Happiness Explored in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 Essay

Happiness in our society is harder to find than in the society of Fahrenheit 451, but once achieved, it is a true happiness, one which grows upon its seeds, and sprouts a great and fulfilling life for that person. The average citizen in our society believes themselves to be happy, but in reality, they too are replacing their true desires and childhood dreams with superficial entertainment and mindless activities, which resembles the society which is portrayed in Fahrenheit 451.

Everybody has gone through something that has shaped changed them in a way that they could never go back to the person they were. In life, pain and suffering changes people and often causes one to restructure their life. As well, suffering can either define an individual or to allow for spiritual growth. This is especially true in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, as even though both Mildred and Clarisse differ in their perceptions toward life and their effect on Montag, both must eventually suffer the reality of a society consumed by insensitivity to push along Montag’s journey. All in all, one will view that it was necessary for both Clarisse and Mildred to experience death to allow for Montag’s journey to come to full circle.

The book Fahrenheit 451 is set in a dystopian, authoritarian world. The main character, Guy Montag, joins a movement for books when he begins to go against his society’s and government’s regulations. It is a book about censorship, individualism, and mass media.

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.

Everyone strives to find their happiness in life, but there will be people out there who will try and stop you from doing what you love. The novel, Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, creates a society where the character Guy Montag suffers inside the dystopia to find his happiness and quickly discovers the wrongs inside of it. Montag is a simple living man who faced no challenges, but once he realized that his society is a dystopia, Montag soon began to change his actions inside the community that had caused him to turn into a defensive and fearless man in search to find his happiness.

Ray Bradbury defines happiness rather well in his dystopian science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451. The general definition of happiness in Fahrenheit 451 is that; if the government can suppress information about other countries,destroy all of the books in the country,and keep people from getting too smart to actually understand what’s going on everyone will be happy. This definition of happiness is a new and interesting take on what happiness is, or at least how to both achieve and maintain happiness. The first time Bradbury Expresses his definition of happiness in the book is in the beginning when we see what the purpose of a fireman is, which is to burn books that make people unhappy, but it is not only limited to books that make people unhappy they burn all books. By doing this people have no way to learn new ideas that could disagree with the government or cause civil unrest.

Happiness is important. People should care more about it. Happiness isn’t everything but it is really important to be happy. In Fahrenheit 451, nobody knows or cares if they’re truly happy. When Clarisse asked Guy Montag if he is happy, he really had to think about it. That is saying a lot about where and how they live.

In Bradbury’s novel, people are not happy, though they think they are. We already know that a predominant factor in this is the little interaction between each other we see. Bradbury could be defining happiness as knowledge. Montag mentions that something is missing; that something is preventing everyone from really being happy. The only thing that is missing in this futuristic society is books, and books lead to knowledge. Intelligence leads to people thinking for themselves and finding what makes them happy. This is not something the government in this place would want. Having knowledge allows everyone to see how important sharing thoughts and opinions are. This lack of learning impedes the citizens from using their imaginations and being

Throughout the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Bradbury depicts a society where knowledge is frowned upon to maintain stability in the government. The society portrayed in the novel is withheld from intellect because the government feels that without knowledge the citizens won’t pose as a threat, so books became outlawed and destroyed. Technology begins to cultivate a new way of life, electronics become the main focus of the human brain pushing out the concept of new ideas. Until, a rebellious clan, which includes the main character, Guy Montag, begins reading books and memorizing their contents to preserve the knowledge created from them. For the duration of the trilogy the Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins portrayed the concept of a broken civilization. Every year in Panem, two members from each of the 12 districts are selected to partake in the upcoming Hunger Games. They are forced to fight to their deaths until only one of them remains alive to remind the population that their government is superior to them. The members of the districts remained obedient to their leaders until there was a spark of hope ignited by a brave young woman by the name of Katniss Everdeen. Ray Bradbury’s classic novel, Fahrenheit 451 has direct parallels with the 21st century best seller, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins because they both focus on a society run by a corrupt government and fixate on the citizens and convene on rebellion; but, they contradict because they approach each

I've learned many things about the pursuit of happiness from our exploration of American Literature. Each piece of literature that we have studied this year has made me think about true happiness and what creates it. The Great Gatsby has taught me that happiness does not come from wealth, while Of Mice and Men has taught me to always hold on to my dreams. Most importantly, The Red Badge of Courage has shown me that true happiness must come from my own accomplishments. Through the exploration of American Literature, I've been able to come to the conclusion of what the pursuit of happiness really means.

According to Storm Jameson, “Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed.” Jameson suggests that happiness is not just having fun, but it is to be present in the moment and to make connections with others. Happiness is rarely found in the novel Fahrenheit 451, because this joyless society defines “fun” as driving with the need for speed and with an intention of killing small animals and people or the deadening white noise of endless television viewing. The novel Fahrenheit 451 conveys this very idea as the protagonist Guy Montag and others in his society are unable to achieve full happiness. Author Ray Bradbury suggests the truth of Jameson’s statement primarily through

Every individual yearns to feel happiness as a part of their lifetime experiences. John Stuart Mills discusses this topic in his autobiography, “A Crisis in my Mental History”. Stuart Mills argues that individuals should embrace happiness as the purpose of life, which i strongly agree with. Mills treats happiness as the basis of his philosophy of life which strives to allow individuals to possess the sensibility and capacity for enjoyment (Stuart Mills, Chapter V pg.13) In order to find happiness in life, individuals should do what they love with the people that they love and learn how to live in the moment without allowing small mistakes to affect them.

John Stuart Mill, in his autobiography, “A Crisis in my Mental History: One Stage Onward” (1909-04), argues that people are chasing happiness, which is making them unhappy. He supports his claim that gives examples of things that used to be enjoyable and fun, but are now being taken away. He says that people find happiness when not looking for it. Mill also says that you will find happiness through the happiness of other and if you make others happy. John’s purpose is for people to realize that they need to stop going around and always thinking that they have to be happy and just let themselves be happy naturally. Mill’s tone is serious towards all readers so that they really think about what he has to say.

Many people aspire to be happy. Fulfilling the goal of being happy is so deeply engrained in our society, that people are constantly trying to find the perfect formula to achieve happiness. But is this constant search of happiness causing the exact opposite? In A Crisis in My Mental History: One Stage Onward, writer John Stuart Mill believes so. Mill’s perspective on happiness argues that for someone to achieve the goal of happiness, one must not actively search for happiness, but to have their “minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness.” Knowing this, I agree with the John Stuart Mill’s views about happiness.

Happiness is often denoted as pleasure, satisfaction, or joys. It is believed by some societies that happiness can be gained when they possess wealth, glamour and prestige. This point of view has made numerous people to have a hedonism life which claimed that life should be devoted toward the pursuit of pleasure. However, more and more people have found out that they can not find happiness even if they are rich or prosperous. These people have started to realize the dissimilarity between pleasure and happiness. They often claim that happiness is the end of our life and believe that they have to search for happiness in order to find the meaning of life. Yet, they are also people who do not agree with this statement and regard that they have already achieved happiness in their life. As a matter of fact, happiness is not the end of our life.