A Different Kind of Normal in by Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

In present day, technology has helped in the ways of distributing news, stories, and general entertainment. In the book Fahrenheit 451, technology is still used for these purposes, however, it has a much more drastic role in the status quo of society. With technology such as the television and small ear-piece sized

Every day, everywhere people are using technology to check email, calculate tax, and talk with each other. Technology has greatly affected the social structure today and in Fahrenheit 451. Technology has effected how the TV controls our lives, how we communicate with one another, and how strong the social structure is In both the real world and Fahrenheit 451.

Over time people have gotten lazier and we have machines to blame. According to Ray Bradbury, “why learn anything save pressing buttons…”( Bradbury 53). In Bradbury’s society in Fahrenheit 451 people just sit back, relax, press a button, and watch a machine do the work for them. Much like in our society, people get lazy and just watch a machine do the work that they could be doing, and having no human interaction whatsoever. According to The Bottom Line, “Internet and mobile technology seems to be subtly destroying the meaningfulness of interactions we have with others.”(Technology Destroying Human Interaction). This is becoming the reality not only in Fahrenheit 451 but in our everyday society.

Most often, people can be seen walking with their heads down, immersed in the technology in front of them, ignoring the whole world. Societies often contain a lot of technology, allowing people to use it in helpful or hurtful ways. Some technology can be lifesaving, but there is also technology that can destroy life in less than a second. Most often, people seem to not understand what technology is doing and how it is impacting their lives. Instead, they are blinded by the few positives of technology that actually hurt the society more than they can recognize. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the society is heavily dependent on technology. Technology has a negative impact on the characters in Fahrenheit 451. People in the society become addicted to the parlor walls, cars go so fast that they don’t see anything outside and the mechanical hound instills fear in people.

Not only does technology lead the society’s people to live a life of isolation, but technology leads the people into feelings of loneliness. The inhabitant’s self-centeredness, along with isolation, causes them to lose their sense of curiosity and knowledge; which induces feelings that they cannot quite seem to understand. In order to push aside their insecurities, they turn to technology to drown out their thoughts, which prevents curiosity to occur. Another cause for feelings of loneliness, is people’s lack of affection towards one another. For example, even though Guy Montag and Mildred are married, they do not share a deep emotional connection with each other or affection like married people usually do. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag asks Mildred when did they first meet, but Mildred does not have any idea according to the dialogue, “When did we meet, and where?” [Asked Montag]... ”I don’t know,” [Mildred] said… “Funny, how funny, not to remember where or when you met your husband or wife” (Bradbury 40). If both of them were to have a meaningful relationship with affection, they were sure to remember where they met in the first place. Also, instead of having normal conversations, Mildred always isolates herself from Guy using her “seashells” and the “parlor walls”. Montag then has no one to

Imagine life without being dependent on technology. People wouldn't be so focused on their phone and instead, would be focused on living, and doing all this fun things you could do if you wanted to. When you’re focused on your electronics, time flies by really fast and you aren't doing anything. If our society actually talked to people instead of texting, we could express our feelings more easily, but in text you could say “Lol”, and not really be laughing. Our society vs Fahrenheit 451 is the same because people always are focused on their electronics and are lifeless or “dead”.

The average person in our society spends 7-8 hours a day(The Washington Post) using technology; that is stuff like television, video games, surfing the web, etc. Let that set in; that’s a long time. Our society procrastinates also is constantly distracted by technology like no other. We are practically glued to technology; before we become slaves of technology we must change that. The theme of technology in Fahrenheit 451 informs us that the overuse of technology makes people lazy/procrastinate, that technology will overpower people’s lives, and technology takes away from people’s education.

In Ray Bradbury’s, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, the protagonist in the book, lives in a period of time where television is imperative while literature is on the verge of eradicating. Bradbury portrays a society where entertainment is not only a distraction, but it becomes a dominant aspect in the way individuals function in society. Furthermore, Montag’s ideal world is a world that sees a concept in books rather than television. We live in a world full of advanced technology, however there are drawbacks in the midst of the benefits. Fahrenheit 451 is an example that depicts the disadvantages that comes with the overuse of technology.

In our society, technology is ruling over us and people are spending so much time on these technologies. Ray Bradbury predicted in Fahrenheit 451 that technology will cause a downfall in human interaction, “She was an expert at lip reading from ten years of apprenticeship at Seashell ear-thimbles,” (16). In Fahrenheit 451, there are alot of different things that cause noise and stop interaction between the people. Tvs, earbuds, and driving at high speeds causes interaction between people to cease and not possible anymore in the book. It is a world where people do not talk much and just listen to music, people on tv, or just

Ever see firefighter’s burn houses because it was their job? What about books being completely outlawed? In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury creates a futuristic, dystopian society, in where people are engulfed by an influx of technology. In this odd world, people are more concerned about technology than they are about people. In Fahrenheit 451, the book serves as a warning to us about the negative effects of the overuse of technology.

In the book Fahrenheit 451 the theme is a society/world that revolves around being basically brain washed or programmed because of the lack of people not thinking for themselves concerning the loss of knowledge, and imagination from books that don't exist to them. In such stories as the Kurt Vonnegut's "You have insulted me letter" also involving censorship to better society from vulgarity and from certain aspects of life that could be seen as disruptive to day to day society which leads to censorship of language and books. Both stories deal with censorship and by that society is destructed in a certain way by the loss of knowledge from books.

Technology is on the rise which has changed people’s lives. Today’s technology a positive improvement which has grown over the past years. Today everyone uses technology, from old to new. Both Ernest Cline and Ray Bradbury present worlds that are run by technology.The technology in ready player one and Fahrenheit 451 is both bad and good. Fahrenheit 451 is all about a fireman called Guy Montag who does the opposite of what fireman do, starting fires instead of putting them out. The society in Fahrenheit 451 is forbidden from reading books.People spend their time watching big TVs, radios.Montag’s wife Mildred spends her time watching and is addicted to sleeping pills.Montag starts to questions what he does and the reason why books are

Today, teens are spending one third of their day using technology according to a new study released by Common Sense Media. That is a whole nine hours spent mindlessly surfing the web or watching cat videos. In the science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury writes a social commentary on what the future may look like if technology continues to be overused. In his dystopia, all books are banned and the government controls almost every aspect of people’s lives by brainwashing them with technology. Firemen burn down people’s houses who have books, Guy Montag being one of them. Slowly, Montag starts to question his society and steal books, to the dismay of his technology obsessed wife, Mildred. Bradbury uses Mildred as a symbol of societal corruption to highlight the dangers of excessively using technology.

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a book established on a disordered culture in which the government gets along with the people via traditionalism. Conformity is the method of matching beliefs and attitudes. Characters such as Beatty, Mildred, and others obey the government since that is how their culture exists. The government destroys any type of individuality a person has and does not tolerate any type of education since they will come up with a way to reprimand an individual. As it is shown at the beginning of the story, individuality outlines the dissimilarities of an individual by creating an exceptional personality of a person such as the one Clarisse McClellan disclosed to Montag.

One of the many ways our world is similar to the dystopian world of Fahrenheit 451 is in the way technology affects our relationships. Technology, especially for younger people,