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Fahrenheit 451 Essay

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In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, we can see a lot of things wrong with the society, things that most people think could happen to us, but is it really that unrealistic? Ray Bradbury didn't think so when he wrote it because he was writing about his own time period, shortly after WWII, but the themes he wrote about are still present today. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury criticizes illusion of happiness, oppression, and loss of self, not only his fictitious society, but our society in real life, too. One of the themes he criticizes is illusion of happiness. An example of this is on page 4, where it says “... the fiery still gripped by his face muscles, in the dark. It never went away, that smile, it never ever went away, as long …show more content…

They throw the books down the stairs, pile them up, and pour kerosene everywhere. Not only were they willing to burn the books, but the woman as well, and the government doesn't care because they set the rules, and they think the ends justify the means. The means being burning everyone and everything, and the ends being that there are no books left, so they think it’s okay to have unjust control. Another example is on page 117, they make Montag burn his own house down and then tell him he’s under arrest. All of that just for owning some books? That’s ridiculous, cruel, and overly controlling. Page 33, another example, Montag asks Beatty “I-I've been thinking. About the fire last week. About the man whose library we fixed. What happened to him?” Beatty then says “They took him screaming off to the asylum,” this really is a good example of oppression, a man owned books, so they sent him to the mental ward of a hospital, and sometimes they send them to jail. It shows how the government has cruel treatment just because they are in control, and that’s how some things are today. At school, for a small scale example, we aren't allowed to use our phones between classes, it wouldn't hurt anything if we were allowed to, it wouldn't make it easier to cheat, or break any other rules, yet we aren't allowed to do it just because they say so, and the government, which has way more power, can, and does, do things just like this except on a much larger scale. Finally he

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