Fahrenheit 451 And The Pedestrian By Ray Bradbury Analysis

“As cities grow and technology takes over the world, belief and imagination fade away, and so do we”(Julie Kagawa). While technology spreads and completely takes over one’s life, the electronic wave cannot be tamed. Once society fails to take control of their lives over technology, they lose contact with our loved ones and reality, as well as the ability to think for one’s self. In the dystopian world from Fahrenheit 451 technology is found everywhere, and the people highly depend on it to do hard work for them or for entertainment purposes. Bradbury illustrates a society that has lost the ability to enjoy life without technology through a variety of characters that rely on unnatural and modern objects to fill the void of an emotionless society.

Claim: In the novel Fahrenheit 451 and the short stories “The Pedestrian” and “The Murderer”, Ray Bradbury uses characterization to portray the unfair treatment of those who do not conform to society’s views regarding new technology.

Imagine not having technology, it seems unbearable, but back then technology was not always a necessity. In “The Pedestrian” and “Harrison Bergeron” by Ray Bradbury, the stories evaluate technology in the future and the outcome it produces. Both stories include conformities and “rebels” who choose to go against society. The two stories both predict the future because they interpret the loss of individuality and freedom due to technology. Technology can take away a person’s character and choice.

In the story Fahrenheit 451 and “The Pedestrian” the futuristic technology used is more of a problem than a benefit because more and more people are becoming “addicted” to technology instead of focusing on more important things. In the story Fahrenheit 451 it states, “I rarely watch the ‘parlor walls’ or go to races or Fun Parks. So I’ve lots of time for crazy thoughts ” (Bradbury 13). Some people are so ‘obsessed’ or into doing more things with technology, like racing or watching TV. This deprives them of the information or lessons you could learn in things like books. Also for example in Fahrenheit 451 it says, “My uncle was arrested another time--did I tell you?--for being a pedestrian” (Bradbury 13). Now not only are people being arrested

Ray Bradbury, the author of the well-known science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451, was alarmed by how much time he felt the public devoted to watching television in the 1950’s. “If this [trend of television watching] goes on…” he wrote, “nobody will read books anymore” (XIII). This thought of a television-obsessed future public frightened Bradbury. He was particularly fearful of how technology might prevent people from forming relationships with each other and connecting with the world around them, which would make them unable to develop human consciousness. He used the format of literature to describe his fears in the futuristic science fiction novel Fahrenheit

When it’s thought about only a few years ago people used to lie down in their bedrooms and read novels that would lie on their bedside table. In the book Fahrenheit 451 books are not read anymore, in fact books are illegal they rely heavily on technology use. This relates to today because soon society will stop publishing books altogether. People now have technology that puts books on screens rather them being read on paper. The updated technology now changes the society from the traditional aspects of it. Although technology helps society in many ways, it is hurting us, in this book Bradbury’s main character in fictional proof of how society will be in the future.

There are three main reasons why technology is damaging our society; it’s affecting our way of communicating with each other, reducing our self-reliance, and, last but not least, it’s dominating our society. The first reason, that it’s affecting our way of communicating with each other, is very prevalent in Fahrenheit 451 and our current society. In our current society, we use a many types of technology to communicate with each other. This ranges from iPads to iPhones to household telephones, etc.. This allows us to talk to each other without having to be close to each other, which presents the problem of diminishing the need for engagement with others. In Fahrenheit 451, a character by the name of Faber, invents a small radio that is to be inserted into the ear of Montag, which allows them to communicate with each other whenever they need to without having to have a face-to-face conversation. This also diminishes the need for engagement with others. Another situation is also faced in this book when firemen burn houses instead of preventing houses from burning. This occurs when the firemen find books of any kind in someone’s house because of the book ban in this novel. Not letting people read also diminishes the need for engagement with books, which links on to the bigger dilemma of

Ray Bradbury is an acclaimed 20th-century author who is best known for his “warning fiction," stories where he writes about behaviors he thinks could be dangerous to future generations of humans. To current society, the most relevant of these short stories is “The Pedestrian”. In this futuristic world, a character named Mr. Mead takes late-night walks, but he is the only person in his society who does this; everyone else is too consumed by their viewing screens, creating a major conflict throughout the story, which warns readers of copious behaviors. “The Pedestrian” displays the most appropriate behaviors because of its warning against technology, which causes isolation among humans; reliance on technology, which leads to coldness in society;

Through juxtaposing Mildred and Clarisse, Bradbury reveals that obsession with technology and mass media can lead to lifeless people that fail to communicate with others and are ignorant about the social conflicts that occur in the outside world.

Visual media, such as the computer and television distract people from the natural world, and instead blinds them from reality. Fahrenheit 451 exposes the idea that mass visual media initiates problems of violence, unawareness, and ignorance. The advanced technology causes the people of society to stray farther away from reality, and they become trapped in their own world of unawareness. Thus, unlike in nature where everything is free, the advanced technology confines people within the boundaries that technology allows. The boundaries created by visual media imprison the people of society into a world of mental incapacity and illiteracy. This unfamiliarity with the world, shown by numerous characters, shows how society is negligent. For

Technology destroys the significance of interaction we have with one another. It also disconnects us from the real world. In Fahrenheit 451, Mildred, Montag’s wife, isolates herself from the world because of her overuse of technology. “‘Will you turn the parlor off?’ ‘That’s my family,’” she replied (Bradbury, 48).The quote shows that Mildred is addicted to technology and shows a lack of care when her husband is directly speaking to her. In Fahrenheit 451, the author shows the dangers of technology when it overthrows true human interaction. As a result, people have lost their voice and are afraid to speak up for what they believe in. The deadening power of technology causes people to lose interaction, increases isolation, and destroys the strong relationship between people.

Unfortunately Bradbury was not far of in his predictions of what the future held for us, from the lack of communication, right down to earbuds and large flat televisions.Bradbury saw that the more and more we wanted our lives to be easier, the more and more we became less connected to each other and more connected to our devices.In today's world much like in Fahrenheit 451 we are becoming less mindful of what's going on around us and beginning to care more about or next post to

“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.

In this fast-paced society where our lives are surrounded by technology and it is a part of our everyday lives, it is of the utmost importance that we consider and are able to understand the role of technology, not only on our lives but also on society. In his 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, author Ray Bradbury demonstrates the damaging role that technology has on society. Throughout his novel, he constantly reinforces the negative impacts that technology has on us, namely how it replaces meaningful relationships, keeps us oblivious and controls us. As stated, Ray Bradbury uses the novel Fahrenheit 451 as a canvas to show and argue the negative role that technology has on society.

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).