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What Is Equality? Part 1
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut
Reasoning through Language Arts/Social Studies connection
Sub Skills – Reading strategies, main ideas, citing evidence, making inferences, building vocabulary
Learner Level: Pre-GED/GED
(Strategies can be used for TABE EFL’s E & M)
Overview &
Purpose
This is Part 1 of a paper-based lesson plan based on the webquest, What Is Equality?, that can be found here. The instructional strategies
introduced in this lesson can be applied to many different topics in Social Studies and Science.
The paper- and web-based lessons connect the theme of equality in Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut to the “Declaration of Independence.”
Students will complete a variety of organizers and develop writing skills aligned with the Common Core State Standards. In the web-based
lesson, they will learn to participate in class discussions via the class message board. The final project focuses on citing textual evidence,
developing main ideas, organization, and writing using proper grammar and conventions. Students will do activities in whole group, collaborate
learning groups, and individually.
Objectives &
Standards
R.2 Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
R.3 Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
R.4 Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze
how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
W.1 Determine the details of what is implicitly stated and make logical inferences or valid claim that square with textual evidence.
W.2 Produce an extended analytic response in which the writer introduces the idea(s) or claim(s) clearly; creates an organization that logically
sequences information; develops the idea(s) or claim(s) with well-chosen examples, facts, or details from the text and maintains a coherent
focus.
W.3 Write clearly and demonstrate sufficient command of standard English conventions.
Materials
Activity 1 – Reading the story
Copies of Harrison Bergeron for each student, or read online here
Copies of Paired Reading Activity if choosing Option 2 (page 9)
Activity 2 – Literary Devices
Copies of Literary Devices (page 10) for each student
Activity 3 – Comprehension, Analysis, and Vocabulary
Copies of pages 9-13 for each student
Activity 4 – Assessment
Copies of pages 14-16 for each student
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Instructional
Strategies
Direct
Interactive – Cooperative Learning Groups
Independent – Reading & assessment
Information
Delivery
Activity #1 – Scaffolded reading activity
1. Option 1 (easy): Read aloud & SCAPED
a. The teacher will read the story, Harrison Bergeron aloud to students.
b. While listening, students will complete a SCAPED Organizer: Summarize, Connection, Ask a Question, Prediction, Evaluate, Draw
a Picture. For the Evaluate box, give students the question: Did Harrison's rebellion accomplish anything? Explain your answer.
2. Option 2 (middle): Paired Reading Activity
a. The teacher will distribute copies of the Paired Reading Guide and Harrison Bergeron to each student.
b. The students will work in pairs. One member of each pair will read the story softly aloud while the takes notes about the main
idea(s)—plot, concepts, phrases—in the “My Notes” column of the Paired Reading Guide sheet.
c. Halfway through the reading, students should switch roles as reader and note taker. After they complete the reading, have students
elaborate on their notes by adding the notes of their partners in the right-hand column.
3. Option 3 (moderate): Independent reading & SCAPED
a. The students will read the story and complete a SCAPED organizer independently
Activity #2 – Literary Devices
1. The teacher will distribute copies of Harrison Bergeron Literary Devices to each student.
2. The students will work in groups of 2-3 to identify the characters or examples from the story for each literary term. It may be necessary
to review some literary terms before proceeding. (This site is a good resource for literary terms. It is rather extensive, but gives precise,
clear definitions.)
3. Discuss as a class.
Activity #3 – Analysis Questions & Discussion
1. After reading the story and reviewing the SCAPED organizer or Paired Reading Activity, the teacher will distribute the Harrison
Bergeron packet to students (pages 10-12).
2. The students will work in groups of 2-3 to discuss and answer the questions.
3. Discuss as a class.
Activity #4 – Test Practice
1. The teacher will distribute copies of Harrison Bergeron Test Practice (pages 13-15) to each student.
2. Students will work independently to complete the questions and writing responses. Students may use the story, but not the notes from
previous activities.
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Assessment
Pages 13-15
Culminating assessment will be found on What is Equality, Part 4.
Closure
N/A
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HARRISON BERGERON
by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were
equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody
was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the
Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April for instance, still drove people crazy by not being
springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-year-old son,
Harrison, away.
It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn't think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence,
which meant she couldn't think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above
normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a
government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like
George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.
George and Hazel were watching television. There were tears on Hazel's cheeks, but she'd forgotten for the moment what
they were about.
On the television screen were ballerinas.
A buzzer sounded in George's head. His thoughts fled in panic, like bandits from a burglar alarm.
"That was a real pretty dance, that dance they just did," said Hazel.
"Huh" said George.
"That dance-it was nice," said Hazel.
"Yup," said George. He tried to think a little about the ballerinas. They weren't really very good-no better than anybody
else would have been, anyway. They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked,
so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in. George was
toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn't be handicapped. But he didn't get very far with it before
another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts.
George winced. So did two out of the eight ballerinas.
Hazel saw him wince. Having no mental handicap herself, she had to ask George what the latest sound had been.
"Sounded like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer," said George.
"I'd think it would be real interesting, hearing all the different sounds," said Hazel a little envious. "All the things they
think up."
"Um," said George.
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"Only, if I was Handicapper General, you know what I would do?" said Hazel. Hazel, as a matter of fact, bore a strong
resemblance to the Handicapper General, a woman named Diana Moon Glampers. "If I was Diana Moon Glampers," said
Hazel, "I'd have chimes on Sunday-just chimes. Kind of in honor of religion."
"I could think, if it was just chimes," said George.
"Well-maybe make 'em real loud," said Hazel. "I think I'd make a good Handicapper General."
"Good as anybody else," said George.
"Who knows better than I do what normal is?" said Hazel.
"Right," said George. He began to think glimmeringly about his abnormal son who was now in jail, about Harrison, but a
twenty-one-gun salute in his head stopped that.
"Boy!" said Hazel, "that was a doozy, wasn't it?"
It was such a doozy that George was white and trembling, and tears stood on the rims of his red eyes. Two of of the eight
ballerinas had collapsed to the studio floor, were holding their temples.
"All of a sudden you look so tired," said Hazel. "Why don't you stretch out on the sofa, so's you can rest your handicap
bag on the pillows, honeybunch." She was referring to the forty-seven pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag, which was
padlocked around George's neck. "Go on and rest the bag for a little while," she said. "I don't care if you're not equal to
me for a while."
George weighed the bag with his hands. "I don't mind it," he said. "I don't notice it any more. It's just a part of me."
"You been so tired lately-kind of wore out," said Hazel. "If there was just some way we could make a little hole in the
bottom of the bag, and just take out a few of them lead balls. Just a few."
"Two years in prison and two thousand dollars fine for every ball I took out," said George. "I don't call that a bargain."
"If you could just take a few out when you came home from work," said Hazel. "I mean-you don't compete with anybody
around here. You just sit around."
"If I tried to get away with it," said George, "then other people'd get away with it-and pretty soon we'd be right back to the
dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else. You wouldn't like that, would you?"
"I'd hate it," said Hazel.
"There you are," said George. The minute people start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to society?"
If Hazel hadn't been able to come up with an answer to this question, George couldn't have supplied one. A siren was
going off in his head.
"Reckon it'd fall all apart," said Hazel.
"What would?" said George blankly.
"Society," said Hazel uncertainly. "Wasn't that what you just said?
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"Who knows?" said George.
The television program was suddenly interrupted for a news bulletin. It wasn't clear at first as to what the bulletin was
about, since the announcer, like all announcers, had a serious speech impediment. For about half a minute, and in a state
of high excitement, the announcer tried to say, "Ladies and Gentlemen."
He finally gave up, handed the bulletin to a ballerina to read.
"That's all right-" Hazel said of the announcer, "he tried. That's the big thing. He tried to do the best he could with what
God gave him. He should get a nice raise for trying so hard."
"Ladies and Gentlemen," said the ballerina, reading the bulletin. She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the
mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her
handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred pound men.
And she had to apologize at once for her voice, which was a very unfair voice for a woman to use. Her voice was a warm,
luminous, timeless melody. "Excuse me-" she said, and she began again, making her voice absolutely uncompetitive.
"Harrison Bergeron, age fourteen," she said in a grackle squawk, "has just escaped from jail, where he was held on
suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be
regarded as extremely dangerous."
A police photograph of Harrison Bergeron was flashed on the screen-upside down, then sideways, upside down again,
then right side up. The picture showed the full length of Harrison against a background calibrated in feet and inches. He
was exactly seven feet tall.
The rest of Harrison's appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever born heavier handicaps. He had
outgrown hindrances faster than the H-G men could think them up. Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he
wore a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him
not only half-blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.
Scrap metal was hung all over him. Ordinarily, there was a certain symmetry, a military neatness to the handicaps issued
to strong people, but Harrison looked like a walking junkyard. In the race of life, Harrison carried three hundred pounds.
And to offset his good looks, the H-G men required that he wear at all times a red rubber ball for a nose, keep his
eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even white teeth with black caps at snaggle-tooth random.
"If you see this boy," said the ballerina, "do not - I repeat, do not - try to reason with him."
There was the shriek of a door being torn from its hinges.
Screams and barking cries of consternation came from the television set. The photograph of Harrison Bergeron on the
screen jumped again and again, as though dancing to the tune of an earthquake.
George Bergeron correctly identified the earthquake, and well he might have - for many was the time his own home had
danced to the same crashing tune. "My God-" said George, "that must be Harrison!"
The realization was blasted from his mind instantly by the sound of an automobile collision in his head.
When George could open his eyes again, the photograph of Harrison was gone. A living, breathing Harrison filled the
screen.
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Clanking, clownish, and huge, Harrison stood - in the center of the studio. The knob of the uprooted studio door was still
in his hand. Ballerinas, technicians, musicians, and announcers cowered on their knees before him, expecting to die.
"I am the Emperor!" cried Harrison. "Do you hear? I am the Emperor! Everybody must do what I say at once!" He
stamped his foot and the studio shook.
"Even as I stand here" he bellowed, "crippled, hobbled, sickened - I am a greater ruler than any man who ever lived! Now
watch me become what I can become!"
Harrison tore the straps of his handicap harness like wet tissue paper, tore straps guaranteed to support five thousand
pounds.
Harrison's scrap-iron handicaps crashed to the floor.
Harrison thrust his thumbs under the bar of the padlock that secured his head harness. The bar snapped like celery.
Harrison smashed his headphones and spectacles against the wall.
He flung away his rubber-ball nose, revealed a man that would have awed Thor, the god of thunder.
"I shall now select my Empress!" he said, looking down on the cowering people. "Let the first woman who dares rise to
her feet claim her mate and her throne!"
A moment passed, and then a ballerina arose, swaying like a willow.
Harrison plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy. Last of
all he removed her mask.
She was blindingly beautiful.
"Now-" said Harrison, taking her hand, "shall we show the people the meaning of the word dance? Music!" he
commanded.
The musicians scrambled back into their chairs, and Harrison stripped them of their handicaps, too. "Play your best," he
told them, "and I'll make you barons and dukes and earls."
The music began. It was normal at first-cheap, silly, false. But Harrison snatched two musicians from their chairs, waved
them like batons as he sang the music as he wanted it played. He slammed them back into their chairs.
The music began again and was much improved.
Harrison and his Empress merely listened to the music for a while-listened gravely, as though synchronizing their
heartbeats with it.
They shifted their weights to their toes.
Harrison placed his big hands on the girls tiny waist, letting her sense the weightlessness that would soon be hers.
And then, in an explosion of joy and grace, into the air they sprang!
Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well.
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They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun.
They leaped like deer on the moon.
The studio ceiling was thirty feet high, but each leap brought the dancers nearer to it.
It became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling. They kissed it.
And then, neutralizing gravity with love and pure will, they remained suspended in air inches below the ceiling, and they
kissed each other for a long, long time.
It was then that Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, came into the studio with a double-barreled ten-gauge
shotgun. She fired twice, and the Emperor and the Empress were dead before they hit the floor.
Diana Moon Glampers loaded the gun again. She aimed it at the musicians and told them they had ten seconds to get their
handicaps back on.
It was then that the Bergerons' television tube burned out.
Hazel turned to comment about the blackout to George. But George had gone out into the kitchen for a can of beer.
George came back in with the beer, paused while a handicap signal shook him up. And then he sat down again. "You been
crying" he said to Hazel.
"Yup," she said.
"What about?" he said.
"I forget," she said. "Something real sad on television."
"What was it?" he said.
"It's all kind of mixed up in my mind," said Hazel.
"Forget sad things," said George.
"I always do," said Hazel.
"That's my girl," said George. He winced. There was the sound of a riveting gun in his head.
"Gee - I could tell that one was a doozy," said Hazel.
"You can say that again," said George.
"Gee-" said Hazel, "I could tell that one was a doozy."
"Harrison Bergeron" is copyrighted by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., 1961.
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Paired Reading Guide
Your Partner’s Name
Your Name
Your Notes
Your Partner’s Notes
Summary:
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Harrison Bergeron
Literary Devices
1. Point of View:
2. Protagonist:
3. What type of character is the Protagonist? (round/flat and static/dynamic)
4. Antagonist:
5. Describe the setting:
6. Type of Conflict:
7. Describe the main conflict:
8. Describe the Climax of the Story:
9. How does the Protagonist change over the course of the story?
10. Describe the relationship between the title and the theme (equality or freedom).
11. How does the main conflict help to illustrate the theme?
12. How does the climax help to illustrate the theme?
13. Give examples of each of the following literary terms in the story (use quotes):
a. Simile:
b. Metaphor:
c. Personification:
d. Symbol:
e. Foreshadowing:
f.
Irony:
g. Imagery:
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Harrison Bergeron
Literary Analysis
Plot and Conflict
The plot of a story is the action that takes place. The plot is driven by a conflict, or struggle between opposing forces.
This might be a struggle between two characters, between a character and nature, within a character, or between a
character and society as in the story, “Harrison Bergeron.”
Directions: In the chart, record the ways in which Harrison and the government oppose each other.
What the Government Believes
How Harrison is Different
Use the details you recorded in the chart to write a one paragraph summary of the main conflict in the story.
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Harrison Bergeron
Vocabulary Practice
Word List
Consternation
Neutralizing
Vigilance
Cower
Synchronizing
Wince
A. Directions: Fill in each blank with the correct word from the word list above.
1. If you were cornered by a wild beast, you might ____________________.
2. If you burned your finger on a hot stove, you might _________________.
3. If a series of burglaries occurred in your neighborhood, you might increase your
_____________________.
4. If you never found time to eat dinner with your family, you might suggest that your schedules needed
_________________________.
5. If you found your mother reading your diary, you might feel _____________.
6. If you had a rash from poison ivy, your doctor might suggest ____________ the effect with a special
cream.
B. Directions: Think about the meaning of each phrase in the first column. Then find the phrase in the second
column that is closest in meaning. Write the letter of that phrase on the blank line.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
_____ yelps of confused amazement
_____ cringe and conceal
_____ unending alertness
_____ flinch from soreness
_____ coordinating timepieces
_____ deactivating the foe
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
unceasing vigilance
cries of consternation
synchronizing watches
cower and hide
neutralizing the enemy
wince in pain
C. Writing: Harrison Bergeron rebelled against the laws of society that regulated equality. Write a note the Harrison
might have written to his parents explaining his reasons. Use at least two words from the box in your note.
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Harrison Bergeron
Reading Check and Literary Analysis
Directions: Recall the events from the short story by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Then answer the questions in COMPLETE
SENTENCES.
1. What is the purpose of the handicaps?
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2. How are George and Hazel related to Harrison?
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3. What keeps happening to George that prevents him from finishing his thoughts?
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4. Why is Harrison in jail?
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5. What happens to Harrison at the end of the story?
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Analyze Plot and Conflict
6. What is Harrison fighting against in the story?
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7. How does the conflict end?
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Recognize Conflict
8. The climax of the story is the high point of interest and tension. Circle the climax of this story.
a. Hazel and George start watching TV
b. A photograph of Harrison flashes on the screen
c. Harrison and his Empress kiss the ceiling
d. George goes to the kitchen for a beer
Draw Conclusion
9. Circle the words that best describe the society described in the story.
a. Free
b. Tolerant
c. Repressive
d. Strict
e. Conformist
f. Open-minded
Interpret Theme
10. Does the author like the society he describes? Support your answer with evidence from the story.
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Evaluate
11. Suppose Harrison took over the country. What might happen? Write three ideas
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Harrison Bergeron
Test Practice
Multiple Choice—Comprehension
Read each of the following questions. Then choose the letter of the best answer.
1. Which word best describes the mood of the Bergeron household?
a. Subdued
b. Overwhelming
c. Inspiring
d. Restless
2. In this story, people with above-average intelligence have to
a. Watch a lot of television every night
b. Marry someone with less intelligence
c. Report weekly to the Handicapper General
d. Wear mental-handicap transmitters
3. Based on the number of handicaps Harrison wears, you can conclude he is
a. The same as everyone else
b. Dangerous to others in society
c. Above average in many ways
d. Glad he doesn’t live at home
4. Throughout most of the story, you can conclude that George treats Martha
a. Unfairly
b. Gently
c. Rudely
d. Poorly
5. Harrison is in conflict with
a. His parents
b. The government
c. His teachers
d. A ballerina
Vocabulary
Choose the answer that best explains the meaning of each underlined word.
6. Which word most closely relates to the term vigilance?
a. Alertness
b. Panic
c. Enthusiasm
d. Carelessness
7. A look of consternation is one of
a. Great excitement
b. Confusion and fear
c. Deep sadness
d. Anger and hatred
8. To wince means to
a. Complain loudly
b. Relax completely
c. Flinch involuntarily
d. Cry out in fear
9. A character who is cowering may
a. Crouch in fear
b. Laugh loudly
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c. Swear to tell the truth
d. Attempt to escape
10. To synchronize two watches will make them
a. Shine
b. Stop
c. Agree
d. Glow
Written Response
Answer the following questions based on your knowledge of the story. Write one or two sentences on the lines provided.
11. Give one reason why the Handicapper General considers Harrison a threat to society.
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12. Give two examples from the story that show how the mood of the story becomes more serious after Harrison
has been shot.
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Extended Response
Answer the following question based on your knowledge of the story. Write two paragraphs on the lines provided.
13. Explain how Harrison’s feelings toward government-imposed handicaps conflict with his father’s. Give two
examples from the story that show how each one feels about this government practice.
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