Harrison Bergeron's Yellow Wallpaper

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. creates chilling portrayal of society seventy-four years into the future in his story Harrison Bergeron. At first, the story really freaked me out with the idea of everyone being totally equal. The fact that most of the people were forced to live their lives with weights, masks, and handicaps is truly frightening. The detailed imagery Vonnegut uses when describing the different handicaps makes the story only more disturbing. George and Hazel’s inability to fully comprehend information is both shocking and heartbreaking. When George is explaining to Hazel why he can’t take off his handicap weights, he refers to the “dark ages, with everybody competing with everybody else” (25). I assume that the “dark ages” are supposed to be this present day. George, along with most of the other characters in the story, is so brainwashed that he thinks the uncomfortable weights and the painful brain handicap are good for him and for society. This sense of acceptance towards extreme conformity is almost inconceivable to the reader. Vonnegut is able to create sympathy for these two characters, as well as for the others, because they are all forced to live lives where individuality is looked down on and conventionality is praised. The idea that everyone is “equal” causes those who are gifted to feel guilty about their uniqueness, “She had to apologize at once for her voice, which was a very unfair voice to use . . . a warm, luminous, timeless melody” (40).
It is this recurrent theme throughout the story that caused me to draw upon a quote from the Pixar movie, The Incredibles, “They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity, but if someone is genuinely exceptional...” I believe it is safe to say that this phrase applies perfectly to the story. Also, the reader feels sympathy for George and Hazel because they are so brainwashed that when Harrison is taken away from them (5) and then when he is later shot (80), they do not even feel sad due to their handicaps. A couple cannot morn the death of their child because it would cause them to feel certain emotions that would cause them to be unequal with the rest of the population.

However, despite the government’s attempts to create an equal society by using handicaps, the handicaps still create an almost ranking system based on the severity of the disadvantage. For example, George is able to ascertain the variety in attractiveness between the ballerinas due to the differences in their handicaps, “She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And . . . she was the strongest and most graceful . . . for her handicap bags were a big as those worn by two-hundred pound men” (40). The sensation of an almost class-like system that underlies our own society is still evident in this futuristic world. An interesting aspect of Vonnegut’s story is that even while this is set in the year 2081 and there is evidence of technological advancements, the gun Diana Moon Glampers uses to kill Harrison and his Empress is one that we currently have in 2007. If this society is set so far in the future with the tools that are able to control other people’s thought process, why use such an archaic weapon? I believe it is to symbolize a regress back to more primitive times by those whose thinking is not controlled. When Harrison discards his handicaps and regains control, he declares he is Emperor (55), a title that had not been used for hundreds of years. It proves that when you try to force something, in this case extreme equality progressing society, it will only rebel and produce an opposite effect, a relapse to more elemental times.





In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman creates an extreme case of a stereotypical marriage, with a domineering husband and a submissive wife. John, the husband and a physician, is described as “practical in the extreme . . . has no patience with faith . . . and he scoffs openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put down in figures” (5). In fact, the wife claims that his over controlling manner is the main reason why she seems to be unable to get healthier (5). Her constant need to please her husband causes her to give up many of the things she enjoys or to do them in secret, such as writing (15). Also, she is reluctant to often tell him what is on her mind for fear of disappointing him. The control that John holds over his wife is so strong is seems that he has almost brainwashed her, causing her to believe that whatever he says and does is best for her. Therefore when she questions his actions about her recovery he causes her to feel guilty about it, as if she is being selfish and unappreciative by doubting him, “He takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more” (30). In the beginning of the story the wife appears to be quite sane, yet as the plot progresses we see her mental health spiral down. This is due to John’s “care” of her. It is he that worsens her condition by keeping her isolated all the time. The wife writes to us that John is always gone all day on “important” cases (90). If he truly cared about his wife’s recovery, he would have been by her side making sure she was ok. John’s almost mentally abusive behavior towards his wife is what ultimately drives her insane and forces her to look towards the “woman” in the wallpaper for some kind of company.


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