Thursday 10 July 2014

In "Harrison Bergeron," why doesn't Hazel have any handicaps?

Pretty much
everyone in the future society depicted in the story has some sort of artificial handicap, from
heavy weights to ugly masks. This prevents anyone from excelling at anything (for example, one
actress being picked over another for her looks), and so ensures that everyone is
"equal," at least physically and mentally. George, Hazel's husband, has a mental
handicap that plays loud noises to distract him and prevent him from thinking about things.
While it is likely that Hazel has some physical handicaps:


Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn't think about
anything except in short bursts.
[...]
There were tears on Hazel's cheeks, but
she'd forgotten for the moment what they were about.
(Vonnegut, ","
tnellen.com)

This shows how the handicap amendments work;
a baseline of intelligence was chosen, likely as an average of the population, and then people
were handicapped to lower them to that average. Hazel happens to be right on that average
intelligence level. George is lowered to Hazel's average, but Hazel needs no lowering, and she
can't be handicapped further, because then she would be inferior to the
average. 

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