placed in prison until he eventually escaped (Moore 27). The disabilities greatly affect his appearance, but he is mentally strong enough to ignore the x-rays in his ears. Harrison's assets allow him to exploit his society's lack of inequality, but he is arrogant in the way he acts on camera, shouting "I am the emperor!" Do you hear? I am the Emperor! Everyone must do what I say immediately” (Vonnegut 198). Harrison's actions bring him down as he becomes power hungry and a potential dictator. “The Declaration of Independence regards the equal capacity of human beings to pass judgment on their circumstances and that of their communities as the basis of popular government and identifies the shared right of the people to modify or abolish existing political institutions as the the only real guarantee of his freedom. . And Abraham Lincoln summarized the founding as the birth of a nation “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” (Allen). Harrison's decision to escape from prison to hopefully shine a light on the corrupt government was necessary because of his God-given right. Power and equality must be balanced, like the American government today, with checks and balances. Checks and balances allow the government to work effectively, but are present to “hold the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch more accountable for regulations and their results” (Dudley 1027). Harrison made the mistake of pretending to be the leader of a group of people who had just heard about his escape from prison and were