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How do Harrison's views put him in conflict with the government?

In Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron," he evokes a future version of America where equality is legally enforced. It is now written into the American Constitution, and there is an office of the "United States Handicapper General" which is responsible for enforcing this equality. Individuals who are smarter or more attractive than the norm are handicapped: they wear earpieces that make noises to distract their thinking, masks to cover their faces, and so on.


That's the context in which Harrison Bergeron acts. That context matters a lot, because that's what Harrison is acting against. Harrison's views are not well-developed or especially well-explained. They essentially boil down to two or three things. First, Harrison rejects the enforced equality. Second, he has the gifts and abilities to do so: he is extremely smart and physically powerful. Third, he declares himself emperor. He is explicitly rejecting the projected enforced legal equality.

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