Harrison Bergeron
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40 free Harrison Bergeron trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Kurt Vonnegut needed only a few pages to build one of the most argued-over futures in American fiction. In 2081 everyone is finally equal, because anyone stronger, smarter or better looking than the next person is weighed down, distracted or disguised until the difference disappears. George and Hazel Bergeron watch television while their extraordinary son stages his revolt, and the story has been assigned in classrooms ever since. This quiz follows the story closely: who wears which handicap, what the Handicapper General's agents do, what happens in the studio, and how the final scene plays out on the Bergerons' sofa. It also covers where the story first appeared, the collection that made it widely read, the film and television versions, and the times judges, lawyers and critics have argued over what Vonnegut meant. It works as a reading check after a first pass through the story, as revision before a class discussion, or as a refresher for Vonnegut readers who want to see how much of the detail has stayed with them. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What do Harrison Bergeron and the ballerina kiss after leaping thirty feet into the air during their dance?
The ceiling
The ceiling gets the first kiss, thirty feet up, and only then do the pair kiss each other while still hanging in the air.
Q 02What has George gone to the kitchen to fetch when his son is killed in Kurt Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron'?
A beer
A beer keeps George out of the room for the shooting, so he returns to find Hazel weeping over something neither of them can name.
Q 03Which Handicapper General shoots Harrison Bergeron dead on live television in Kurt Vonnegut's story?
Diana Moon Glampers
Diana Moon Glampers ends the rebellion in person, and the narrator remarks that Hazel looks a good deal like her.
Q 04In Kurt Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron', what must citizens judged too beautiful wear to hide their faces?
Ugly masks
Ugly masks hide good looks, so viewers assume the ballerina wearing the most hideous one is the most beautiful dancer of all.
Q 05What title does Harrison Bergeron claim for himself after bursting into the television studio in Vonnegut's story?
Emperor
Emperor is the title he proclaims, boasting that he is the greatest ruler in history before ripping off his handicaps on camera.
Q 06What does the ballerina apologize for when she begins reading the bulletin about Harrison Bergeron?
Her lovely voice
Her lovely voice would be unfair to other women, so she says sorry and finishes the bulletin in a harsh squawk nobody could envy.
Q 07What device in George's ear scatters his thoughts with sharp noises in Kurt Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron'?
A radio
A radio linked to a government transmitter sends out a new noise about every twenty seconds, so George never finishes a thought.
Q 08What does the news bulletin that interrupts the ballet say Harrison Bergeron has just done?
Escaped from jail
Escaped from jail is the news, and the photograph shown with it reveals a seven-foot boy weighed down by 300 pounds of metal.
Q 09Eight years after 'Harrison Bergeron', which Kurt Vonnegut novel about wartime Dresden made him famous?
Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five drew on Vonnegut's own survival of the 1945 raid, which he sat out as a prisoner of war in a meat locker.
Q 10Why is Hazel allowed to go without any mental handicap in Kurt Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron'?
Her mind is perfectly average
Her mind is perfectly average, which in 2081 means she can think only in short bursts and soon forgets why she was upset.
Q 11What weapon does the Handicapper General carry into the studio to end Harrison Bergeron's dance?
A shotgun
A shotgun, fired twice, kills Harrison and the ballerina in the middle of a long kiss, and the band is ordered back into its handicaps.
Q 12What fills the 47-pound canvas handicap bag that George must carry in Kurt Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron'?
Birdshot
Birdshot weighs George down by law: taking out even one ball would cost him two years in prison and a $2,000 fine.
Q 13What trait, shared by every television announcer, stops one from reading the bulletin in 'Harrison Bergeron'?
A speech impediment
Q 21What name does 'Harrison Bergeron' give the government agents who take Harrison from his home?
H-G men
H-G men is the story's name for them; the short film 2081 swaps them for a SWAT team raiding the family home.
Q 22What reward does Hazel think the struggling TV announcer has earned just by trying in 'Harrison Bergeron'?
A raise
A raise is Hazel's idea of a fair reward for effort alone, even though the announcer gives up before he can read the bulletin.
Q 23Which noise breaks George's train of thought the moment he starts thinking about his son, Harrison Bergeron?
A twenty-one-gun salute
A twenty-one-gun salute goes off in George's head, a burst of gunfire that hints at how his son's rebellion will end.
A speech impediment is standard issue for announcers, so this one gives up and hands the bulletin to a ballerina to read aloud.
Q 14Besides shaved eyebrows and black-capped teeth, what must Harrison Bergeron wear to cancel out his good looks?
A red rubber nose
A red rubber nose sits on a boy who stands seven feet tall and carries 300 pounds of metal, all ordered by the Handicapper General's agents.
Q 15On suspicion of what crime has fourteen-year-old Harrison Bergeron been locked up by the authorities?
Plotting to overthrow the government
Plotting to overthrow the government is the charge, and within minutes of the bulletin he attempts exactly that on live television.
Q 16How does Harrison Bergeron choose the woman who will rule beside him in Kurt Vonnegut's story?
The first to stand up
The first to stand up, he announces, may claim the throne with him: a ballerina rises, and he strips away her handicaps on camera.
Q 17In which Midwestern city, now home to his museum and library, was 'Harrison Bergeron' author Kurt Vonnegut born?
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is where his great-grandfather founded the Vonnegut Hardware Company, and its Vonnegut museum screened the film 2081 in 2017.
Q 18What Sunday sound would Hazel choose for the ear noises if she were Handicapper General in 'Harrison Bergeron'?
Chimes
Chimes on Sundays would give the noises a religious feel, Hazel thinks, and she adds that she would do the job well because she knows what normal is.
Q 19In which month do government agents take fourteen-year-old Harrison Bergeron away from his parents?
April
April, the narrator jokes, was one thing equality had not fixed, since the month still refused to feel like spring.
Q 20What does Harrison Bergeron wave like batons to show the studio band how the music should sound?
Two musicians
Two musicians are plucked from their seats and swung about while he sings the tune, and the second attempt at the music is far better.
Q 24Harrison Bergeron's big spectacles are designed to leave him half blind and to give him what?
Headaches
Headaches come with the glasses, and instead of a small earpiece Harrison must wear a huge pair of earphones as his mental handicap.
Q 25What cuts off the broadcast in the Bergeron living room moments after Harrison Bergeron is shot?
The TV tube burns out
The TV tube burns out, so Hazel is left in tears at a blank screen and cannot tell George what upset her.
Q 26Which magazine first published Kurt Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron' in its October 1961 issue?
Fantasy & Science Fiction
Fantasy & Science Fiction, in full The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, ran it seven years before Vonnegut collected it in a book of his short fiction.
Q 27Which 1968 collection of 25 Kurt Vonnegut short stories reprinted 'Harrison Bergeron' in book form?
Welcome to the Monkey House
Welcome to the Monkey House pulled together stories first sold to magazines as different as Collier's, Playboy and Ladies' Home Journal.
Q 28Which Supreme Court justice closed a 2001 dissent about a disabled golfer's cart by citing 'Harrison Bergeron'?
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia was on the losing side of a 7–2 ruling that the PGA Tour had to let the golfer ride between shots.
Q 29Kurt Vonnegut later suggested 'Harrison Bergeron' grew out of envy and self-pity he felt as a misfit when?
In high school
In high school, Vonnegut wrote in a later letter, he had been an outsider, a private origin for a story usually read as political satire.
Q 30Which star of The Goonies played the title role in the 1995 television film 'Harrison Bergeron'?
Sean Astin
Sean Astin led a loose adaptation in which Harrison is recruited by a secret elite of geniuses who quietly run the handicapped country.