BODY

Technology in this novel is a huge factor in the lives of people in Fahrenheit 451, but it’s also ruining them as well; they are basically controlled. It becomes evident when Mildred talks about getting a fourth television wall installed, but Montag declared that he’s up one third of his yearly pay to pay for the others (20). Next, Mildred states that the televisions, and the people in those walls, are her ‘family’ (49). Throughout the first section of this book, Mildred is constantly listening to her SeaShells, which are today’s ear buds but without the needed noise source because this SeaShells create their own noise, and is talking about TV; she neglects to turn it off even for Montag who is sick. It is obvious that Mildred’s life line is technology, but is ours?

In our harsh reality, 40% of Americans do not read anymore, this happens in the novel as well; citizens stopped reading due to mass exploitation and technology. . In Fahrenheit 451 the government banned the reading of any type of literature and started to stretch and edit the history of the country. This is shown when, an old woman by the names of E. Blake, is reported to have a library within her household. The firemen suit up and burn her house down, but she refuses to leave her books behind and sets the fire herself (36-39). To sum it up, reading could get you killed or thrown in jail, are we heading down this path?

Intelligence is something that should be favored, isn’t it? In the novel form Ray Bradbury, intelligence is the swear world it ‘deserves’ to be. Why? It is indirectly said that if your intelligent questions what is already built, putting the world in ‘danger’, as Beatty mentioned. To relieve the government of that happening the education, as Clarisse states, is cramming useless information into kids’ brain. This is connected to the last evidence I bring up, freedom of creativity.

When you think about ‘creative freedom’, what does that mean to you?  Montag reveals how he understood what Beatty was trying to say about the world today (63). That there was a wrong type of social life, sitting around and chatting; People would talk too much. They’ll have time to think. Writing books, literature wrong, wrong.  Having your own voice was look down upon; you were supposedly made to follow the circle the world had. No questions, no thinking. Just the same things everyday, you were thought not to question the society, but to accept it. This how idea thought is related, or connected, to the Nazis. The Nazis didn’t burn just any books; they burned the books of Jews, communists, socialists, and other degenerates. They didn’t simply burn books, which they found disagreeable, but the books, which advocated ideas, which they believed, would undermine the health, safety, and welfare of the German nation. Would we, you, risk your life to have your own thought?