Fahrenheit 451 Technology Analysis

Montag’s Wife, Mildred, is a negative influence on him, trying to push him away emotionally and physically. She does not know who she really is and lives in an illusionary world with her obsession of television shows and believing they are real. He is so confused because she tries to ignore it ever happened thinking about all the bad things; “fire, sleeping tablets, men disposable tissue, coattails, blow, wad, flush...Rain. The storm. The uncle laughing...The whole world pouring down..." (19). After this incident he looks at Mildred in a different light and is someone who he can’t relate to. Another way she separates herself from Montag is through her "family", which is a television show. Montag constantly asks Millie “[if that] family loves [her]… love [her] with all their heart and soul" (83). Her world isn’t based in reality; they are clearly on different paths. Hers is one of illusion and his is becoming that of a totally self-aware person. She blocks everything and everyone out that is around her and lives within the show. Mildred opens Montag 's eyes to the real world and shows him that most people are uncaring and narcissistic.

It was revealed that Mildred and her friends are the people that reported Montag to the firemen. Earlier, Montag offended Mildred’s friends by reading a melachony poem that caused emotion. Mildred did not stay loyal to her husband and instead reports him to the government, abiding to society. The main rift in their relationship was that they are on opposite sides of society, Mildred is very devoted while Montag challenges the society standards. Deep down, she knows that if she is instead devoted to her husband then her life would go down the drain. She would lose everything including her ‘family’ and therefore has no hestiation in turning against

1. Mildred says these words to Guy Montag. She tells him that books aren’t people which are found in her TV parlor which she enjoys being with. She calls the people on the TV her family. She compares the books to her TV. She says that the people on the TV tell her things and make her laugh and they are full of colors, whereas the books are black and white and don’t make sense to anybody and doesn’t make her laugh instead makes her feel bad.

The small constraints of the parlor wall is just a bit of Mildred’s constant absorption into social media: Mildred needs a constant bombardment of entertainment and noise as shown when Montag looks over at Mildred when “her Seashell was tamped to her ear again, and she was

Montag’s wife, Mildred tried to kill herself by taking “sleeping tablets which had been filled with thirty capsules and..now lay uncapped and empty” (10). The spouses relationship is drastically in trouble, considering Mildred’s attempt to take her own life, willing to leave Montag alone in the world. Mildred does not care about anything but watching television, not paying much attention to her own husband besides asking for things and now requesting for him to get their “fourth wall torn out and a fourth t.v wall put in” only leading to more distance between the two (18). She would rather spend her time alone, only thinking to please herself, rather than being with Montag, this lack of communication is leading is them nowhere but down. One of the few times the couple times actually communicates, Montag asks Mildred “when did we meet and where” but neither of them

Books are more than just pages bound together. Inside them is an adventure, a wealth of knowledge, and ignited curiosity. The story Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury takes place in a dystopian setting where all books are burned as soon as they are discovered, and everyone is addicted to technology. The main character, Montag, works as a fireman to burn books, but soon starts to question everything he was led to believe on the dangers of books. Bradbury comments on the importance of books by showing a world where books are banned and nobody reads.

Faber says, “So now you see why books are hated and feared?They show the pores in the face of life”(79). Montag decides to work with Faber and become a revolutionary even though it may be risky. Faber decides to give Montag an earpiece so that he can hear what is going on in Montag’s life and they can communicate secretly. Montag takes the earpiece and goes home. When home he finds Mildred and her friends watching the television. To Montag this seems like a good time to bring out all the books in his home. Montag was trying to be a revolutionary and change Mildred and her friends into believing that books were actually fine but it backfired on him. When he decides to read a poem to the girls he gets a negative response. One of the friends, Mrs.Phelps begins to cry, the other friend Mrs.Bowles says, “I’ve always said, poetry tears, poetry and suicide and crying and awful feelings”(97). Their whole society was avoiding books because they provoke real and raw emotions that they think they are not able to handle, but they could be if they tried. Montag changed his outlook and was trying to help others, but their minds were not developed enough to

_____ is shown when takes out the books he had previously hidden in an air vent. He does this in an attempt to explain to Mildred why they are important. She becomes upset and confused by the seemingly meaningless excerpts Montag reads, used to her idle distractions that required no in-depth thinking or interpretations. This is similar to when Montag brought out a book to read the poem “Dover Beach” to her friends. As to not worry the women, Mildred tried to play it off as a familiar occurrence by saying that once a year, firemen were allowed to bring home a book to show their family how silly it was, when in reality she had no idea what Montag was doing. Through his earpiece, Faber protested but Montag would not listen: “‘What good is this, what’ll you prove!’ ‘Scare hell out of them, that’s what, scare the living daylights out!’” (95). It is clear that Montag was not thinking straight because of his shouting at Faber, who he was supposed to keep secret. Montag desperately wanted to make the women understand why literature was important that he acted without thinking in trying to get them to cooperate. Montag believed that he could make them change their minds to realize the importance of literature with this small act, although he failed to take into consideration that when people are brought up thinking one way, it is very difficult to

Although it is not directly stated in the text, readers can infer Montag feels let down by Mildred’s comments and

Mildred constantly shows Montag that she doesn’t care about him or what he does. She has no real connections in life and only cares about herself no matter what it costs other people. Technology rips away any real connections that Mildred has ever had with Montag to a point where she doesn’t even care about him. Mildred has succumb to technology and it has corrupted her life in such a way that her own husband no longer holds any emotional meaning to her anymore. In a horrifically shallow conversation between Mildred and Montag, Mildred says to Montag, “It's really fun. It'll be even more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed. How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a wall-TV put in. It's only two thousand dollars.” (Bradbury 20). The conversation goes on and Montag replies with, “That’s one-third of my yearly pay. It’s only two thousand dollars, she replied. And I think you should consider me sometimes.” (Bradbury 20). Mildred talks about how she needs another parlour wall to improve her life. This conversation inspires the idea that Mildred only cares about herself and how she is oblivious she is to Montag’s emotions. The idea that Mildred, through technology, has become completely detached from her husband and that she doesn’t care about him. She only cares about the

“That’s awful! ...Why should I read? What for?”(Bradbury, 73) Mildred hates the fact that her house and her ‘family’ would burn down if Beatty and the other firemen found out about Montag and his books. Mildred doesn’t understand why Montag wants to reason with her and what he finds so special in books. Mildred is a selfish woman who cares only about herself and her friends. As long as nothing happened to her ‘family’, she’d be fine.

Montag starts to question the value of his wife's 'family'. "Does your 'family' love you, love you very much, love you with all their heart and soul Millie?" (Bradbury, p.77)

Of all characters, Bradbury uses Mildred and Montag’s relationship to effectively broadcast the loss of relationships in the society they live in. Bradbury shows that Mildred and Montag have little emotion toward one another, causing them to have no

Montag feels at the begining of the novel that the communication is greatly lacking in society. People are becoming very ignorant and turning reallife realationships aside. They now turn to their "tv families". One victim of neglecting real life realtionships is Mildred, Montag's wife. Montag truley hates this. "Nobody listens any more. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me. I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it'll make sense. And I want you to teach me to understand what I read." (2.125). Montag hopes that his wife and him can rejoin their connection through the books, but is sadly wrong and must find some one else, Faber.

Fahrenheit 451 is a book by Ray Bradbury, written after World War II and it examines the corruption of technology in a dystopian society. This book explains how a dystopian society works and how people are so attached to television and cars and do not enjoy the natural world. People in a dystopian society are full of fear and sadness. They do not have equality or freedom, they are all so soaked up in technology that it is illegal for them to do simple stuff, such as, reading books. The book, Fahrenheit 451 explains how firefighters start fires rather than stopping them. A firefighter’s job is do burn books, since books are illegal to have because they go against the power of technology and modernization. In a dystopian society, people should be unhappy, unequal, violent, and brutalized and that is what is exactly being seen throughout this book. As Ray Bradbury captures the attention of many readers, he captures our attention on how the future could be if technology would become so extreme. Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451 is not about control, but it is a novel about how television destroys curiosity in reading literature.