Question

Refer to Explorations in Literature for a complete version of this story. Which quotation from "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. best develops the theme that attempting to make people "equal every which way" is a dangerous and foolish goal? “The musicians scrambled back into their chairs, and Harrison stripped them of their handicaps, too.” “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.’” “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...” “‘…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.’”

Answer 1

“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.’”

This is the best answer because it shows that making people "equal every which way" is a dangerous and foolish goal. In this line, the people are subjected to a sharp noise that disturbs their ability to think and perform to their fullest potential. The purpose behind the noise is to make everyone equal. Since you can't make someone more intelligent or improve their processing speed, the best way to equalize everyone is to bring all the more intelligent and faster processing minds down. This subjection to a disturbing noise just seems ridiculous and foolish.

The other options aren't the best fit. Even though the first option says that people's handicaps are taken away, it doesn't actually show the idea of equality. B indicates that the purpose is equality when it says "taking unfair advantage". Option C and D only give reasons behind the equality.

Answer 2

Answer: “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.’”

This quote is the one that best exemplifies how trying to make everyone the same is a dangerous and foolish goal. This is the main theme of Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut. In this story, people are meant to be all the same due to a government mandate. In order to achieve this, people who are too beautiful, too intelligent or too athletic have to wear handicaps in order to be brought down to the level of the lowest common denominator.