How would one understand darkness unless one had also known light? If bad did not exist, would good have any meaning? Contradictions create substance, and without one end of the spectrum it is impossible to comprehend the other. Like yin and yang, opposites derive meaning from their differences. Juxtaposition is necessary for an extreme to have meaning; therefore lack of alternatives nullifies significance.
This is well illustrated by the absence of dichotomy in Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World. The novel is set some time in the future after the life of Henry Ford. The very fact that this is how the year is determined shows the assembly line aspect of the culture—throughout the book, one is presented again and again with the concept of factory production and uniformity. Diversity and contradictions (other than what are specifically created, such as making people Alphas, Betas, etc) are not allowed, even in the population. The lack of individualism diminishes the value of human life. In the society Huxley has created, the good of the unvarying humanity overrides the worth of the unique person. This is a distinct example of how sameness removes significance. Because the people are all the same, they themselves do not matter.
This dystopian world revolves around sexual debauchery, strictly defined class systems, and the enjoyment of mindless pleasures. Conditioned from birth through a mixture of genetic altering and brainwashing, the citizens of this society do not question their circumstances nor do they seek alternatives to their given lifestyle. Instead, they are content with an apathetic complacency. There is no juxtaposition of good and bad because anything deemed ‘bad’ is ignored or removed.
A freely distributed drug...
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...able than diversity and originality. Does this create a utopia, or destroy any hope of one? The outcome of each of the stories provides the answer. Dichotomy creates substance, and substance is meaning. If every principle and idea lacks depth, if everything a society is built upon lacks significance, if every choice one makes is really no choice it all… then life itself ceases to matter.
Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1981.
Huxley, Aldous. Appendix. Brave New World. New York, NY: Perennial Classics, 1998.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York, NY: Perennial Classics, 1998.
Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-four, a Novel. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949.
Seed, David. “The Flight From the Good Life: Fahrenheit 451 in the Context of Postwar American Dystopias”. Journal of American Studies Vol. 28, No. 2 (1994): 227.
It is commonplace for individuals to envision a perfect world; a utopian reality in which the world is a paradise, with equality, happiness and ideal perfection. Unfortunately, we live in a dystopian society and our world today is far from perfection. John Savage, from Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, V, from V for Vendetta by James McTeigue and Offred, from The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Attwood, are all characters in a dystopian society. A dystopia is the vision of a society in which conditions of life are miserable and are characterized by oppression, corruption of government, and abridgement of human rights.
Often, dystopian novels are written by an author to convey a world that doesn’t exist, but criticizes aspects of the present that could lead to this future. Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in 1951 but discusses issues that have only increased over time. The encompassing issue that leads to the dystopic nature of this novel is censorship of books. The government creates a world in which it is illegal to have any books. Firemen are enforcers of this law by being the ones to burn the books and burn the buildings where the books were found. By censoring the knowledge found in books, the government attempts to rid the society of corruption caused by “the lies” books are filled with in hopes the people will never question. In Fahrenheit 451, censorship is a paradox.
Review of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 In Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, the author utilizes the
Fahrenheit 451’s relevance to today can be very detailed and prophetic when we take a deep look into our American society. Although we are not living in a communist setting with extreme war waging on, we have gained technologies similar to the ones Bradbury spoke of in Fahrenheit 451 and a stubborn civilization that holds an absence on the little things we should enjoy. Bradbury sees the future of America as a dystopia, yet we still hold problematic issues without the title of disaster, as it is well hidden under our Democracy today. Fahrenheit 451 is much like our world today which includes television, the loss of free speech, and the loss of the education and use of books.
...n American Literature. By Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 387-452. Print.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Roelofs, H. Mark. "George Orwell's Obscured Utopia." Religion and Literature 19.3 (Summer 1987): 11-33. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Kathy D. Darrow. Vol. 276. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 leads from an average beginning by introducing a new world for readers to become enveloped in, followed by the protagonist’s descent into not conforming to society’s rules, then the story spirals out of control and leaves readers speechless by the actions taken by the main character and the government of this society. This structure reinforces the author’s main point of how knowledge is a powerful entity that would force anyone to break censorship on a society.
Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction book that still reflects to our current world. Bradbury does a nice job predicting what the world would be like in the future; the future for his time period and for ours as well. The society Bradbury describes is, in many ways, like the one we are living in now.
Dystopia, a word that inflicts feelings of malcontent, fear, a place where abysmal conditions are the new normal, this genre describes a society where everything has and continues to go wrong. This genre has gripped the hearts of many readers and is compelling for people of all ages. The dystopian book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a thrilling book that introduces the reader to a world where the society tries to force everything to be perfect, and danger lurks around every twist and turn. The meaning of dystopia, the characteristics of the genre, and how it is presented in Fahrenheit 451, contributes to how one could understand the dystopian style of literature.
The Majority of people today believe that the society in Fahrenheit 451 is far-fetched and could never actually happen, little do they know that it is a reflection of the society we currently live in. In Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 books are burnt due to people's lack of interest in them and the fire is started by firemen. Social interactions is at an all time low and most time is spent in front of the television being brainwashed by advertisements. In an attempt to make us all aware of our faults, Bradbury imagines a society that is a parallel to the world we live in today by emphasizing the decline in literature, loss of ethics in advertisement, and negative effects of materialism.
The story is set hundreds of years in the future in a world with completely separate values and beliefs from those of today’s society. Birth has become an outdated and even disgusting thing. Instead of being born, humans are mass-produced through very elaborate cloning methods. Children are raised in a society that promotes both sexual promiscuity and drug use. They are brainwashed in their sleep to enjoy everything about their lives and to accept every aspect of society. Each person is predestined to fall under a specific social class that determines what they will do for a living, who they must take orders from, and even what they look like. Every aspect of every person’s life is manipulated, yet everyone feels free.
“American Crisis.” The American Tradition in Literature, 12th ed. New York: McGraw Hill 2009. Print
Heller, Joseph. The Chelsea House Library of Literary Criticism. Twentieth-Century American Literature Vol. 3. New York. Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.
however, differ considerably. The goal of Utopia is to illustrate the maintenance of an “ideal”