Fahrenheit 451 depicts a dystopian society created by its government. The main characters are Montag, Mildred, Clarisse, and Beatty. The people in the society don’t pay attention to meaningful activities. For example, when they are on the highway they have to make the billboards 200 feet long instead of 20 so the people could actually see them. Even when they live together they do not interact with one another. Every person has been censored by the government. The government has taken away all of the freedom from the people. The firemen now burn books and start fires instead of putting them out. Fahrenheit 451 emphasizes that a government's attempt to create a utopia can lead to dystopia because in the novel people are uneducated, careless …show more content…
If there is someone that is doing something they don't want them to do they will take them and kill them. Like Clarisse, she was killed by someone because she was asking too many questions and doing something that they didn't want her to do. She would ask questions that people have never heard before. Clarisse would stay up all night and witness what other people did not see ever, like the wet grass in the morning. Clarisse shows this by saying, “Bet I know something else you don’t. There’s dew on the grass in the morning. Montag suddenly couldn't remember if he had know this or not, and it made him quite irritable” (Bradbury 9). This quote shows how something that is so simple but no one ever talks about it or remembers that there has always been a dew on the grass. Clarisse does more than the other people do she asks question about everyday life. The government stops verona from reading book which is a big reason why the society is uneducated. The government says that the books provided false information and that they are pointless to them. Beauty show this when he says to Montag “I've had to read a few in my time, to know what i was about and the books say nothing.” (Bradbury 62). This is a very good reason of why the people are uneducated they believe that the books are not good and bad for them bub the government doesn't want the people to know the …show more content…
The people are careless and do not care if they die or not because they do not live well and do not like how they are living and feeling. Everyone is always trying to commit suicide and get out of the place where they live because they do like to live there. Just like Montag's wife she tried to commit suicide and the men had to come and get her back to life. The men that do the operation say to Montag “we get these calls 9 or 10 times a night.” (Bradbury 15). Montag had nothing to say after the men left the house he just sat down in a chair. The 2 men left and are going to another house to help a different person that overdosed. Montag was i shock and he did not know what to do. The next day mildred did not even know what happened she thought that they had had a party the night before and she was hungary. Montag did not tell her the truth but he just went along with what she said. Clarisse is talking to Montag about how the drivers are very careless. When they are talking this is how clarisse put it “I sometimes think drivers don’t know what grass is or flowers.”. This shows how the drivers are careless on what it is put side of them and what is going on on the outside of their car. Everyone on the highway will go 70 miles an hour and will not see anything. They improvise on what they think is outside and what they
In Fahrenheit 451, the residents were not happy in the society they were confined to. The government there made them believe they were happy because they had no sense of feelings and if they did they would have been killed, sent to the psychiatrist who would then prescribe them pills, and just thought of as a threat. The word “intellectual” was seen as a swear word, so from that you can see what type of society the people were living in. In general, the residents of Fahrenheit 451 were not happy at all and were the victims of media and entertainment.
Censorship was portrayed throughout of Fahrenheit 451 , from books to technology. The government had banned
",,Is it true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?,," (Bradbury 3). Clarisse is constantly wanting to learn the truth and make sure that the facts she has been given is correct. This is what makes her different from all of the other characters in the novel. Clarisse knows that reading and learning is breaking the law, but she does not care. She values an education and knows knowledge is key. Because of this, Clarisse is seen as a misfit delinquent. Not many people understand her, but towards the end of the story, Montag
Clarisse is a young 17 year old girl that has emotions, ambitions, and creativity because of the knowledge that comes from old traditions. “I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane.” ( Bradbury ) page 7. Clarisse is the only character to successfully exhibit all of these traits because she always talks to her grandfather that tells stories from the past. She can show emotion by always smiling when Montag encounters her. She also has the ambition of just trying to be accepted in society and trying to get through her treatments. Her creativity comes in two forms. The way she asks questions and the way she expresses her feelings towards simplistic objects such as flowers or even rain. Montag found his ambition to seek out the secrets of his society by receiving insight from Clarisse’s perspective of life. “Are you happy?” ( Bradbury ) page 10. With this one question Montag finally took the time to think if he was really happy. From there he continued to ask more questions which all turns into the events of the book. To recreate people who can feel, think and imagine knowledge must be actively present to create a unique individual.Bradbury asserts that man must retain knowledge in order to think
At what point can a society be described as dystopian? Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, tells the story of a man named Guy Montag who lives in a dystopian society where life isn’t as great as the government makes it out to be. Our society is slowly becoming more and more similar to the dystopian society found in Fahrenheit 451 in the fact that many families aren’t as stable as most might desire them to be, the government mostly ignores the country’s ideals and only focuses on its own for the sake of its own benefit, and many of society’s ideas are being disrespected or noted as activities that people shouldn’t be allowed to indulge in while in this country through censorship.
Clarisse shares with Montag that her entire family was almost killed by the government for knowing too much. The government said we were a threat to society and needed to be eliminated. Clarisse’s Uncle was very educated and knew the things they had to do in order to live. They then escaped in the night, but the government did not seem to care. The government then tried to cover it up by saying that she got hit by a car. Clarisse’s family then made it to the same intellects that Montag had been with, and they directed them to the city. Their family then reached the city, where Montag is now. They realized that books were allowed and accepted in that society, and have been living there for the ever since. About three hours go by of Clarisse pouring her brain out to Montag, and finally they look around and see that it is nighttime. The two of them gaze at the stars and let out a small
The theme of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 can be viewed from several different angles. First and foremost, Bradbury's novel gives an anti-censorship message. Bradbury understood censorship to be a natural outcropping of an overly tolerant society. Once one group objects to something someone has written, that book is modified and censorship begins. Soon, another minority group objects to something else in the book, and it is again edited until eventually the book is banned altogether. In Bradbury's novel, society has evolved to such an extreme that all literature is illegal to possess. No longer can books be read, not only because they might offend someone, but because books raise questions that often lead to revolutions and even anarchy. The intellectual thinking that arises from reading books can often be dangerous, and the government doesn't want to put up with this danger. Yet this philosophy, according to Bradbury, completely ignores the benefits of knowledge. Yes, knowledge can cause disharmony, but in many ways, knowledge of the past, which is recorded in books, can prevent man from making similar mistakes in the present and future.
Fahrenheit 451 is about the United States turned narcissistic. The government has eliminated all things that will or could cause thinking. They think by doing this people will be happy. Honestly they are even more miserable without books or good movies then they are with those things. They are controlling all thoughts, anyone with hidden books is arrested and all books are burned they are destroying all history by doing this. If people cannot be happy for what they have and they always think negatively then that is their problem it should not be reason enough to take every thought away from everyone or even the choices. Nobody should have wall sized televisions in their house that is ridiculous and unnecessary. Characters in Fahrenheit
As we get start to close in on identifying Montag’s individuality, he lets it all out when he talks to Beatty. Montag started to defend Clarisse from Beatty and said, “She saw everything. She didn’t do anything to anyone. She just let them alone” (Bradbury 108). This being said from Montag, it emphasizes that Clarisse was being herself, an individual who only wanted to see the world different without harm. Other people saw her as a threat
When Beatty explains to Montag why books are being burned, he describes the method used when teaching students: “Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information...And they’ll be happy” (Bradbury 58). Later, on the train, an advertisement blares, “Denham’s Dentifrice” while Montag struggles to read “the shape of the individual letters” (Bradbury 75). Montag’s society is convinced that education means mindlessly memorizing facts. However, a large amount of information and facts is not a proper substitute for deep, critical thought. When information is just given and not analyzed, it prevents questioning why facts are true and inhibits the development of basic thinking skills, such as when Montag struggles to understand the book he is reading. Additionally, with so much information and entertainment circulated in Montag’s society, significant ideas that promote questioning and changing life cannot be developed. Without thoughts that allow people to question their ways and change themselves, people believe they are perfect, cannot realize their faults, and are unable to change the way they are. When Montag consults Faber for some insight on books, Faber states that books have been abandoned because “they show the pores in the face of life” and, because of this, their society is “living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam” (Bradbury 79). Instead of taking the time to think and develop thoughts, the citizens of Montag’s city take the easy way in life, by avoiding any deep thought and personal opinion altogether. It is much easier for the citizens to enjoy mindless entertainment than to think about the issues in the world and their solutions. However, this can create problems within
Fahrenheit 451’s Relevance to Today 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 of 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. Patai explains that Bradbury saw that people would soon be controlled by the television and saw it as the creators chance to “replace lived experience” (Patai 2).
The book Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury illustrates a dystopia of what Bradbury believes might eventually happen to society. This is extensively referenced to in Captain Beatty’s monologue lecture to Guy Montag explaining how Bradbury’s dystopia came to be, and why books are no longer necessary to that society and therefore were completely removed and made illegal. Ray Bradbury’s main fears in the evolution of society can be broken down into three ideas; loss of individuality, overuse of technology, and the quickening of daily life. If society goes on as it is, Bradbury is afraid that media will be more brief, people will become less individual, life will be more fast paced, minorities will have too much voice, and technology will become unnaturally prominent everyday life.
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.
Some characters like Montag did not succumb to the ignorance of society. Unlike Mildred characters like Montag believed in the power books and knowledge. Montag was once like Mildred until he met Clarisse; his neighbor. Clarisse was different from anyone Montag had ever met. She made him question his career, his happiness and even his marriage. After talking to Clarisse, Montag realizes he’s been ignorant for his whole life and begins a dangerous search for knowledge. After eventually stealing a book and reading it Montag realized that knowledge is really important. Books symbol knowledge because they provide their readers with information they did not know prior to opening the book. Montag no longer believed that ignorance was bliss “”. Through Montag’s fight for knowledge Bradbury is able to help the readers to understand that people are afraid of knowledge because they fear making mistakes. “You’re afraid of making mistakes. Don’t be. Mistakes can be profited by” says Faber (Bradbury 104). Knowledge is gained from experience. The best and worst sides of Montag were revealed during his journey because he made mistakes and learned from them. At the end of the novel Montag like readers comes to the realization that knowledge and experiences is the true meaning of life.
People not being able to have books, having to be equal is not fair humans need their differences and alikes it causes us to have our mistakes which make us better than others. Ray Bradbury wrote a story about a dystopian society called Fahrenheit 451. It's about a man named guy he is a fireman that instead of putting out fires they are the ones who start them but only if you have books which are forbidden. Guy revolts and hides books in his house and tries to not let anyone notice until his chief notices. Guy kills him to escape and runs far away to save the books. In this dystopian society people are forbidden to have books from the past that tell what the past was like which the government controls.