Analysis on Black Humor in “Harrison Bergeron”

毛博藝

【Abstract】The story “Harrison Bergeron” illustrates a future dystopian world. In this world everyone is of the same equality or position. This paper mainly reveals the Vonneguts attitude towards dystopian society. By using black humor， stories would leave a deep influence in readers and thus lead to a deeper impact on the society. This paper gives a brief introduction on “black humor” and analyze its use in “Harrison Bergeron” and why it produces deeper impacts on society.

【Key words】Black humor； “Harrison Bergeron”； social effects

1. Introduction on Kurt Vonnegut Jr

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was a German-American. This identity has given him much trouble during WWⅡ. His national identity restricted him from getting along with Americans normally. People doubted his national purity and moral quality because of Germanys dominant position in wars. This experience made Vonnegut question himself several times and influenced his mental status for whole life. Beside his national identity， the unemployment of his father， the suicide of his mother together with his early grievous experience during WWⅡhad influenced his writing style greatly， especially his black humor writing type. Due to his natural personality， he was interested in humor very much. He even worked for an American comedy after the war. This personality also caused to his black humor writing style.

2. Black humor in “Harrison Bergeron”

2.1 On the black humor

“Harrison Bergeron” belongs to the genre of black humor. Critics have thrown a doubt about the definition of black humor. They gave their definitions to such a complex style in order to express some of its distinctive aspects. In ONeill Patricks （1996） opinion， “Black humor is based firstly on an essential incongruity-the comic treatment of material which resists comic treatments and secondly on the evocation of a particular response， namely the readers perception that this incongruity is the expression of a sense of disorientation.”

The term “black humor” can be defined， combined with critics different opinions， as a writing style in which there are always laughter and tears， life and death， absurdity and rationality， humor and horror co-existence. Humor and pathos are opposing responses， which cannot be felt about the same object simultaneously， but in black humor， they can exist at the same time.

2.2 Use of black humor in “Harrison Bergeron”

Different from other black humor writers， Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was not completely despair， instead， he threw his eyesight further， jumped out absurdity and nothingness. He was pessimistic， but his writing style was injected with a hope.

The short story “Harrison Bergeron” was a dystopian story. As opposed to utopian literature， dystopian literature presents a nightmare vision of the future. Dystopias are often warnings about society's current state of affairs and can offer critiques of government and power.

From “Harrison Bergeron”， there were several passages which involved black humor.

When Harrison Bergeron broke out of the prison and stood in the center of the studio of TV station， he asked for a brave woman to be his empress. Then a ballerina arose and Harrison set her free. The scene was suddenly transformed from a depressive gloomy scene to a delightful and joyful situation. Here Vonnegut wrote， They shifted their weights to their toes…And then， in an explosion of joy and grace， into the air they sprang！ Not only were the laws of the land abandoned， but the law of motion as well. They reeled， whirled， swiveled， flounced， capered， gamboled， and spun. They leaped like deer on the moon…it became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling. They kissed it. （Vonnegut 1961）.

This paragraph specifically describes how the crowd danced in the studio. Vonnegut used words such as “reeled， whirled”， “deer on the moon”， and “kiss the ceiling” to vividly draw readers attention on the joy and happiness of the unchained group of people. They got touch with the real melodious music and free dance for the first time， instead of silly and cheap music. Vonnegut put their behaviors in an exaggerated way. He magnified their moves and feelings. This type of writing created an atmosphere in readers mind which called on their sympathy to the scene. Though the language was wild and to some degree hilarious， readers may laugh at this moves， mostly they would also raise a feeling that there was a hope. This hope was what Vonnegut tried to bring about. They felt that the ludicrous situation at that time could change. This was what Harrison Bergeron wanted and also what the audience wanted. When readers read such kind of descriptions， they may have an awareness of the government system—“Is our government doing the same or familiar thing as what Handicapper General has done to its citizens？” “Does our present society have the tendency to move forwards the extreme equalitarianism？” And “Are we in the total free situation？” These questions are what Vonnegut wanted to raise in his readers by writing such piece of story and combing the crazy things with deeper understandings. To question the government is a great way to start a reform and create new things. In this way the writing of black humor called on the readers and left a significant impact on the society.

Another part of the story which contained black humor was the end of the story. The character George Bergeron in the story was thought to be a person with a higher intelligent， his wife Hazel Bergeron however， was as ordinary as others. This point was very important to understand the ending. In the end， the conversation between them was below.

George came back in with the beer， paused while a handicap signal shook

him up. And then he sat down again. “You been crying” he said to Hazel.

“Yup，” she said.

“What about？” he said.

“I forget，” she said. “Something real sad on television.”

“What was it？” he said.

“It's all kind of mixed up in my mind，” said Hazel.

“Forget sad things，” said George.

“I always do，” said Hazel.

“That's my girl，” said George. He winced. There was the sound of a riveting gun in his head.

“Gee - I could tell that one was a doozy，” said Hazel.

“You can say that again，” said George.

“Gee-” said Hazel， “I could tell that one was a doozy.”

（Vonnegut 1961）

This conversation happened after Hazel Bergeron saw her son was shot immediately on the TV. The simple folksy dialogue between George and Hazel was especially effective. In these exchanges， Vonnegut let his characters say things in understated ways， for example： “That was a doozy.” Firstly， to understand Hazels feeling as a mother was not difficult for the normal people. However， Hazel did cry for one moment， but she did not know why she had done that after several minutes. Her intelligence was too low to even understand the most touching feeling of the world. Thats where the pathetic layer of the story lied. But there was a hope that Hazel did feel the feeling for a short period of time. Secondly， after seeing Hazels crying， George asked her the reason. George was of higher intelligence but he understood less than Hazel. Vonnegut made them talked in an intentional comforting way， which meant they were talking in love and support， reflecting in Georges words such as “Thats my girl.” This even seemed over sweet for a middle-aged couple to most of the audience. But that conversation did not comfort the audience. In fact， those warm-hearted descriptions were developed to cover the cold-blood truth—their son was killed and they had no special feeling towards that. This made people think. Readers could not blame the Bergerons for the group who caused such absurd situation were the government. Vonnegut used black humor again to imply that there was no government capable of suppressing the individual completely. The inner strength of human nature at its finest was more powerful than ill-conceived laws， and the “H-G's rules” and guns. However， he left unsaid whether or not standing up to an oppressive government was worth losing one's life. This conclusion is left for the reader to decide. Readers read and laughed and thought. That is the magic of black humor.

Vonnegut has written many details which were full of black humor elements. After reading those sentences readers were touched in a profound way. Because they had a combination of different feelings at the same time. These feelings made people think what the truth was， and what should be paid the most attention.

3. Conclusion

This paper gives two representative passages to briefly analyze the use of black humor in “Harrison Bergeron”. Despite the analysis of words， the paper also makes an inquiry to the effects that the black humor leaves， that is， to make readers feel complex feelings and to make them think deeply and thoroughly about certain social issues.

To reveal the importance of black humor is related tightly to the importance of satire. Vonnegut makes this writing style a meaningful tool in storytelling. To study it is also a way to study how a writer can use limited words to make the most meaningful resolution of social problems.

References：

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[2]Mowery，Carl.“Harrison Bergeron.” Short Stories for Students.Detroit： Gale，2002.Literature Resource Center.Web.18 May 2016.

[3]Patrick，O.Neil.“The Comedy of Entropy：The Contexts of Black Humor.”Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 1983.

[4]Pratt，Alan R.“People Are Equally Wretched Everywhere： ‘Candide，Black Humor and the Existential Absurd.” Black Humor： Critical Essays 1993.

[5]Vonnegut Jr.，Kurt.“Harrison Bergeron.” The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.1961.