Dystopia

Dystopia is a big question in people’s minds in this day and age where there are people everywhere that think that an apocalypse or the failure of governments are right around the corner which will end up destroying society. Something that most people do not think of when it comes to dystopia, however is how society will continue after the events that create the start of the dystopia. Two novels that both discuss the subject of dystopia can show examples of how the world may or may not be run. “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury and “1984” by George Orwell both take place in dystopian societies that have things that are similar as well as different within the worlds themselves. These two novels also show their author’s fear of the unclear future and each deliver political statements that can hold true even still today.

One of the things that both novels have in common is that many people feel isolated. This is shown through the protagonist of each novel. In “1984”, the protagonist, Winston, feels like does not quite fit in with the rest of his society. He is very lonely most of the time and doesn’t have any friends for a larger portion of the novel. People are constantly around other people but they will not talk to others because they feel too scared that Big Brother the all-seeing leader of the Inner Party in “1984” will hear them and arrest them for trying to rebel against the Inner Party. For this reason everyone mostly avoids each other. Guy Montag, the protagonist “Fahrenheit 451” also fits the theme of isolation. Montag is a fireman, but instead of putting out fires, he starts fires in the homes of people that have books. Montag is unsure of many things in his world and is questioning his society; which other firemen believe ...

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...unny. Also in “Fahrenheit 451” people are desensitized to violence and death. Teens kill each other all the time, and whether it is accidentally or on purpose people do not seem to care. Montag almost gets run over by a car full of reckless kids who seemed to be aiming for him and they almost came back and tried to hit him again when they missed. People in the society do not care for one another. Mildred’s (Montag’s wife) friends come over and one of them says that if their husband died she wouldn’t really care she would just move on with her life and remarry. People barely ever talk to each other because they are too busy watching television and they are so wrapped up in it they call the people on the televisions their family, because they spend more time with them than their family. This is actually quite similar to many of the people from American society today.