Social Commentary In Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury

In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury shapes a society that is restricted in speech and thought and centered on technology. In this future, books have been banned. When discovered, they are burned along with the houses they are found in. Responsible for setting the fires are “firemen”. Among them is Guy Montag, the main character of the novel. The elimination of books was merely one step of many to fully eradicate individual freedom of thought and speech. In his efforts to explain to Montag the history of their society’s censorship, Captain Beatty lectures: "The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts. Lock up your typewriters. They did”(Bradbury 57). Beatty clarifies that it was the people rather than the government that purged the world of books in order to cease controversy and prevent feud. Opposite to the presumed result, their world is more consumed in war than ever before. The privation of human interaction leaves their society passionless and without true happiness. To compensate for the love lost, their world is drowned in various technologies. Televisions coating entire walls, and the characters inside them, become of chief importance over actual people: “’Will you turn the parlour off?’ he asked. ‘That’s my family’” (Bradbury 48-49). Montag’s wife Mildred entirely disregards her husband’s request as it seems her television characters are of higher value to her than her own husband. Along with her, the

It is impossible to lead a complete life without knowing pain or offense. Yet some societies attempt to do just that. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury rights of a society which, due to political correctness and a desire for constant entertainment, have effectively eradicated any thought that could potentially cause offense or negative emotions. While this was originally a choice made by the public, the government eventually made it compulsory. To do this they repurposed firemen to burn books containing this undesired knowledge. One such fireman, Guy Montag, eventually sees the error in this and attempts to reform the society. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury uses cultural surroundings to exhibit the negative consequences, including promotion of rashness, lack of respect for that individual, and ultimately calls inherent traits of mankind into question, a society that discourages serious thought has as it shapes an individual.

“With rebellion, awareness is born,” quoted by Albert Camus. An act of rebellion can cause awareness and open people's eyes to horrendous acts. In the book Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury, when Montag realizes that the government wasn’t being fair, he decided he needed to make the society aware. Montag knew a rebellion was the only way to show that the government was not treating citizens right. It is acceptable to rebel when it is believed that the government is being unfair to their citizens because citizens should have the right to freely speak their opinions. People shouldn’t be told what they can or can’t-do for pleasure and they should be able to express their uniqueness.

Ray Bradbury wrote a variety of Social Commentary into his book, Fahrenheit 451. The first sign in the book that something was wrong with this society was when Montag’s wife had overdosed. She was listening to the Seashells and watching the T.V. and those things brainwash everybody into thinking about how society is supposed to be. She is brainwashed and had forgotten about taking pills so she had overdosed before. “... In her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight… An instant before his foot hit the object on the floor, he knew he would hit such an object” (12). He tells of how Montag found his wife on the bed. Dead and with pills on the ground, overdosing and not realizing it because she was so tranced with the radios in her ears. Then later, Clarisse does a whole social justice speech on how school and the people in it are, which is relatable to today’s way of school life to some extent. She says, “Oh, they don’t miss me… I’m antisocial, they say. I don’t mix… I’m very social… It all depends on what you mean by social, doesn’t it?... Being with people is nice. But I don’t think it’s social to get a bunch of people together and not let them talk, do you? An hour of Tv class, an hour of basketball or baseball or painting pictures… we never ask questions, or at least most don’t; they just run the answer at you… That’s not social to me at all… But everyone I know is either shouting or dancing around like wild or beating up one another. Do you notice how

In Ray Bradbury’s novel, censorship is implemented in an odd way through the dystopian society. Firemen in today’s time are ordinarily known for “those who put out fires,” but the role of firemen in this story is completely different. They are the enforcers of the censorship law and are called when there is a suspect known hiding books in their home. Montag who is the prime character and fireman starts the story with a quote saying, “It was a pleasure to burn” (3). This confirms that firemen in the dystopian society seem to take their jobs as book burners with satisfaction. When Guy Montag awakes in the novel and questions the reasons why books are considered dangerous and to be burned. In Fahrenheit 451,

A statement in the beginning of the story says, “Just how it would feel. I mean, to have firemen burn our houses and our books.” (33) What would stopping us from reading even accomplish? Unity, happiness? Or destruction of society lead by brain-dead citizens. Fahrenheit 451 is all about this idea, all books are burned and all people are glued to their screens, never really thinking about anything. At some point, someone has to start thinking, and realizing how awful the society they live in is. That’s where our protagonist and fireman, Guy Montag, comes in questioning his dystopian life. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, author Ray bradbury illustrates the idea that too much censorship is bad for society; this becomes clear to readers when everyone’s lives start falling apart because of it, and rebellion begins.

Fahrenheit 451 is a science-fiction book written by the popular American author, Ray Bradbury. The main character of the novel is Guy Montag, a person who lives in a world where books are burned and censorship is an issue in their society. The plight of the society Guy Montag lives in was that his government was forcibly changing people’s views to form a communist society. In the beginning of Fahrenheit 451 Montag was a conformist and went along with everything that the government was trying to pursue without questioning anything, but throughout the book, Montag develops from an antagonist to a non-conformist who began to question the world he lived in. Throughout the book I observed the way Montag’s point of view changes ever so drastically. Montag’s new mindset led him to question his open mindedness. Questioning his society and

Imagine a world where the government controls everything. A world where the citizens of a society is told what to wear, what to eat, who to marry, when to die, and etc. A society where technology is advanced, such as the speed of cars and the type of trains. A place where laws are strictly taken into place and people follow them without hesitations. There are numerous of ways to make a great dystopian, one of them being style. The style that the author uses reveals what the social commentary is to the readers. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Ally Condie’s Matched, and Wes Ball’s Maze Runner: Scorch Trials, all demonstrate a dystopia where people within the book are controlled to live a life that’s not theirs. The stylistic methods that both authors use to provide a way to warn their readers about what might happen in the future, a future that reflects their behavior.

The burning of those books that create discontent by the firemen in the plot of 451 is used to create a passive thinking, politically correct, ignorant society through the censorship of ideas. This idea is present in 451 due to Bradbury’s social context of censorship, which was prevalent during the time Bradbury was constructing the text. This shows that Bradbury has constructed 451 to be a criticism of censorship. The fireman, in Fahrenheit 451, sole job is to burn and destroy books, they burn books because they trigger thought, which then triggers discontent amongst the population. The destruction of those that trigger discontent is used to make a sterile, plain society. Furthermore this leads to a society of political correctness, due to

In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the protagonist, Guy Montag, suddenly realizes his overwhelming discontent with life when he meets Clarisse McClean, a seventeen year old girl who introduces him to beauty of the world and the notion of questioning ones surroundings. This novel, having been released shortly after the Second Read Scare, a time when fear of communism lead to the baseless accusation of political figures by Senator McCarthy, was received with mixed reviews. However, today more so than ever, Bradbury’s novel seems to provide a relevant commentary on several of society’s biggest social and political issues. One such an issue is the debate between equal treatment and true equality for all. Although taken to an extreme, the

In 1953, American author and screenwriter, Ray Bradbury, in his novel, Fahrenheit 451, utilizes a dramatic and depressing tone alerting the effects of social issues in a dystopian society, such as order and identity in the world. During the 1950's new technological advances were being created that helped alter the world such as the first ever commercial computer or television. Bradbury's purpose in this novel was to prevent what was to come in the future with the minds of human minds be consumed by new toys and gadgets. With this book Bradbury wanted to change his audience's perspective on the way they perceive books and the social outcome it can have. He implements many Biblical allusions, paradoxes, and imagery to help develop his major themes that factor what is happening in society.

Social commentary isn't hard to find within Fahrenheit 451. In the beginning of the book Montag's wife Mildred overdosed, which is a problem in the natural world also. Even in a dystopian world they too have the issue of overdose. The social commentary is that there were medics were acting nonchalant when helping Mildred after the overdosed saying “She’ll be okay. We got all the mean stuff right in out suitcase here, it can’t get her now.

Social Commentary is the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on issues in a society. This basically means that it is the act of using a certain style of talking or writing to provide explanation for problems in a society. It’s often done by soliciting to a change after telling of a problem and trying to appeal to the people’s sense of justice. This doesn’t refer to Political Commentary, where one critiques specifically to politics. They can relate, but Social Commentary refers to society as a whole. The arts, like film, books, and even some podcasts give great ideas on Social Commentary, mostly fictional movies and books, and to be even more specific, dystopian setting books and movies. Dystopia is an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one, but in that fiction it’s not always just a hero trying to save the world from collapsing. Some stories and movies give Social Commentary and it’s often relatable to today’s time. In a book called Fahrenheit 451, it’s author, Ray Bradbury, and exposes throughout the story the dangers of censorship. In The Giver, by Lois Lowry, tells of how the Jonas’s world is in an almost communist society. The movie and graphic novel V for Vendetta, directed by James McTeigue, is a lesson on real world problems and

Legendary rock singer Jim Morrison once said that “a hero is someone who rebels or seems to rebel against the facts of existence and seems to conquer them”. Morrison’s claim can be interpreted as meaning that heroes, whoever they may be, are people who have the courage to revolt against injustices that are viewed by most as fixed or unchangeable parts of their societies. In Ray Bradbury’s acclaimed 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist Guy Montag certainly qualifies as a hero as he rebels against the dystopian society he lives in, which has completely eschewed critical thinking and reading books. Montag begins to realize that this society is unjust, because it prevents free thought and expression, and chooses to do something about it. He starts secretly reading books, which sets him on a path to becoming the hero Morrison describes; he rebels against the facts of his existence, specifically the fact that reading is not tolerated in his society. Ultimately, Montag becomes a hero by first questioning his society and later revolting against it all out.

Society inhibits multiple challenges on a daily basis. Therefore, people find it amusing to know that they’re accomplishing more in life than another person, and are pleased to see others struggle, because it makes them feel better about themselves. Although that may go against many people's morals, it’s evidently the truth considering people are hesitant to deny, and when questioned the mass majority of society agrees. Consequently, when movies containing dystopia premier they are sure to get an abundant amount of attention taking into account the viewers are curious to see the filmmakers approach to such an unusual route of video play. As a result, most directors are quick to develop a world of character development, connotative diction,