Fahrenheit 451 And Harrison Bergeron : A Loss Of Human Individuality

Ray Bradbury wrote the novel Fahrenheit 451, which is a story about a society that believed books were for burning and where thinking was discouraged. Throughout the novel there are several incidents that can be

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

If you have ever read the stories “Harrison Bergeron” and Fahrenheit 451 I’m sure you would recognize the similarities and differences between the two. For example, one of the similarities between the books would be how the main characters from Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag and Mildred Montag are very similar to the main characters Harrison and Hazel from “Harrison Bergeron.” The other example of similarity between the two stories would be how the government realized the desire for equality that people have and use that to keep society at below average intelligence levels. One difference that I found between the two stories was how different the restrictions were in each of the stories.

Book-burning is the first thing that is explained about this future based society of Fahrenheit 451. Burning books is the obliteration of the single thought on paper or in one word- censorship. Books are considered evil because they make people question and think. All intellectual curiosity and thirst for knowledge must be quelled for the good of the state — for the good of conformity. Without ideas, everyone conforms, and as a result, everyone should be happy. When books and new ideas are available to people, conflict and unhappiness occur. Some of the many different motifs in the novel Fahrenheit 451 are conveyed through the use of various sardonic lines and connotations planted throughout the book. On the matter of technology and modernization it explains how TV reigns supreme in the future because of the "happiness" it offers. People are content when they don’t have to think, or so the story goes. TV aside, technology is the government’s means of oppression, but also provides the renegade’s opportunity to subvert. Rules and order is another popular topic written into the book. It is stated that “All books can be beaten down with reason.” This was said by Captain Betty, a quote ironically coming from a book itself. Much of the restrictions on the general populous are self-enforced. The government has taken away the citizens’ ability to dissent and marred all dissatisfaction with a cheap version of "happiness," a.k.a. TV. This means

Have you ever thought what the world would be like if everything was controlled and you had limited access to everything you have now? Conformity, censorship and equality have big parts in Fahrenheit 451, The pedestrian, and Harrison Bergeron, but do not have big rolls in life today.

“We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought. We have our fingers on a dike. Hold steady. Don’t let the torrent of melancholy and drear philosophy drown our world. We depend on you. I don’t think you realize how important you are, we are, to our happy world as it stands now.” (Bradbury 59). This quote illustrates, how the societies government is making people think that books and theories are what makes the society unhappy. This is what makes the people that start theories and read books separate from their society and hide from the government and their cruel punishments towards the book readers. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, a man named Guy Montag, goes on a journey to find out about the books that are hidden from his society. Along the way, Guy starts to notices that he is different from the others who watch the “parlor walls”. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, the author, Ray Bradbury teaches the readers the theme of censorship to show how the protagonist, Guy Montag, changes as a result of the conflict in his dystopian society.

“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind.” (Bradbury 58) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury takes place in a futuristic dystopian society; books are burned to restrict knowledge from citizens. Guy Montag, the protagonist, is a fireman who burns the books. Montag is taken by surprise when he meets Clarisse McClellan as he is walking home from work. Clarisse is an anomaly in the society; her stark contrast in comparison to the rest of the world forces Montag to question himself. From there, a rebellion spread that sparks a change in Montag and in society. In his novel Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury constructs the idea that censorship of knowledge causes citizens to discontinue questioning

Fahrenheit 451 compares to the story The Veldt using imagery and Fahrenheit 451 compares to the story Harrison Bergeron by a common theme. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is a firefighter but instead of putting out fires, he catches books on fire due to books being illegal. Montag had books but never told his wife for the longest time. Once Montag showed his wife he had books, not long after she called the cops on him. Montag ran off and accidentally met up with the Granger group. Everyone in the city ended up dying and the Granger group lived due to them hiding outside of the city. In the story that compares to Fahrenheit 451, The Veldt, George and Lydia have a room called the nursery. The nursery is where the walls change scenes to how the kids feel and the parents can see the scenes that they are creating on the walls. The other story that relates to Fahrenheit 451 is Harrison Bergeron. In this story, Harrison has the most handicaps to keep him from being smart. The handicaps help him forget smart thoughts and keep him from being focused on one thing for too long. Harrison escaped prison and took all of his handicaps off. Not long after he did all of this, he was killed for taking off his handicaps.

Imagine a society that arrests innocent people for owning a book. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury builds a world that firefighter’s burn down houses that have books instead of preventing fires from happening. In Montag’s society, burning book is a way to get rid of all the past knowledge because they don’t want their citizens to go against the society. In this utopia society, everyone looks exactly that same and they lack communication. Bradbury creates a futuristic community that doesn’t allow citizens to read books because they want all of their people to be content.

In both “Harrison Bergeron” and Fahrenheit 451, both authors imagine a horrible future where there is no diversity because it is believed by the government that everybody should be treated equally, teaching us diversity is essential because it is what makes humans unique individuals with our own creative thoughts. In both stories, the government emphasizes the importance of equality in their society by putting in extreme laws limiting the abilities of their people to ensure that no one person is better than another. In Fahrenheit 451, the government banned book reading because they feared people would get wrong ideas from them or become too smart. "We must all be alike.

Even though some technology was beneficial in Fahrenheit 451, “The Pedestrian”, and “Harrison Bergeron”, most of the technology caused problems and hurt the lives of the citizens in one way or another. An example of technology that caused a problem were the little mental handicap radios in, “Harrison Bergeron”, “in his ear. . . . would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (Vonnegut 1) . This statement proves that dystopian governments in many books and stories take unfair advantage of their citizens. Some of the governments even hurt people that were unique to make them equal to everyone else. An example of the government using this type of technology is the little mental handicap

The First Amendment grants the freedom of speech for all United States citizens. Envision not possessing this right, but also not being able to think freely. If a future filled with no individual expression and everyone and everything looking the same came to mind, you were close, but not quite there. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is about a war ridden society that restricts the freedom of thought through the practice of banning and burning books. An analysis of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 displays change is needed because it opens one’s eyes which is illustrated by his use of character interaction, detailed events, and revealing the character’s thoughts.

The book F451, written by Ray Bradbury, is about a dystopian society where knowledge, as well as books, are not as they are in our society. Instead, the is destroyed. On the other hand, the story Harrison Bergeron, written by Kurt Vonnegut, is a society where everyone is equal, in every way. The books Fahrenheit 451 and Harrison Bergeron are both showing how the over controlling government can block out your own thinking. This theme was a warning for our society in the future.

Think about what the world would be like if books were forbidden. Schools would be different and the world would be censored from all the history written in books. In Fahrenheit 451 that is exactly what their world is like. Guy Montag is the main character and protagonist. He worked as a firefighter, but instead of distinguishing fires he lit houses on fire if they contained books. All his life he was told that books are unacceptable and should be burned. One day he pondered on  what reading a book felt like. He started to read and that got him into some trouble. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury illustrates the idea that censoring information from people will only make people want the information more, this becomes clear to readers

Conformity plays an intricate role in many dystopian settings. Civilization in Fahrenheit 451 is forced to purge itself of books, as community leaders, including the nefarious Captain Beatty, claim this as a necessity for the sake of general happiness. According to the governing body this drastic measure prevents individuals from forming opinions and, therefore, helps prevent discord. Any citizens found with books in their homes face dire consequences. Their houses are doused with kerosene and set alight by the notorious firemen, and should book-owners refuse to submit the books to the conflagration, the owners themselves are left to burn. This deliberate spurning of intellectual activity leads to a society dominated by, and even encourages, narrow-minded, shallow individuals who are easily manipulated by government propaganda. As the main character, a fireman named Guy Montag, begins to realize, this government-controlled, and