preview

Role Of Technology In Fahrenheit 451

Decent Essays

Technology is everywhere, from your house, to your car, to sometimes even yourself. It is a wonderful thing that makes life a lot easier sometimes, but it also has many downsides. Due to technology, many morals have begun to decline and some disappear. It has slowly begun to take over the society that we live in (Zipes). Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 predicts real life in America’s future as opposed to the mid-1950’s society of the novel. It is important to look at this aspect of the text because so much of what has been predicted has become true already, and our country’s weaknesses are clearly exposed.
The society of the novel is different yet similar to the society of present day America. Many of the things Bradbury predicted have already …show more content…

Drug use and or abuse is everywhere in society today. People are arrested all the time for use of drugs. Families and lives are ruined due to the overuse of them. There are many different types of drugs today that people get addicted to as well as other things that aren’t necessarily drugs, but are highly addicting medications. This rampant use of drugs in modern society is clearly portrayed throughout Bradbury’s novel. The main incident where this can be seen is near the beginning of the novel with Montag’s wife. She has overdosed on sleeping pills and has killed herself because of it. She was brought back to life though through the use of technology and these machines, which specialized men used to pump the pills out of her stomach and make her completely forget the incident. “The bloodstream in this woman was new and it seemed to have done a new thing to her. Her cheeks were very pink and her lips were very fresh and full of color and they looked soft and relaxed. Someone else’s blood there. If only someone else’s flesh and brain and memory. If only they could have taken her mind along to the dry cleaner’s and emptied the pockets and steamed and cleansed it and reblocked it and brought it back in the morning. If only…” (Bradbury 14). Through this incident Montag’s wife became like a machine herself thus relating to the rise of technology in the novel’s …show more content…

Like our modern society today, the society of the novel expresses the sudden decline of thought, old morals, and reading to make way for the new rise of technology (Eller 153). The schools in the novel have gone from having classes like English, Math, and History to having TV class and sports all the time only to have more TV class later. Homes are filled with these parlor rooms with 3 walls with screens on them for TV watching. People become glued to them and watching them all the time. These ideas that Bradbury had in his novel are all foreshadowing of what could come in the future for America as well as other societies across the world. Just like the technology represented in the novel, society today is very similar in regards to technology. Technology is everywhere these days and is slowly starting to take over our lives (Eller 152). We get caught up in this never-ending cycle of the same thing all the time. A constant repetition of sleep, eat, work, and repeat. It has taken over the world that we live in (Eller 152). Things that used to be printed out on paper such as newspapers and articles can all be found digitally. There is not hope for the things of the past like that. It is only a matter of time before there won’t be any paper books. They will all be digital. A much acclaimed critic writes, “One has only to look at

Get Access