express any sense of mourning due to the fact that they cannot remember that he died. I feel like they are victims of the society. As a result of achieving complete equality, the government produced a world full of people who are unable to think or feel beyond the most basic levels. I feel that Hazel and George are perfect representations of the harm that is being caused by the society because the vast majority of parents would be horrified and heartbroken to see their child shot and killed, but they are unable to express these feelings, and instead cannot care that their child has been killed. This society has taken away the qualities that separate humans from animals, such as empathy, grief, and concern.

At the end of "Harrison Bergeron," Hazel has seen her son executed on live TV and George, although he sees Harrison evading the law and being declared a dangerous criminal, stops watching his son and goes to the kitchen to get a beer. Hazel, because of her naturally low intelligence and short attention span, and George, because of the "little mental handicap radio in his ear," cannot experience the normal parental emotions that have defined humanity since its beginning. This is obviously a portrayal of a bland and aimless quality of life. Although they enjoy an easy companionship with each other, in this case they should have experienced an intense bonding over the death of their son. Instead, Hazel comments inanely upon the "doozy" of a transmission George has just received in his ear, and the two of them banter with the lamest of jokes. The ups and downs of life, its sorrows as well as its ecstasies, allow humans to experience their humanity. An existence where one cannot think for more than 20 seconds continuously and can't remember a horrific event for more than a minute presents the nadir of quality of life for a human being, making him or her not much different from dumb and unthinking animals.