Technology in “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury

Categories: Dystopia

Essay, Pages 3 (578 words)

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The book “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury is about a fireman name Guy Montag. Unlike a normal fireman, Montag sets fires rather than stop them. In this society, books are illegal to read and if caught reading, the book would be set on fire. Instead of reading, the society watches large amounts of television and listens to the radio attached to their ears. In his novel, Ray Bradbury uses dialogue to assert that just because the government censors everything, it is normal to feel and act on the urge to further your knowledge.

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In this society, people did not hold deep or meaningful conversations so when Montag met Clarisse he was confused. Clarisse was a “strange” girl, in the eyes of this society, who opened Montag’s mind to a new way to live. She asked him about his work and what made him become a fireman, something that Montag does not ever really talk about with other people because he is never asked.

The question that really got him to think was when she asked “Are you happy?”(Bradbury 10). Montag thought Clarisse was an odd person. She wasn’t like the rest of the society, she thought independently and was her own person. She read books, walked the city, and had meaningful conversations. After his talk with Clarisse, different event started to occur; his wife Mildred tried to commit suicide with prescription pills, a woman that hid books in her home decided to burn herself a live with her books, and Clarisse is killed in a car accident.

, With all these tragic events occuring, Montag tries to find a solution to this epidemic. The society has become controlled from power, a sense of censorship. Bradbury has shown his viewpoint of society through this novel.

In Bradbury Fahrenheit 451, the censorship was the use of technology. The town only watched television and listened to the radio. “Without turning on the light he could imagine how his room would look, his wife stretched on the bed…in her ears the little seashells, the thimble radios … electronic ocean sound of music and talk of music”(Bradbury 12). This censorship in the novel got the readers to believe that Bradbury was showing how advanced and powerful technology has become that people have become lazy.

The burning of the books is also censorship in Fahrenheit 451. The homes containing books was forbidden by law. Police state that the fireman could burn homes that had books. The burning of books depicts the people living in darkness. Without the knowledge from books, everyone remains equal in society. The government in the novel wants to keep all the people in the society equal, and they do this by censoring them from everything they could possibly know by burning the books all together.

Bradbury uses censorship to let his readers know that he is against censorship. Fahrenheit 451 shows how powerful censorship could be to a community. However, even though the government tries so hard to keep the people censored from knowledge, humanity will always find a way to evolve and become more superior. Montag realizes that something needs to be done about burning of the books, he starts to steal and read the books his self. He finds knowledge from reading. Bradbury tries to get readers attention to show how our society will become if they allow technology take control.