Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Vonnegut's message about the world in this story is that there is no way to make everyone equal and the world will be chaotic, no matter what. Now, we have so much freedom but there are still many countries where people don't have equal rights, especially women. In the story of Harrison Bergeron, people are given handicaps so that they're not better than anyone at anything. That takes the freedom away and makes everyone equal, but in a torturous way. "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 better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else." (pg 130) Everyone wears handicaps, such as weights - to make a person weaker, masks - to hide someone's good looks, and ear pieces - that make sounds every time someone thinks to much, to keep people from being smart. "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." (pg 130) In this story, everyone is equal, resulting in chaotic, mindless people following ONE person's rules. Although most people are equal, there is still one person in charge and she gets to rule the world and she has all the power. Despite how hard we try, we'll never have a perfect world because there will always be disagreements and oppressive leaders, etc.