Giridhar Batra
Ross-1
Aug 29. 2014
Fahrenheit 451 Essay
The Role of Technology as a Theme in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451
The average person in our society spends 7-8 hours a day(The Washington Post) using technology; that is stuff like television, video games, surfing the web, etc. Let that set in; that’s a long time. Our society procrastinates also is constantly distracted by technology like no other. We are practically glued to technology; before we become slaves of technology we must change that. The theme of technology in Fahrenheit 451 informs us that the overuse of technology makes people lazy/procrastinate, that technology will overpower people’s lives, and technology takes away from people’s education. Firstly, have you ever had tons of work to do , but you put it off because you just have to check facebook because you feel as if you don’t you might just die? Ladies and gentleman, I present to you the first side effect of overusing technology: laziness/ procrastination. Ray Bradbury knew this was coming in fact he wrote Fahrenheit 451 in 1953. In Fahrenheit 451 the society freakishly mirrors ours. The average american spends 2.7 hours a day just watching television, (Technology Uninhibited) think about all the other things that you could do in 2.7 hours other than watching television. Sometimes, every other blue moon, even I procrastinate and my main excuse comes back to technology with questions to myself. Why don’t I watch some funny youtube videos before I
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, is set in 2053 in a city like Las Angeles. Bradbury wrote this novel in 1953, 100 years before the time this book was set. He intended to talk about a future society. Not only predicting a future society today but, predicting the way people are turning out. People in this society think it’s okay to burn pages of knowledge rather than read them. Firemen in this society have a job to burn books. The mood of this novel is terror and misery because people who own books live like this just to keep their books.
This reflect remembers Montag’s description of Clarisse as a mirror in The Hearth and the Salamander. Granger clearly sees that they need to evaluate who they really are before they start doing new things. Mirrors in the book Fahrenheit 451 are symbols or self-understanding of seeing oneself clearly. Mirrors can also be symbols of seeing who you really are from the outside to the inside. “Come on now, we’re going to go build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them” (Bradbury
This study examines the issue of freedom of information in the story of literary oppression found in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury presents the oppression of an authoritarian state that does not allow its citizens to reads books. Guy Montag is initially a servant of the state that requires him to locate and persecute members of the community that still collect books. In various cases, Bradbury defines the rights of certain citizens to rebel against Guy and the other “book burners”, which suggest liberation from tyranny and the freedom of information. Guy also becomes convenient that the policy to destroy books is a threat to civilization, and the rebellion allows him to change his views and to rebel against the government. More importantly, Clarisse’s role in inspiring Guy to revolt becomes a major catalyst for freeing the society from banning books that are deemed a threat to the social order. In essence, an analysis of freedom of information will be examined in this study of literary oppression found in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
In a world where everything surrounding one is so different and so similar in the exact same time… Imagine a society where everything an individual can mentally and physically do is under the power of the government. Self-difference does not exist. In a futuristic setting of the novel ‘Fahrenheit 451’ written by Ray Bradbury, and the short story ‘Harrison Bergeron’ written by Kurt Vonnegut are both two very eventful and interesting readings that will keep one’s mind running on about the outlook on futuristic life and the governments strict needs and wants throughout a society. These two stories can be compared and contrasted by the strict outlook on the governments control, demand and want over a society, the close relation the two main characters from both stories portray and the similar theme demonstrating loss of individuality.
Before meeting Clarisse, Montag was a strong adherent of the societal function of book burning. He was rather oblivious to the ignorant and critically dull society he lived in. His meeting with Clarisse was the beginning of his Metamorphosis into a critically aware and enlightened individual, one who could see the errors of society in forming a bubble around them. This “bubble” forming that Clarisse leads Montag away from is a serious issue, and even affects our real modern day world.
Montag is someone who is shy and keeps his thoughts to himself, but thinks many things. He shows that he is distracted instead of being happy throughout the book. At the time, he was walking home from work and was looking at Clarisse. Clarisse is a girl who would roam the streets and was also Montag's neighbor. She walks over to Guy and they start to have a conversation while walking to their houses. They discussing if talking about to see if Montag is really happy or if he was lying. She keeps questioning him. Bradbury explains “He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as true state affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run across the lawn with the mask and the way
Technology is viewed in today’s society as an essential tool for Americans. It allows us to quickly share our ideas with other people and learn about any and everything. Many people use their devices as a source of entertainment. However, there are still some people in our country who use phones and computers as a tool only and still prefer books for knowledge and reading. Ray Bradbury, who is the author of Fahrenheit 451, likes the idea of technology as a way of accessing information but discourages other uses such as spending an obsessive amount of time playing videogames. In Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury uses the motif of technology to point out that our devices can never replace our human love of and need for nature and personal interaction.
Thomas Jefferson once said, “That government is best which governs least…”. In Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian novel written by Ray Bradbury, the government puts extreme laws in place to “protect” the people. Except, that these laws keep the citizens from knowing the truth. The good laws like speed limit aren’t enforced and the things that shouldn’t matter, like owning a book, are so strongly enforced, that if it is you that is found to own a book, your house will be burnt down. The government keeps everyone in check by censoring the citizens. During the 1950’s, the entire country was in fear of communism. There was a blacklist of authors, actors, and public figures. No one would hire them or buy their work. Bradbury wanted to warn the country of what could happen if it continued being ignorant , and by using pathos, rhetorical questions, and repetition, he effectively conveyed his purpose.
Today’s society devotes excessive amounts of time toward using technology. It is estimated that children spend at least 75 hours on electronic media and that adults spend at least 77 hours. This obsession with technology was inferred long before smartphones were created. Although it was written in 1953, the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury envisions a future consumed by electronics akin to today’s society. Fahrenheit 451 mirrors the present society because it exhibits the misuse of technology, the influence that technology has on relationships, and the lust for eternal bliss.
According to the Mirage news, it talks about how technology is such a big addiction and it can increase the level of stress and anxiety. “Studies have shown that excessive use of digital devices is linked to increased levels of stress, anxiety, and depression.” In the book Fahrenheit 451, author Ray Bradbury argues that using too much technology can ruin one's life, which is equally an issue today because there are people that are on social media all day just like people in the 1950s sat in front of the TV all day. Bradbury critiques that technology is such a big problem. For example, when Mildred calls the people on TV “family”.
The world today has lost touch from nature because of being too distracted by technology. The amount of hours an average person spends using technology everyday is growing and growing. In the book, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the characters in this novel show what the world can become with the overuse of technology. The overwhelming use of cellphones, tablets, and televisions in this book has led to many problems, although people may consider technology a major advancement to the future. However, the criticism from Fahrenheit 451 that would make the largest impact on the world today if used correctly is by not using or relying on technology because it creates loneliness and too much control over the people.
Imagine living in a world where you are not in control of your own thoughts. Imagine living in a world in which all the great thinkers of the past have been blurred from existence. Imagine living in a world where life no longer involves beauty, but instead a controlled system that the government is capable of manipulating. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, such a world is brought to the awareness of the reader through a description of the impacts of censorship and forced conformity on people living in a futuristic society. In this society, all works of literature have become a symbol of unnecessary controversy and are outlawed. Individuality and thought is outlawed. The human mind is
Technology has become a necessity of people’s daily lives. In Wall-E, citizens rely on technology to walk because they are unable to due to their physical states. Also, characters in Wall-E are illiterate and need screens to read to them. An article about how people have become more lazy mentions, “Scientists say that research is urgently needed into the long-term consequences of relying on gadgets rather than our brains” (Fiona Macrae). Due to the advancements in technology, people are doing less work because technology is capable of doing the work for them, this is negative because people are no longer to do anything independently. In Fahrenheit 451, the society depends on a large mechanical beast as a source of protection, called the Hound. It’s programed to kill any threat to society, and it kills small animals for entertainment. The citizens trust the Hound to keep them safe and they depend on him for protection. When describing the Hound, Bradbury says, “A four-inch hollow steel needle plunged down from the proboscis of the Hound to inject massive jolts of morphine or procaine” (Bradbury 22). The society is so reliant on technology that a violent machine protects them and kills intelligent intellectuals or just
“In the last 50 years, up to 100,000 Americans lost their lives due to inactivity leading to some sort of conditional disease such as heart disease [including the laziness within people of society]” (Wise 12). So many people have died from becoming lazy, doing nothing but go on their phones, devices, rather than doing everyday things. Technology has changed the way society approaches life, always depending on it rather than themselves and others. The society today consists of nothing but TV screens, telephone, smartphones, iPads, and items the 19th century would consider a dream to lay hands on. A book written by Bradbury presents lack of effort people put into their lives and society; Bradbury predicts how the future will become later on in the society. Becoming more similar to the laziness and ignorance in the novel, Fahrenheit 451, the society today struggles the society today struggles with dependency on technology which results to lack of social interactions with one another and failure in becoming literate with books.
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a display of how humans are relying more and more on technology for entertainment at the price of their ability for intellectual development. It is a novel about technological dystopia, often compared to other novels such as, George Orwell’s 1984 and Asimov Ender’s Game. Although today’s technology has not quite caught up with Bradbury’s expectations, the threat of having his vision of a dystrophic society is very realistic. He sees a futuristic society in which this submission of thought is highly valued. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury displays a futuristic utopian society where "the people did not read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations" (Mogen, Pg. 111).