A Dream of

A detailed Summary of A Dream of


Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is not only the only American who survived the firebombing of Dreseden by British and American planes at the end of World War II. He is also one of the few people from any country that survived. For ten days and nights bombers dropped phosphorous bombs on the German city. Temperatures exceeded 2000 C°. Ordinary civilians in bomb shelters were turned into ashes. Vonnegut was under the ground in a meat locker and he lived. This experience must have prepared him to write short stories such as "Harrison Bergeron" in which the lives of ordinary people have been turned into a living hell by a totalitarian government set on achieving "equality." Vonnegut's main device in the story could be called "concretization." He portrays the leveling devices of the totalitarian society in absurdly concrete form as a way of making his unforgettable point to the effect that not all men are created equal.

Harrison Bergeron has been taken away from his parents at


Harrison Bergeron is an heroic superman figure. He is seven feet tall and immensely strong. He can tear off his physical handicapping devices as if they were tissue paper. Vonnegut concretizes the leveling devices of the totalitarian government by showing young Harrison with heavy bags full of lead, a padlock bar across his mouth, and a hideous mask. In his moment of liberation Harrison invades the government TV studio and tears them off. As he does so he makes the ultimate anti-equality statement.

"I am the Emperor", he cries. He then chooses his queen from among the ballerinas assembled there and rips off her equalizing devices. When her hideous mask comes off she is seen to be breathtakingly lovely. Harrison then does a dance so beautiful and so erotic with his empress that it defies gravity. It is brought to an end by the Handicapper General Diana Moon Glampers herself who interrupts the performance by shooting both performers with a shotgun.

Vonnegut's wit is not subtle in this

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 675
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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