The sentence "hitting a milk bottle with a ball been hammer." (Vonnegut) on line 36 is a great use of imagery. Everyone with above average intelligence is required to wear a radio headset, so they do not take advantage of their superior minds. "forty-seven pounds of birdshot in a canvas bag" (Vonnegut) This is what is around George's neck, his handicap for his physical abilities. This use of imagery shows the handicaps are not just for the smart, but for the strong too. As the ballerina took over, she had to apologize for her voice, she then spoke with a "grackle squawk" (Vonnegut). Even voices had to be equal in this society. These examples of imagery show how badly the government and society wanted equality.
Details.
Kurt Vonnegut uses details to show how different the society in Harrison Bergeron is compared to our own because of extreme equality. In this story, the year is "2081" which is a major change from our world to theirs. This difference shows how much time can change our society because of over equality. In our society, we try to play to our strengths. "since the announcer, like all announcers, had a serious speech impediment." In Harrison Bergeron they try give jobs to those who might have a very hard time, like someone with a speech impediment or would have never had gotten the chance too. Another way Vonnegut uses details to show the differences in our world now, to their reality with an overage of equality, is this quote "211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution". This quote shows how many changes were made to the Constitution, a lot more than today. This change shows how much can be changed in our future. In addition, another quote that proves the differences in our societies is "Hazel had perfectly average intelligence." In this society, in is "perfect" to have average intelligence, because is your average, there is no competition.