Social Issues In Fahrenheit 451

"the word, 'intellectual ', of course, became the swear word it deserved to be...the boy in your class who was exceptionally 'bright ', did most of the reciting and answering while the others sat like so many leaden idols,

Importance: This passage is important because it’s when Montag starts to really wonder if he is actually happy with his life. It leads him to think throughout the book whether or not he is actually happy.

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel written by Ray Bradbury that depicts a futuristic American society where books are banned and independent thought is persecuted. Bradbury uses his imagination to take a hard look at a world consumed by technology, and he presents predictions about pleasure, violence and anti-intellectualism that are alarmingly similar to the modern American society. Notably, in both societies people find pleasure in entertainment that is endlessly preoccupying. Second, people are violent and careless. Finally, anti-intellectualism and suppression of independent thought affect both societies, as firemen ban books in Fahrenheit 451 and, in the

Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 presents readers with multiple themes. In the fictional society of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, books are banned and firemen create fires instead of putting them out. Bradbury portrays the society as dystopian. Bradbury crafted the novel to be interpreted intellectually. The characters claim to be happy. However, the reader can conclude otherwise. Bradbury creates a question for the reader to answer: Is ignorance bliss or does the ability to think for oneself create happiness? Bradbury shows the importance of self-reflection, happiness and the ability to think for oneself as well as isolation due to technology, and the importance of nature and animals. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury conveys the stories’ themes through characterization and symbols.

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

Montag begins to think about what Clarisse said to him “Are you happy?” (pg 10). When he returns home, he realizes that he is not happy with his

In addition, the author shows that Montag changes through his speech. When Montag meets Clarisse McClellan, his new vivacious teenage neighbor” (CliffNotes 1). After meeting Clarisse, he then began to question himself and his life. He then realizes he is not truly happy, he subsequently starts questioning his marriage and his job. Bradbury

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.

Another example, would be when Montag calls in sick for work and is trying to take to sleep ,he is distracted by Mildred watching the parlor.“‘Will you turn the parlor off?’ he asked ‘That’s my family.’”(46). The term “family” has lost all meaning in this dystopian world. By the definition of family in this book, a relationship withot emotion or love. So in this setting, the parlor family fits the description of their idea of a “family”.

Fahrenheit 451 is about a man named Guy Montag who is a fireman in the distant future. His job is to burn books for a living, if books are found they are burned and their owner is arrested. In his society people do not read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, or even have meaningful conversations. I think the best way to describe the theme of this story is anti-censorship, censorship is the practice of officially examining books, movies, and suppressing unacceptable parts, in Fahrenheit 451 society has evolved to such an extreme that all literature is illegal to possess.

We sit on the subways and we ride on the busses, we drown the outside world with our headphones and our television sets, and we walk on the sidewalks brushing past one another just enough to avoid physical contact so that we can continue on our "merry" way towards our next destination. As a society, we beeline our way through life, weaving between moments of rendezvous and accidental concurrence, and we surround ourselves with instruments of interference in an attempt to pull ourselves out of the day-to-day life. As they say, art imitates life, and in a very sadistic way Fahrenheit 451 imitates what we are, and what we could become. Fahrenheit depicts a future where the common people surround themselves

In his novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury makes a social commentary on marriage/love between the character’s multiple times throughout the entire course of the book. In the beginning of the book Clarisse mentions to Montage that he is not in love. Towards the end of the book, Mildred’s friends are not upset about their husbands fighting in the war. One woman even continued to express that she didn’t care if her husband died or not. Bradbury interpreted marriage from his own society and reflected it into his novel.

The cruel and twisted dystopian film , The Giver, also displays several social issues, which are related back to Fahrenheit 451, and Among the Barons. The main social issues endowed, in Fahrenheit 451, and The Giver , is the fact that both of the powerful governments within the warped societies, are doing everything that they can to contain everything from the past. In Fahrenheit 451, the government hides the previous historical events by burning all books. In The Giver, the chief elder is the main person in charge, similar to a president today. The chief elder is in control of all citizens and she and the other elders help in placing the children into the correct working field.

Fahrenheit 451 is a novel written by Ray Bradbury, which deals with themes such as censorship and the mindlessness of mass culture. It is about a dystopian society in which books are forbidden, and if you are found with them, “firemen” burn down your house. The main character is Montag; a fireman who discovers his life is not as ideal as he thought.

Imagine a society that is engulfed in a false reality. Some may never be able to see such a thing in our present day society. But in the book Fahrenheit 451, this unorthodox way of life becomes reality. The book Fahrenheit 451 is about a society where censorship is at its fullest. All books are banned from along with intuition and free thinking as an individual.