Part A: The correct answer is first statement. The major
theme of “Harrison Bergeron” written by Kurt Vonnegut is that close-minded
people are a threat to beauty, individuality, and self-expression. In this short
story, Kurt wanted to present that total equality isn’t always good by creating
a dystopia in which, to achieve equality, close-minded people are targeting
intelligent, strong and beautiful people and strip them of their extraordinary
characteristics. Those who represent individualism are being handicapped by Handicapper
General so that others won’t feel inferior.
Part B: Evidence from the text that best represents answer
in part A is the second one. By describing how hard government is working to
make everyone equal, Vonnegut is directing reader’s attention on the concept of
dystopian society to show how cruel it can be on those with “extraordinary
characteristics”. Close-minded people feel inferior to individualists and by
trying to be equal to them they treat their beauty, intelligence and strength,
instead of trying to achieve more.
