Project 1: Rhetorical Analysis

[Bo Li]

Throughout history, many groups of people have fought for equality. The African American slaves fought for equality during the Civil War and after continued to fight for civil and racial equality. Women fought for gender equality. The LGBT community fought for marriage equality. Middle and lower class workers are fighting for wage equality. There are many types of equality and different ways to interpret equality. For example, is equality giving everyone an equal opportunity to be on equal terms, also known as equity, or giving everyone the same amount in everything, more like the concept of communism? Oxford dictionary defines equality as, “the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities.” Kurt Vonnegut took this definition very literally in his dystopian short story “Harrison Bergeron.”
“Harrison Bergeron” was published in 1961, when the United States was at war with Russia over the spread of communism, the Cold War. He symbolizes the principles of communism by making everyone “equal” in every aspect of the story and depicts what happens if achieving equality was taken quite too literally. He uses the rhetorical devices of pathos, ethos, logos, and kairos to show the skewed literal equality is.
“Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” (Vonnegut) He portrays this by giving those who are above average in any way a handicap. Those who are smarter than average would be given an earpiece with a radio that would make a loud sound every 20 seconds so they cannot think for too long. Those who are better looking, wore masks to cover their above average appearances. The more attractive they are, the uglier their mask would be. Those who are physically better than the average person wore weights, the stronger or better they were, the more weight they needed to wear. This all takes place in the year 2081 when three amendments were passed within the Constitution and became law. An association was created to help enforce these new norms, the United States Handicapper General. To prevent people from removing their handicaps or lightening them, anyone who breaks the law will serve jail time and will have to pay a fine for each weight they lighten or handicap removed.
Now the story starts off with the Bergeron family of three. There is Hazel, the mother of the family, George, the father, and Harrison, their fourteen-year-old son. Hazel is considered average with no handicaps. George, however, has above average intelligence and is also above average physically, so he wears weights and an ear radio. We are told from the beginning that Harrison, not yet described to us, was taken away by the Handicapper General’s men in the month of April. However, although this was such a terrible event that happened, both Hazel and George cannot think about it that much for Hazel with her average intelligence can only think in short burst and George’s ear radio mimics Hazel’s average short burst way of thinking. This should be an emotional time for the Bergeron family for their only child was taken away, yet they just sat there watching the television. Hazel had a tear on her cheek while watching the television, however, both she and her husband has forgotten their son’s capture due to the new societal norms. Vonnegut is using the rhetorical device of pathos here invoking an uneasy, uncertainty feeling, questioning the unnatural response to this situation. This makes the readers wonder if this new society is acceptable.
Since the premise of Harrison’s arrest was not told in the beginning, the readers might not feel inclined to side with the Bergeron’s, for it could have been the Bergeron’s who did wrong. However, as the story goes on, there is character development that shows how an average person would act, think, and react that has an unnaturalness to it compared to society now. As the story continues, the readers see how the extent of the new societal norms are affecting daily life through the Bergeron’s television when a ballerina performance was interrupted by Harrison after he escaped from jail. That is when Harrison’s deeds that led to the arrest was given to the readers, suspected of planning on overthrowing the government. Although that is considered wrong on his part if true, it might not be as wrong in the reader’s eyes after learning more about the society. Later on, when Harrison does his act of rebellion by removing his and others handicaps, he is killed in cold blood on television by the Handicapper Generals. Even after the Bergeron’s witnesses their son being murdered, they were still unable to grieve for their him.
Throughout the story, pathos was used very often. It was mainly found in the way how Hazel and George interact, as an average couple and as a citizen within this type of society. The nature of their conversations and the way they act would be very abnormal or awkward to the readers. They can not weep for their son for that long or at all for they are not allowed to think that long to comprehend. As a result, they quickly forget what has happened and how they felt towards it. The handicaps prevent them from having a conversation no longer than a minute or two. They essentially lost their freedom to think and feel however and whenever they wanted. This causes turbulence within some hearts, especially seeing one unable to grieve during a time of sadness.
Vonnegut uses ethos by describing the nature in which how this society works. Throughout the story, Vonnegut mentions, multiple times, the ear radio George has to wear. He describes what it sounds like and then tells the readers the effects of it on the person. For example, when George was thinking about Harrison while watching the ballet recital, a “twenty-one-gun salute” went off in his head and whoever else wearing the earpiece. It was so loud that Hazel commented how that was a “doozy.” It had George “white and trembling, and tears stood on the rims of his eyes.” (Vonnegut) As well as made two ballerinas on television drop to the floor holding their head in pain. This is an unethical way to treat a human being, it could be considered as torture.
Another example of how ludicrous this society is is when the ballet performance was interrupted by an announcement about Harrison escaping jail. After the announcer failed to inform what was happening properly, due to a serious speech impediment, he let a ballerina take over. The ballerina at first used her regular voice, however “she had to apologize at once for her voice, which was a very unfair voice for a woman to use” and started speaking in “ a grackle squawk.” (Vonnegut) It is unheard of for a person to apologize for their voice because it sounded too good in this day and age.
She then continued on with the announcement where they showed a picture of Harrison with his handicaps. He had “instead of a little ear radio for mental handicap, he wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses,” (Vonnegut) up to 300 pounds of weights, which made him look like a walking junkyard, and gave him additional facial features to make him uglier. The spectacles makes him half blind and gives him painful headaches. Keep in mind, Harrison, who was a fourteen-year-old boy that is heavily handicapped, just wanted to be free of his restraints, that was due to the fact that he was being himself, was killed on site, on camera by the Handicapper General’s men because they were unable to successfully contain or control him trying to exercise his natural rights. Many would consider this act very inhumane nowadays, where people can freely express themselves. However, in this story, people of this society accepted it and moves on without questioning it and forgets about it very quickly. This makes the society questionable to the readers as it seems more like a dystopia than a utopia due to the loss of basic rights.
Throughout the story, Vonnegut shows how illogical this society is using the rhetorical device of logos. For example, the announcer during the interruption of the ballet performance took half a minute to say “Ladies and Gentleman.” It is said that he has a serious speech impediment, like all the other announcers. However, if this is true, how do they expect to do their job properly? This applies for the ballerinas and musicians in the story as well. They wear their handicap which interferes with the quality of their work in their profession. For example, ballerinas should be beautiful and graceful, however, in the story, they are portrayed wearing ugly masks to hide their beauty, wear weights and the earpiece which hinders their dancing. Due to their mandatory participation in the new societal norms, anyone, regardless if handicapped or not, can dance as well as they do. They consider this as equality, however, this logic is senseless. What is the point of having the title “ballerina” if you cannot perform like a ballerina properly?
Another example of how illogical this society is, Vonnegut, hints at the decline in the progress of mankind within this society. In one of the conversations between Hazel and George, Vonnegut points out the fact of how Hazel is very similar to the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers. Hazel, who is average in everything, is compared with the Handicapper General. He implies that the Handicapper General is very average and is as smart as Hazel is. However, throughout the story, Hazel is portrayed as an airhead who is very slow and cannot comprehend some things like an idiom. For example, at the end of the story, George’s earpiece goes off and Hazel says “Gee – I could tell that one was a doozy,” and George agrees with her replying back with “You can say that again,” (Vonnegut) however, Hazel takes it literally and repeats herself. Assuming the Handicapper General is as average as Hazel, would you want this person to be leading you? Especially in this situation where the average is considered to be very low compared to the societal standards currently. Their standard of average lowered because they sacrificed progressing as humans for equality. They dumbed everyone down, encouraging to be less of what they are to achieve equality. They made the lowest their standard of average, instead of helping those who are below average achieve average. This way of thinking and governing is very irrational for instead of trying to become the best they decided to make everyone the worst. Is that a logical way of governing or of achieving equality?
Vonnegut uses kairos to convey his intentions as clear as possible. For example, the timing of when Harrison’s crimes were told. If Vonnegut had revealed Harrison’s crime of planning on overthrowing the government in the beginning, Harrison would have been seen as the bad guy. As a result, the story would have been read with the mindset that Harrison is the bad guy and the experience, impact, and emotions of the reader could have been misplaced or gauged differently. However, because it was told later on, after gaining knowledge about the society and forming opinions on it, Harrison’s actions and thinking becomes less of a treasonous act, but more of an understandable taking of actions due to moral reasons. There would have been a great difference in interpreting the story.
He also uses kairos to spread his work effectively to his audience. During the time period when this short story was published, equality and communism was a big topic. It was in the middle of the Cold War, it was not that long after McCarthyism, and etc. It was a good way to spread awareness and inform people what was or could happen.
Vonnegut uses rhetorical devices to help readers understand that total equality or communism is not necessarily good for society in reality, unlike the concept. He coaxes the reader to question the concept of equality. He uses pathos to sympathize with the Bergerons and to build up a wary view of the society. He uses ethos to show how skewed and unethical the society is. He uses logos to show how illogical this kind of equality is. Instead of us trying to move forward in life, it actually is making us move backward. Finally, he uses kairos to make the people at that time aware of what was happening. As a result, he was able to convey his message clearly through the story.

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