Kurt Vonnegut is pointing out his view on what equality is and he wants us to think how extreme equality would affect us. He uses diction to explain It says on line 1-4 "everybody was finally equal. they were equal in every which way" (page 34) This quote shows us how the people in this world think. These people believe that equality is something to strive for, but when given consideration, complete equality could be a very bad thing. In this story, they create equality by giving masks to the beautiful or extra weights to the strong. If we do these things to the gifted then we will get nothing spectacular or amazing created. There will be no individuality, and we will all be easily controlled be whoever is in charge. You could argue that if everyone was equal no one would feel bad about themselves. The issue with this is that when everyone is the same, there is no individuality. With individuality, everyone can feel special, and have something or someone to strive towards. Another use of diction Kurt Vonnegut uses to enforce his views on equality is when Vonnegut described the recently freed ballerina as "blindingly" (Vonnegut) beautiful on line 162. Vonnegut uses this diction to point out her beauty now that she is free. He wants to point out that exceptional things can come when not everyone is equal. Vonnegut uses another piece of diction to help prove his ideas on extreme equality, "perfectly average intelligence." (Vonnegut) on lines 12-13. This is how our narrator describes Hazel, and goes on to say, she can only think about things in short burst. In our society, only thinking in short bursts is below average, Vonnegut is trying to say, if we push for equality, we will have to lower our standards to fit everyone's needs. Vonnegut really pushes the idea that extreme equality would be bad for all of us.
Imagery.
In Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut uses imagery to convey his thoughts of how handicaps affect this society.