Social Issues In Fahrenheit 451

Imagine living in a world where you are not in control of your own thoughts. Imagine living in a world in which all the great thinkers of the past have been blurred from existence. Imagine living in a world where life no longer involves beauty, but instead a controlled system that the government is capable of manipulating. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, such a world is brought to the awareness of the reader through a description of the impacts of censorship and forced conformity on people living in a futuristic society. In this society, all works of literature have become a symbol of unnecessary controversy and are outlawed. Individuality and thought is outlawed. The human mind is

Societies influence on citizens affects their actions, not how they perceive the world. Beatty believes that the way of society is how it should be; citizens perceive him as an authority figure that is content in the way society functions. Beatty and Faber are similar in the sense that; they are both well read, perceive society in different ways and both teach Montag using different techniques. First, Beatty is proven to be well read because he quotes many authors, but also shares his opinion that books are contradictory; “What traitors books can be! you think they’re backing you up, and they turn on you.” (97). This quotation demonstrates Beatty’s opinion of books; he believes that what is written in books contradicts itself and leaves

In Fahrenheit 451 Beatty explains to Montag if freedom of knowledge were to be granted, equality wouldn’t be present within the society. This was evidenced on page 55 when he said, “You remember the boy who was exceptionally bright...selected for beatings and torture...We must all be alike...then all are happy...no mountains to make

Knowledge is power. Granger and Faber do not need authority to feel empowered, their knowledge is enough . Beatty on the other hand, seeks power in ways of authority. He is not willing to surrender power at any cost. Even when Montag points a gun at his face he says, “Go ahead now, you second-hand litterateur, pull the trigger.” (Bradbury 113). He shows no concern that he may or may not get shot within moments. All thinking is done for society. “Hard work” is foreign to them. Montag’s wife Mildred has one job; agree. The very last things she does every night is not kissing her husband, but falling asleep with seashells in her ears. There is no time to decompress, think about the day, or learn from mistakes made. Taking away that crucial time is hurting society enough, but completely eliminating books is absurd. Bradbury fears that American culture will no longer think for themselves and that their brains will never surpass a certain level of knowledge. There is no desire to learn, think out of the box, or create new ideas. In fact, anyone who attempts any of these actions is thought to be a glitch in the system. Beatty says, “Queer ones like her don’t happen often. We know how to nip them in the

One of the characters, Beatty, has a great deal of knowledge from books, however, he never uses it for self-enlightenment. When Captain Beatty hears about Montag's return to the fire station from being "sick", he states "Read a few lines and off you go over the cliff. Bang, you're ready to blow up the world, chop off heads, knock down women and children, destroy authority. I know, I've been through it all." (Bradbury 106). In the quote, Captain Beatty's true feelings and thoughts towards books/knowledge are shown very clearly. In a sense, he is basically disgusted with himself, knowing this information which he believes is useless. He has the knowledge, but lives in ignorance and is controlled by the government rhetoric. Even with the knowledge, he

Thomas Jefferson once said, “That government is best which governs least…”. In Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian novel written by Ray Bradbury, the government puts extreme laws in place to “protect” the people. Except, that these laws keep the citizens from knowing the truth. The good laws like speed limit aren’t enforced and the things that shouldn’t matter, like owning a book, are so strongly enforced, that if it is you that is found to own a book, your house will be burnt down. The government keeps everyone in check by censoring the citizens. During the 1950’s, the entire country was in fear of communism. There was a blacklist of authors, actors, and public figures. No one would hire them or buy their work. Bradbury wanted to warn the country of what could happen if it continued being ignorant , and by using pathos, rhetorical questions, and repetition, he effectively conveyed his purpose.

This reflect remembers Montag’s description of Clarisse as a mirror in The Hearth and the Salamander. Granger clearly sees that they need to evaluate who they really are before they start doing new things. Mirrors in the book Fahrenheit 451 are symbols or self-understanding of seeing oneself clearly. Mirrors can also be symbols of seeing who you really are from the outside to the inside. “Come on now, we’re going to go build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them” (Bradbury

​In a world where everything surrounding one is so different and so similar in the exact same time… Imagine a society where everything an individual can mentally and physically do is under the power of the government. Self-difference does not exist. In a futuristic setting of the novel ‘Fahrenheit 451’ written by Ray Bradbury, and the short story ‘Harrison Bergeron’ written by Kurt Vonnegut are both two very eventful and interesting readings that will keep one’s mind running on about the outlook on futuristic life and the governments strict needs and wants throughout a society. These two stories can be compared and contrasted by the strict outlook on the governments control, demand and want over a society, the close relation the two main characters from both stories portray and the similar theme demonstrating loss of individuality.

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a display of how humans are relying more and more on technology for entertainment at the price of their ability for intellectual development. It is a novel about technological dystopia, often compared to other novels such as, George Orwell’s 1984 and Asimov Ender’s Game. Although today’s technology has not quite caught up with Bradbury’s expectations, the threat of having his vision of a dystrophic society is very realistic. He sees a futuristic society in which this submission of thought is highly valued. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury displays a futuristic utopian society where "the people did not read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations" (Mogen, Pg. 111).

“When a man has lost all happiness, he’s not alive. Call him a breathing corpse,” as proclaimed by an Ancient Greek playwright by the name of Sophocles. This quote relates to the citizens of the dystopian society portrayed in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The entertainment and technology encompassing the world deeply captivates their lives, resulting in a lethargic emotional state in which true happiness is not apparent. In conventional thought, firemen hold the task of extinguishing fires, while Guy Montag’s occupation consists of setting fire to books. The novel’s society is subjected to the control of government censorship and technology in order to prevent the surge of free thought and inquiry. It is their belief that the characters

Can you picture a society where firemen actually start the fires,rather than stop them ?Where books have become outlawed? How about where being different from one another is not really a thing? Are people truly happy or are they just distracting themselves from their problems ? In the book, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a central theme is shown through how his characters are willfully distracted rather than truly being happy. Bradbury illustrates by showing how people use television to distract themselves, the burning of books and the way that characters have covered up their past lives.

The importance of knowledge is demonstrated in different ways between dystopian society and modern day societies. The topic of lack of knowledge is presented through the nonsignificance of books. When Montag is speaking with Beatty at the end of his history of being a fireman, Beatty says, “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal… a book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take a shot from the weapons. Breach men’s mind”(Bradbury 100). Since Montag and his society are not allowed to own book, it shows that knowledge is not as enforced. Knowledge is a trait valued in modern day society. An example of how education and knowledge is forced

Captain Beatty says “we stand against a small tide that want to make everyone unhappy” before he burned a women's house. He called the people who read books terrorists. This is a perfect example of how most people in Montag's society view these people who want to read books. They act like they are crazy and belong in an asylum. We don't view people who read books as terrorists or mentally ill but as weird at least to us teenagers. Most teens ignore books or don't want any to do with them because they require more time and thought to them. We choose to do other things instead of reading books like sports or video games. This relates to Montags society because most people in that society do the same. They care more about easy entertainment that requires little to no thought.

Captain Beatty’s character is one of intriguing qualities of which one of them can be his candid way of discussing how the social order that exists in Fahrenheit 451 is organized. In this particular section of the book, Montag had been clearly influenced to a certain degree by his interactions with Clarisse McClellan and was being confronted by Beatty about these obvious changes. Beatty is an important source for gathering insightful information concerning the reasoning behind certain aspects of this dystopian society; in this case, he is discussing education. Captain

Good writers are known for their uniqueness and well thought stories. One writer who created many recognized stories was Ray Bradbury. Bradbury has written short stories, books, and movie scripts. One of his more noticeable works is the Fahrenheit 451, a story about a firefighter burning books. He is mainly known for his science fiction stories, each having a powerful message. Born in Illinois, Bradbury had a normal life compared to others during the Great Depression. Growing up, news spread that there was nuclear bombs dropped in Hiroshima, creating devastation within the Japanese community. This was a questionable choice by the US, as people all over the world became concerned for the safety of the world. Another tragedy that was occurring through Bradbury’s lifetime was the Cold War. The Cold War was a geopolitical tension, mainly between the Soviets and the United States. These wars drew concerns from Bradbury, which can be depicted from some of his works. One of them is the Martian Chronicles, a novel about the destruction of the planet and the remaining surviving humans moving to Mars. In the Martian Chronicles, there was a short story called “There Will Come Soft Rains.” This story took place after a nuclear war by the humans inside a house. In the house, there was only the robots that were working in the house, a dying dog, and the shadows of the family. With a strong message of his worries on the reliability of technology, Bradbury also included the poem “There