Discussion Topic

The handicaps worn by the ballerinas in "Harrison Bergeron."

Summary:

In "Harrison Bergeron," the ballerinas wear handicaps to ensure equality. These handicaps include weights to counteract their grace and masks to hide their beauty, preventing them from being superior to others.

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How are the ballerinas handicapped in "Harrison Bergeron"?

The ballerinas in this story are handicapped with weights, masks, and noise-making devices to cancel out their strength, beauty, and intelligence, respectively.

First, we find out that the ballerinas are handicapped to hide their strength and beauty. Their bodies are weighed down with heavy objects, and their faces are obscured by masks. Here's how George first perceives these handicapped dancers on television:

They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.

We also know that mental handicaps have been imposed on at least some of the ballerinas. When George's thoughts are interrupted by a loud noise in his head that causes him to flinch, he sees some of the dancers on the screen also flinching in the same manner. This observation leads us to infer that they, too, have noise-making devices implanted in their bodies to prevent them from thinking too deeply or for too long. In fact, when George hears a subsequent, particularly painful sound in his head--of a "twenty-one-gun salute"--he sees a few of the ballerinas on screen actually collapse, presumably from the shock of the same sudden sound.

As the story reaches its climax, we see what happens when a ballerina's handicaps are removed to reveal her true intelligence, strength, and beauty, in that order:

Harrison plucked the mental handicap from her ear, snapped off her physical handicaps with marvelous delicacy. Last of all he removed her mask. She was blindingly beautiful.

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How are the ballerinas handicapped in "Harrison Bergeron"?

Like everyone in the dystopian society described in the story, the dancers are handicapped according to their gifts.  If they are beautiful, their faces are masked, and if they are exceptionally coordinated, lithe, and able to be physically expressive, they are "burdened with sash weights and bags of birdshot".  The purpose of these handicaps are "so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face", would feel badly about themselves, if they have not been blessed with equal physical gifts.  In addition, the ballerinas who are overly intelligent are forced to wear "a little mental handicap radio in (their) ear(s)".  Loud, distracting noises are transmitted by these radios at unpredictable intervals, making it impossible for them to concentrate for any length of time, and causing them to wince and recoil from the pain caused by the din in their earpieces, even in the midst of their performance.

Burdened by these handicaps, the dancers are not really very good; they are "no better than anybody else would have been", which is the point of the handicapping done in the society.  It is the year 2081, and "everybody (is) finally equal...every which way".  In order to eliminate competition and put everyone on a level playing field, so to speak, handicaps are meted out as they are in theory in a horserace or in sports like golf or bowling, only in a much more literal, concrete manner, so that everyone has an equal chance to succeed at everything in life.  In the case of the dancers, the resulting performance is a ludicrous production, with the ballerinas stumbling around under the weight of their handicaps, presenting a spectacle that is completely unexceptional both artistically and aesthetically, in complete support of the theme of this satirical work.

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Why does the ballerina in "Harrison Bergeron" wear handicap bags as heavy as those worn by two-hundred pound men?

The ballerina who reads Harrison's escape bulletin is hinted to be the same one who Harrison chooses as his Empress. She is strong and graceful, more so than any other woman, and her mask is "hideous." Since she has unfair advantages in her looks, strength, and voice, she is heavily handicapped so nobody will feel inferior in comparison.

She must have been extraordinarily beautiful, because the mask she wore was hideous. And it was easy to see that she was the strongest and most graceful of all the dancers, for her handicap bags were as big as those worn by two-hundred pound men.
(Vonnegut, "Harrison Bergeron," tnellen.com)

Her voice is "luminous" and when she (if it is she) removes her handicaps, she is shown to be more beautiful than anyone. Her handicaps are preventing her from reaching her true potential, as intended by the handicap laws; nobody can be better than anyone else, and so her abilities are negated to keep her "average." If she is the same ballerina, then her true potential was truly extraordinary, because as soon as she removes the handicaps she is able to fly alongside Harrison.

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How are the dancers handicapped in "Harrison Bergeron"?

Ballerina dancers typically are very graceful, striving with every movement to embody beauty, flow, grace, and artistic expression.  However, in Vonnegut's dystopian future, displaying any of those traits would make those of us who can't dance feel clumsy and bad about ourselves.  So, the dancers are burdened with handicaps that keep them from showing any sort of grace or beauty whatsoever.  Near the beginning, the story states,

"They were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in."

So, on their limbs they wore bags filled with heavy birdshot (little pellets of lead) to keep them from moving too quickly or easily; they also had sashweights (like weighted cloth belts) to keep them from jumping too high.  Then, they of course had to wear masks,  so that any pretty face couldn't show through.  Also, if they were too smart, they had mental handicaps similar to the one that Harrison's father, George wore, that emitted loud sounds every once in a while to make any cohesive thinking impossible.  The ballerina that becomes Harrison's "empress" has one such mental handicap, along with all of the other previously mentioned ones.  Harrison tears them all off of her, and they experience a brief and beautiful dance.

I hope that clarification helps; good luck!

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How are the dancers handicapped in "Harrison Bergeron"?

After watching the ballerinas on television, George comments that they dance "no better than anybody else." This is because they are handicapped, or weighed down, by "sashweights and bags of birdshot." They are handicapped in this way to inhibit their gracefulness so that nobody watching them will feel inferior or insufficient. The ballerinas are also forced to wear hideous masks over their faces, so nobody watching them will feel unattractive compared to the ballerinas. The handicaps applied to the ballerinas are adjusted according to their natural talents or beauty. The more graceful the ballerina, the heavier the weights that she has to carry. The prettier the ballerina, the more hideous the mask that she has to wear.

Two of the eight ballerinas are also handicapped mentally, and this handicap takes the form of little radio transmitters inserted into their ears. These transmitters are worn by many other people too. The transmitters "send out some sharp noise" at frequent intervals to "keep people ... from taking unfair advantage of their brains."

The story is set in the year 2081, by which time the constitution has been amended to ensure that everybody is equal. This equality is enforced by "agents of the United states Handicapper General." The ballerinas are handicapped in the different ways noted above to make them equal, physically and mentally, with everybody else. These handicaps of course render their natural talents and capacities, as well as their beauty, utterly useless. In this way, Vonnegut attempts to satirize the idea that governments should intervene to impose equality. He takes that idea to its ad absurdum, dystopian extreme.

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What handicaps must the ballerinas in "Harrison Bergeron" wear?

In Vonnegut's celebrated short story "Harrison Bergeron," the United States Constitution has been amended to ensure that each citizen is completely equal in every facet of life. In the year 2081, agents of the United States Handicapper General have successfully developed a uniform society by requiring any talented, intelligent, or physically attractive individual to wear handicaps. The function of the handicaps is to limit the abilities of exceptional, talented members of society.

For example, George Bergeron has above-normal intelligence and is forced to wear a tiny mental handicap radio in his ear, which emits a loud noise every twenty seconds that interrupts his thoughts and prevents him from thinking deeply about any subject.

In the story, George and Hazel are watching ballerinas on television and cannot help but notice their oppressive handicaps. The ballerinas are forced to wear sashweights, bags of birdshot, and masks that cover their faces. Since the ballerinas are physically gifted and athletic, the heavy sashweights and bags of birdshot limit their physical mobility and prevent them from displaying their athleticism.

Similarly, the ugly masks hide their beautiful features and make them equal to the unattractive, mundane population. Once Harrison Bergeron takes over the television studio, he proceeds to strip the cumbersome, ugly handicaps off the ballerinas as they gracefully float into the air.

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