Theme Of Technology In Fahrenheit 451

Every day, everywhere people are using technology to check email, calculate tax, and talk with each other. Technology has greatly affected the social structure today and in Fahrenheit 451. Technology has effected how the TV controls our lives, how we communicate with one another, and how strong the social structure is In both the real world and Fahrenheit 451.

Fahrenheit 451 is a book by Ray Bradbury, written after World War II and it examines the corruption of technology in a dystopian society. This book explains how a dystopian society works and how people are so attached to television and cars and do not enjoy the natural world. People in a dystopian society are full of fear and sadness. They do not have equality or freedom, they are all so soaked up in technology that it is illegal for them to do simple stuff, such as, reading books. The book, Fahrenheit 451 explains how firefighters start fires rather than stopping them. A firefighter’s job is do burn books, since books are illegal to have because they go against the power of technology and modernization. In a dystopian society, people should be unhappy, unequal, violent, and brutalized and that is what is exactly being seen throughout this book. As Ray Bradbury captures the attention of many readers, he captures our attention on how the future could be if technology would become so extreme. Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451 is not about control, but it is a novel about how television destroys curiosity in reading literature.

Most often, people can be seen walking with their heads down, immersed in the technology in front of them, ignoring the whole world. Societies often contain a lot of technology, allowing people to use it in helpful or hurtful ways. Some technology can be lifesaving, but there is also technology that can destroy life in less than a second. Most often, people seem to not understand what technology is doing and how it is impacting their lives. Instead, they are blinded by the few positives of technology that actually hurt the society more than they can recognize. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the society is heavily dependent on technology. Technology has a negative impact on the characters in Fahrenheit 451. People in the society become addicted to the parlor walls, cars go so fast that they don’t see anything outside and the mechanical hound instills fear in people.

First, Technology causes one to be distracted from making personal interaction. Like when Montag felt sick, the day after he remembers that he burns a lady with her books and Mildred was just watching her parlors. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 it states, “Will you turn off?” he asked. “That’s my family.” “Will you turn it off for a sick man.”(pg.49) Mildred thinks that her family is the parlor and she is being distracted by leaving behind the reality and going to technology. This means that she is being affected by the Technology and she is being distracted by no seeing the real family, and putting the parlor wall as her family this will affect her relationship with her husband. In addition, from the novel, it states, “At least keep, it down to the minimum!” he yelled. “What?” she cried… when they stepped out of the car she had the seashells stuffed in her ear.”(pg.46) Mildred is distracted by the technology and she is causing it by using the seashells and not interacting with Montag. This means Mildred is using seashells for she could distract herself from interacting but it will affect her relationship. All adds up, Mildred uses technology to be distracted and makes Montag to be isolated because they are always together but mildred always talk to the parlors and not Montag.

Not only does technology lead the society’s people to live a life of isolation, but technology leads the people into feelings of loneliness. The inhabitant’s self-centeredness, along with isolation, causes them to lose their sense of curiosity and knowledge; which induces feelings that they cannot quite seem to understand. In order to push aside their insecurities, they turn to technology to drown out their thoughts, which prevents curiosity to occur. Another cause for feelings of loneliness, is people’s lack of affection towards one another. For example, even though Guy Montag and Mildred are married, they do not share a deep emotional connection with each other or affection like married people usually do. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag asks Mildred when did they first meet, but Mildred does not have any idea according to the dialogue, “When did we meet, and where?” [Asked Montag]... ”I don’t know,” [Mildred] said… “Funny, how funny, not to remember where or when you met your husband or wife” (Bradbury 40). If both of them were to have a meaningful relationship with affection, they were sure to remember where they met in the first place. Also, instead of having normal conversations, Mildred always isolates herself from Guy using her “seashells” and the “parlor walls”. Montag then has no one to

As of December 31, 2013, about 2 billion people on the Earth use the internet. That’s about 40% of the world’s population, since the total population is about 7 billion. Technology plays a major role in guiding people’s perceptions and misconceptions. In modern times, technology is a major part of our society, and how we live everyday. However, in other parts of the world technology is not a large influence on their culture. For example, the Matsigenka tribe in the Peruvian Amazon lacks advanced technology. This leads the tribe members to view the outside world differently than Americans do. The attention and popularity of technology are blinding people from the world, as demonstrated by the Matsigenka tribe, since they are not consumed and

An example of technology going awry in Fahrenheit 451 is the dystopian society’s use of the Mechanical Hound, or “The Hound”. The Hound is a bringer of peril in the form of a robotic canine, savagely punishing those who go against modern ideals, such as the reading and hoarding of books, by injecting them with lethal toxins. It quite obviously has exceptional technology going for it, as it stores "so many amino acids, so much sulphur, so much butterfat and alkaline", which makes it capable of tracking up to ten thousand victims to their inevitable demise. Dogs originally were companions to firefighters, being used to sniff out the weak or injured, but have proved themselves to be quite the opposite in the present Fahrenheit 451 society. Montag

Society’s dependence on technology has proven to impair communication skills. In the novel, Mildred and her friends serve as a powerful example of this. One night, Mildred held a social gathering at her house, which consisted of watching movies. Montag, the novel's main character, increasingly became more distressed and pulled the TV plug. He proclaimed, “Let’s talk” (Bradbury 271). The women’s reaction to the proclamation suggests they were uncomfortable. The novel states, “The woman jerked and stared” (272). As Montag asks them questions about their lives, they struggle to answer. As a result of making technology the center of their lives, these women were unable to hold a simple conversation. In addition, following 15 years of research,

“In the last 50 years, up to 100,000 Americans lost their lives due to inactivity leading to some sort of conditional disease such as heart disease [including the laziness within people of society]” (Wise 12). So many people have died from becoming lazy, doing nothing but go on their phones, devices, rather than doing everyday things. Technology has changed the way society approaches life, always depending on it rather than themselves and others. The society today consists of nothing but TV screens, telephone, smartphones, iPads, and items the 19th century would consider a dream to lay hands on. A book written by Bradbury presents lack of effort people put into their lives and society; Bradbury predicts how the future will become later on in the society. Becoming more similar to the laziness and ignorance in the novel, Fahrenheit 451, the society today struggles the society today struggles with dependency on technology which results to lack of social interactions with one another and failure in becoming literate with books.

From the mechanical hound to the giant TV’s in the wall, technology in Fahrenheit 451 has proven to have a large impact on their society. However, interactions between Montag, his wife, and his wife’s friends emphasize the awkward interactions. Jennifer Alsip complains about her daughter ruining dinner time. Jennifer is infuriated that her daughter’s phone keeps ringing during dinner time and she always has the need to check it immediately (Wallace). The one technology that she bought for her daughter is creating havoc in her house. Although technology has become more relevant in today’s society with computer science innovations and social media, the effects include people becoming socially inept.

In Ray Bradbury’s, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, the protagonist in the book, lives in a period of time where television is imperative while literature is on the verge of eradicating. Bradbury portrays a society where entertainment is not only a distraction, but it becomes a dominant aspect in the way individuals function in society. Furthermore, Montag’s ideal world is a world that sees a concept in books rather than television. We live in a world full of advanced technology, however there are drawbacks in the midst of the benefits. Fahrenheit 451 is an example that depicts the disadvantages that comes with the overuse of technology.

Do you think that living in a technical world would destroy society? Well, in Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, technology is very advanced and seems to get people's attention. "You're not important. You're not anything" (Bradbury 163). Fahrenheit 451 is explained as a dystopian literature. Such literature portrays an imaginary world where misguided attempts to create a utopia, or a socially and politically perfect place, results in “large scale human misery." (Critique by Michael M. Levy) This quote makes you realize that technology is taking over humans and the world has to do something about it. By creating an “utopia”, Fahrenheit 451 requires the government to take away citizen’s rights and freedoms to create the perfect society.

Michael J. Fox once said, “Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.” (Michael J Fox) However, in Fahrenheit 451 and “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury this idea is aggressively rejected. The characters in Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, live in a society where technology negatively impacts their family and relationships with each other. Similarly, the characters in Bradbury’s short story, “The Veldt” are captivated by technology which has a huge toll on their family and relationships. Fahrenheit 451 and “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury discusses the negative impact technology has on family and relationships through the use of symbolism, imagery and character development in both stories.

In our society now, our way of life is changing and it is not what it use to be back then. Our society is becoming more attracted to all of these new technologies in our lives, people are beginning to talk more on the phones and not in person. Music is becoming a problem, where people uses it to block out the world around them by using earbuds. The internet is causing people to be less responsible in their daily lives and make stupid decisions. As well people use the internet to blame other people for their own troubles or the nation’s troubles, which is ruining our society. Almost everything is changing in our society, and Ray Bradbury predicted all of this in his book, Fahrenheit 451. His predictions on how people act in our society now are mostly correct, but the most notable are about technology affecting interaction, responsibility, and marriage.

Today, teens are spending one third of their day using technology according to a new study released by Common Sense Media. That is a whole nine hours spent mindlessly surfing the web or watching cat videos. In the science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury writes a social commentary on what the future may look like if technology continues to be overused. In his dystopia, all books are banned and the government controls almost every aspect of people’s lives by brainwashing them with technology. Firemen burn down people’s houses who have books, Guy Montag being one of them. Slowly, Montag starts to question his society and steal books, to the dismay of his technology obsessed wife, Mildred. Bradbury uses Mildred as a symbol of societal corruption to highlight the dangers of excessively using technology.