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HARRISON BERGERON- Q &A
1. What does it mean for people to be “equal under the law”?
2. What are the some of the ways in which people can be equal or
unequal?
3. Do you think that the government’s motives in trying to make all
people the same were originally good or bad?
4. Why do you think the society 2081 wants to make everyone
equally average instead of making everyone able to achieve
their full potential?
5. Why are people warned in the news bulletin against trying to
reason with Harrison Bergeron?
6. Why does Harrison only take off his handicaps once he is on
television? Why doesn’t he worry that if he appears on
television, he will be captured?
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Date:
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7. Why does Harrison select an Empress as soon as he is free of
his handicaps? Why does he choose the first woman who
dares to rise?
8. Why do the musicians obey Harrison’s order to take off their
handicaps? Why can they revolt with Harrison, but not on their
own?
9. Why do Harrison and Empress have to be shot in the end?
10.
Why do you think Harrison was made exceptionally tall
and handsome as well as a genius and athlete?
11.
Why is the only person who revolts against the society an
extraordinary fourteen-year-old boy?
12.
Why are some of the people in the story—Harrison and
the dancer—able to overcome their handicaps, while others,
such as George, can’t?
13.
Why does the author paint such a bleak picture of future?
How does this represent the genre of “dystopia”?
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Date:
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14.
Do you think the Handicap General has a handicap?
Why or why not?
15.
Why do Harrison Bergeron’s parents see his revolt but
immediately forget about it?
16.
Why does the story end with George telling Hazel to
“Forget sad things”? Do you think she will forget?
17.
Does someone like Harrison represent a danger to, or the
salvation of, society? Why or why not?
18.
Why does the society of 2081 believe that if people are at
all different, there can’t be justice and peace?
19.
Why, in 2081, isn’t it enough that people are equal “before
God and the law”? Why do they have to be made equal in
every way?
20.
Why is a Handicapper General needed to maintain
equality in 2081? Why are the laws that make everyone equal
so harshly enforced?
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Date:
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21.
Why are we told that it still drives people crazy in 2081
that April is not springtime?
22.
Why does the author suggest that a person of average
intelligence can think about something only in short bursts?
23.
Why does Hazel feel envious of George for getting to
hear all the different sounds on the handicap radio?
24.
Why does Hazel suggest that George alter his handicap?
Why is a perfectly average person more ready to consider
breaking the handicap laws than an intelligent person like
George?
25.
What resonated with you about this story?