Final answer:
Handicaps in a story are often used to promote themes of equality by enforcing sameness across characters, but they can also emphasize the differences and conflicts within a society.
Step-by-step explanation:
The different handicaps in a story often serve to reinforce certain themes and messages. Considering the options given, the handicaps likely contribute to the theme of promoting equality. This is evident as such handicaps are typically introduced to level the playing field among characters, ensuring no single character has an undue advantage over another. In literature, such a theme speaks to a society's desire for equality and often criticizes or highlights the absurdity of enforced sameness. On the other hand, while they enforce equality on the surface, these handicaps can also emphasize differences by drawing attention to what must be suppressed or controlled for equality to exist, thus illustrating the cost of such enforcement.
Attention to conflict can be seen here as well, as handicaps can create tension between individual abilities and societal expectations, often as a tool to critique existing social structures and divisions.