Harrison Bergeron
In 2081 the government makes everyone equal by handicapping the gifted. A fourteen-year-old genius escapes and dances free on live television. First printed in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1961.
Welcome to the Monkey House
Kurt Vonnegut
Welcome to the Monkey House
Kurt Vonnegut's 1968 collection of magazine stories, including "Harrison Bergeron", the tale of a future America that makes everyone equal by force.
- 1968
- 298
- Wry
- funny
- spare
- episodic
About Kurt Vonnegut
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeWelcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut's short writing, published by Delacorte Press in New York in 1968.[1] The book gathers twenty-five pieces, most of them stories he sold to magazines such as Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post in the 1950s and early 1960s.[2][3] The best known is "Harrison Bergeron", about a future United States where the government handicaps anyone who is smarter, stronger or better looking than average.[4] In his preface, Vonnegut said the stories were work he sold to pay for writing his novels.[5]
The story, in more detail
The collection mixes two kinds of story. Some are set in ordinary American towns, often on Cape Cod, where Kurt Vonnegut lived. The others are science fiction.[5] Kirkus Reviews called the book the work of a versatile, volatile talent.[6]
The book opens with "Where I Live", a short essay about Barnstable Village on Cape Cod. An encyclopedia salesman visits America's oldest library building there and finds its newest encyclopedia is from 1938.[2] He looks for the library's directors at the yacht club, a shack with no bar, no telephone and no electricity, beside a harbor that is empty at low tide.[2]
The piece first appeared in 1964 in a travel magazine called Venture, under the title "You've Never Been to Barnstable?".[3] Vonnegut ends it with a local minister, Robert Nicholson, searching for a word for what holds the village together. He decides the villagers are Druids.[2]
In the preface, Vonnegut explained where the rest came from. He called the contents samples of work he sold to finance the writing of the novels.[5] He also included a love story from The Ladies' Home Journal, based on an afternoon he spent with the woman he later married, and joked about being ashamed of it.[5]
What's inside
The collection holds twenty-five pieces: twenty-three short stories and two short nonfiction pieces, "Where I Live" and "New Dictionary".[2][3] The publisher's contents list gives them in this order: "Where I Live", "Harrison Bergeron", "Who Am I This Time?", "Welcome to the Monkey House", "Long Walk to Forever", "The Foster Portfolio", "Miss Temptation" and "All the King's Horses".[2]
Then come "Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog", "New Dictionary", "Next Door", "More Stately Mansions", "The Hyannis Port Story", "D.P.", "Report on the Barnhouse Effect", "The Euphio Question", "Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son" and "Deer in the Works".[2]
The book closes with "The Lie", "Unready to Wear", "The Kid Nobody Could Handle", "The Manned Missiles", "Epicac", "Adam" and "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow".[2] Kurt Vonnegut's preface comes before them all.[5]
How it ends — spoilers ahead
"Harrison Bergeron" ends on live television. While Harrison and the ballerina dance, Diana Moon Glampers shoots them both with a shotgun.
George and Hazel have watched their son die. George goes to the kitchen, and Hazel's attention drifts. Afterward neither of them can remember why they were crying. They suppose it was something sad on television.
Themes and analysis
Harrison Bergeron
"Harrison Bergeron" is set in the United States in 2081. A string of amendments to the Constitution has made everyone equal, not by helping people who struggle but by holding back people who are gifted. Beautiful people wear ugly masks. Clever people wear radios in their ears that blast noises to break up their thoughts. Strong people carry bags of birdshot to weigh them down.
Diana Moon Glampers, the Handicapper General, enforces the rules. The story is mostly seen from the living room of George and Hazel Bergeron, who are watching dancers on television. George is above average and has to wear the ear radio. Hazel is exactly average and wears no handicaps. When a noise hits George, Hazel makes cheerful, silly remarks.
Their son Harrison is fourteen, seven feet tall and a genius, and the government has taken him away. He escapes, bursts into the television studio, and throws off his handicaps. He frees a ballerina and the musicians, and for a moment they dance and play as well as they can.
Kurt Vonnegut first published the story in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in October 1961. The story was picked for The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction the next year. In 2019 the Libertarian Futurist Society added it to its Prometheus Hall of Fame. The award was presented at the World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin.
The title story and the science fiction
The title story was the newest piece, printed in Playboy in January 1968. The world has too many people. The World Government encourages "ethical" suicide and makes everyone take pills that numb the body from the waist down, so that sex gives no pleasure. The hero, Billy the Poet, leads an underground that wants the old kind of sex back.
Overpopulation also drives "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow". In the year 2158 a drug that stops aging has pushed the world's population to twelve billion. People live on processed seaweed and sawdust. A 172-year-old grandfather rules a crowded three-room apartment and keeps the only private bedroom for himself. The story first ran in Galaxy in January 1954 as "The Big Trip Up Yonder".
Other science-fiction stories imagine a man who can stop wars by concentrating, people who leave their bodies behind, and a radio that picks up happiness from the stars. "Report on the Barnhouse Effect", about the man with the powerful mind, was the first story Vonnegut ever sold. Collier's paid him 750 dollars for it, six weeks of his pay at General Electric.
The small-town stories
The other half of the book is set in ordinary places. In "Who Am I This Time?", a shy clerk in a hardware store comes alive only when he acts in the local theater group. The Saturday Evening Post first printed it in December 1961 as "My Name Is Everyone".
In "The Foster Portfolio", a man has quietly inherited nearly a million dollars. He lives cheaply anyway and spends his weekends playing piano in a bar. "The Kid Nobody Could Handle" follows a high school band teacher who tries to save a violent teenager with music. A salesman of storm windows and bathtub enclosures tells two of the stories, about rich customers he met on the job.
Not every critic liked these. Mitchel Levitas, reviewing the book in The New York Times, found many of the magazine stories smooth and mechanical, built toward a twist at the end. Kirkus Reviews, by contrast, called the collection inventive, catchy and charming, and singled out "All the King's Horses", a grim game of chess played with human pieces.
Where the stories first appeared
Most of the stories were written for the big American magazines that paid well for fiction in the 1950s. Collier's supplied the most, starting with "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" in February 1950. Others came from The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, The Ladies' Home Journal, Galaxy and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Several had already been collected once, in a 1961 paperback called Canary in a Cat House. Welcome to the Monkey House recombined those stories with newer work. One piece is not fiction at all. "New Dictionary" is Vonnegut's review of the Random House Dictionary, first printed in The New York Times in 1966.
Quotes from Welcome to the Monkey House
Here one finds the fruits of Free Enterprise.
It has a policy of never accepting anything. As a happy consequence, it changes about as fast as the rules of chess.
"We're Druids," he said.
"Boy!" said Hazel, "that was a doozy, wasn't it?"
Why we recommend it
Harrison Bergeron in its original home
The story most people meet in a classroom sits here among twenty-four other pieces from the same years.
Short, and easy to dip into
The pieces are short, and none depends on another, so they can be read in any order.
Two Kurt Vonneguts in one book
The science-fiction stories imagine forced equality, ethical suicide and anti-aging drugs. The small-town stories are gentle and funny, about clerks, salesmen and band teachers.
How he paid the bills
These are the stories that paid for the novels, as Kurt Vonnegut said in his preface. His first sold story, "Report on the Barnhouse Effect", is here.
What this book explores
The people in its pages
Harrison Bergeron
A fourteen-year-old genius, seven feet tall, who escapes and throws off his handicaps on live television. From "Harrison Bergeron".
George Bergeron
Harrison's father, whose above-average mind is interrupted by a government noise in his ear. From "Harrison Bergeron".
Hazel Bergeron
Harrison's mother, of exactly average intelligence, so she needs no handicap. From "Harrison Bergeron".
Diana Moon Glampers
The Handicapper General, who enforces equality with a shotgun. From "Harrison Bergeron".
Also in the book
Billy the Poet
The leader of an underground that fights the government's joyless-sex pills. From "Welcome to the Monkey House".
George M. Helmholtz
A high school band director who tries to reach a violent boy through music. From "The Kid Nobody Could Handle".
Bring it to book club
- In "Harrison Bergeron", what does the government mean by equality? What would you call it?
- George and Hazel forget why they were crying. Why do you think the story ends there?
- Kurt Vonnegut said he wrote these stories to pay for his novels. Does that change how you read them?
- Which do you prefer, the science-fiction stories or the small-town ones? Why?
- Several stories imagine governments solving a problem by controlling people's bodies. Which solution frightened you most?
Inside the book
Welcome to the Monkey House
In an overcrowded future, the government promotes ethical suicide and numbs everyone below the waist. Billy the Poet leads the resistance. First printed in Playboy, January 1968.
Who Am I This Time?
A shy hardware-store clerk becomes someone else entirely on the stage of a small-town theater group. First printed in The Saturday Evening Post, 16 December 1961, as "My Name Is Everyone".
Report on the Barnhouse Effect
A scientist's powers of concentration become strong enough to end war. Kurt Vonnegut's first sold story, printed in Collier's, 11 February 1950.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
In 2158 an anti-aging drug has crowded the world, and a 172-year-old grandfather refuses to give up the only private bedroom. First printed in Galaxy, January 1954, as "The Big Trip Up Yonder".
Epicac
A story about a giant computer, first printed in Collier's, 25 November 1950.
Where I Live
A short essay about Barnstable Village on Cape Cod, first printed in 1964 in Venture as "You've Never Been to Barnstable?".
Timeline
1950
Collier's prints "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" on 11 February, the first story Kurt Vonnegut sold.
1961
"Harrison Bergeron" appears in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in October. The same year, several of the older stories are collected in the paperback Canary in a Cat House.
1968
Playboy prints the title story, "Welcome to the Monkey House", in January.
1968
Delacorte Press publishes the collection in New York. Kirkus Reviews gives the date as 19 August, the day The New York Times reviews it.
1998
The Dial Press trade paperback, ISBN 9780385333504, goes on sale on 8 September.
2019
The Libertarian Futurist Society inducts "Harrison Bergeron" into its Prometheus Hall of Fame, at the World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence
- 1968
- Paperback
- Dial Press Trade Paperback
- 1998
- 9780385333504
- Paperback
- Dial Press Trade Paperback
- 2014
- 9780812993608
Reader reviews
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Read our takeWelcome to the Monkey House: frequently asked questions
Is Harrison Bergeron in Welcome to the Monkey House?
Yes. "Harrison Bergeron" is the second piece in the book, after the opening essay "Where I Live". The story first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in October 1961.
What is Harrison Bergeron about?
A United States in 2081 where the government makes everyone equal by handicapping anyone above average. Clever people wear ear radios that blast noise, and beautiful people wear masks. Harrison, a fourteen-year-old genius, escapes and throws off his handicaps on live television, and the Handicapper General shoots him.
What is the story Welcome to the Monkey House about?
An overcrowded future in which the World Government encourages ethical suicide and makes people take pills that take the pleasure out of sex. Billy the Poet leads an underground that wants the old ways back. The story first appeared in Playboy in January 1968.
How many stories are in Welcome to the Monkey House?
Twenty-five pieces in all: twenty-three stories and two short nonfiction pieces, "Where I Live" and "New Dictionary". The New York Times review in 1968 counted twenty-three stories and one essay.
When was Welcome to the Monkey House published?
In 1968, by Delacorte Press in New York. Kirkus Reviews gives the publication date as 19 August 1968. Most of the stories had appeared in magazines between 1950 and 1968.
Where did the stories first appear?
Mostly in magazines: Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, The Ladies' Home Journal, Galaxy, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Playboy. Several were first collected in the 1961 paperback Canary in a Cat House.
What award did Harrison Bergeron win?
In 2019 the Libertarian Futurist Society inducted it into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for classic fiction. The society said it was the first Prometheus recognition for Kurt Vonnegut.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Welcome to the Monkey House, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1↑Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Works — Library of Congress catalog record for the Delacorte Press first edition (LCCN 68014979)
ArchiveLibrary of Congress, 1968Used forLibrary of Congress record for the first edition: New York, Delacorte Press, 1968, xv and 298 pages, a Seymour Lawrence book.
4↑"Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut
WebsiteEBSCO Research Starters, 2023Used forLinda L. Labin's plot account of "Harrison Bergeron" for EBSCO Research Starters, used for the story's plot and ending. The account gives 1968 as the first publication date, which is the collection's date, not the story's.
6↑Welcome to the Monkey House: Contemporary Review
PeriodicalKirkus Reviews, 1968Used forKirkus Reviews' notice in the 1 August 1968 issue.
7Marian University Students on Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron"
WebsiteKurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, 2019Used forKurt Vonnegut Museum and Library post quoting the opening scene of "Harrison Bergeron".
8July, 2019: Prometheus Award and Classic Fiction Award Winners
Official recordLibertarian Futurist Society, 2019Used forThe Libertarian Futurist Society's 2019 announcement, which also confirms the 1961 first publication.
9Kurt Vonnegut, The Art of Fiction No. 64 (Issue 69, Spring 1977)
PeriodicalThe Paris Review, 1977Used forKurt Vonnegut on selling "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" to Collier's.
10Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr
WebsiteThe Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, 2026Used forThe Encyclopedia of Science Fiction on Canary in a Cat House and this collection.
11Kurt Vonnegut — Open Library author and edition records, used to confirm that every ISBN listed resolves to the book named
ArchiveOpen LibraryUsed forOpen Library edition records, used to confirm that each ISBN listed here resolves to Welcome to the Monkey House.
12Welcome to the Monkey House
NovelKurt Vonnegut, 1968Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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