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Fahrenheit 451 analysis essay
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Fahrenheit 451 analysis and essays
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The Tyranny Of The Majority As Seen In the Novel Fahrenheit 451
“Majority rule only works if you’re also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper.” Larry Flynt. Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451 takes place in a dystopian future, in which to maintain “happiness” individuality has been removed. Books are burned, schools remove thought and create button-pushers. The citizens remain oblivious to the outside world’s suffering even as enemy bombs descend upon them. Fahrenheit 451 foretells a possible future in which the majority, like wolves, have consumed the intellectual and independent thought.
The rapid descent towards this future followed patterns not unlike occurring in the world today. In the book the world was roomy, but as populations grew and technology advanced the world became filled with eyes, elbows and mouths. (pg 51)
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The goal became to keep everyone happy and complacent. Thus politics, television, the news, everything just boiled down to the gag and the snap ending, lacking substance.( pg 52) New and old sharp thoughts had to be dulled and eventually thrown out completely. Momentary pleasure becomes man's only concern so life becomes one big pratfall, everything bang, boff, and wow!-- meaninglessness.( pg 53). The cost of this universal pleasure, however was it’s own quality, becoming nothing more than plotless cartoons and sleeping
My breath was heavy as I was sprinting from them. I could hear them on my tail. But the only this that was racing through my mind was “I have the book.”
The novels Night and Fahrenheit 451 both carry messages about how society can be corrupted or destroyed. In the novel Night, the Jews do not listen to warnings about the incoming Germans, and most of them die in the Holocaust as a result, while in Fahrenheit 451, the citizens of that society have blind trust in authority and ignorance which eventually, at the end of the book, leads to the destruction of the society. Even though both books are written about different topics and of different times, they both share common messages about how to avoid the corruption and eventual destruction of a society.
Lani Guinier, in her essay titled “Tyranny of the Majority” (1944), justifies her political ideas and explains that as a result of these ideas, she has explored decisionmaking rules that prevent The Majority from “exercise[ing] power unfairly or tyrannically.” She supports her justification by incorporating childlike anecdotal stories, quoting loved American patriots, and creating conceptual analogies. Guinier’s purpose is to convince her opponents, as well as Americans with moderate political orientations, that her views and ideas aren’t too radical, in order to convince them that in order to make America a “true democracy,” they must consider her methods and strategies for desegregating The Majority. She adopts a patriotic, idealistic tone
In the book Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the main character, Guy Montag, lives in a city where there is no knowledge, emotions, nor anything else. The citizens of this city also have to live their lives be watched by machines. All these rules setup by the government are in place in order to keep citizens from overthrowing the government. They, the government, keep these rules so that the government can manipulate and corrupt citizens, overall making a corrupt city.
Is too much technology taking over our brains to the point where knowledge is not given any place? Ray Bradbury author of Fahrenheit 451 gives a great example of censorship in their society. To summarize Montag is a middle aged fireman who is portrayed as a man who is forced to follow the orders of the government by burning books. First, the society experiences rejection towards books because the government has made them illegal. Then the lack of books affects education because people cannot make decisions for themselves. Lastly, the absence of books in the society has affected humanity because the citizens are suffering depression. Ray Bradbury’s
United States Justice, Potter Stewart once said “Censorship reflects on a society’s confidence in itself” Ray Bradbury used this concept when building the story Fahrenheit 451. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury addresses the subject of censorship, suggesting that the major problem in society is self censorship. Ray Bradbury brings us one specific type of censorship, rather than censorship from ruling authority, he uses self censorship. This censorship is the cause of the many smaller problems in this society. In Fahrenheit 451 the citizens are censored from many things.
When comparing the masterpieces of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 the astute reader is immediately able to see a minimum of two recurring themes in both of them. “Orwell had produced an imaginative treatise of totalitarianism, cutting across all ideologies, warning of the threat to humanity should any government, of whatever political complexion, assume absolute power” (Nineteen Eighty-Four 12). Meanwhile Bradbury described the horrors of a society that became a totalitarian regime through the Firemen who attempted to control the ability of thought. Both of these structures depended on limiting the thought of the citizens either through Newspeak in which the undesirable thoughts could not be expressed or by destroying access to all previous insight forcing people to rely only on their own insights while at the same time discouraging them from having any. Captain Beatty tells Montag of society’s ideal, “We must all be alike. Not everyone is born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal” (Bradbury 58). Bradbury guarded against the burning of the collective knowledge of man by pointing out the reasoning through Beatty, “With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word ‘intellectual,’ of course, became the swear word it deserved to be. You always dread the unfamiliar.... Breach man’s mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?” (58).
Visualize a future where all books are forbidden, banned and censored in an effort to keep the human race from thinking for themselves. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 forces us to envision a futuristic lifestyle where the government forbids its people from reading or taking part on individual or independent thinking. A world where feelings are shunned, family engagement is non-existent, war is common and ignorance is truly
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 showed us a world in which people found it acceptable, even preferable, to remain ignorant about the state of their world and face the darker aspects of their own humanity. Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale envisioned a theocratic government named Gilead that induced women into the servitude of military commanders for the purpose of procreation. In both of these bleak contemplations of the future, people are discouraged from and harshly punished for expressing any sort of dissent. Perspectives that do not align with the status quo are discouraged, perhaps even feared, and consequently censored. These authors' purpose was perhaps not to foretell a future, but to examine parts of society that necessitated examination in order to raise awareness. In both of these novels, any such questioning or dissent is unacceptable, as Atwood's protagonist Offred explains that “thinking can hurt your chances, and I intend to last” (Atwood 8). However, Ray Bradbury's city was razed due to its citizens' apathy and lack of attentiveness. Bradbury's choice of expression even faced hardship in the real world, for he himself “had experienced many pressures to alter his work so as to make it more acceptable to this or that group” (Patai 1). These thoughtful pieces of literature have provoked discussion on the ability to speak and express freely, and ironically, have themselves faced bouts of criticism and censorship. These are freedoms that Diane Wood reminds us “must be vigilantly guarded in order to be maintained” (Wood 4). As Americans, the evolution of our society has depended on those very freedoms. Through examination of these two novels, we will see how the stifling of the fundamental freedoms of discourse and ind...
Control feels good, people say, “take control of your life … control who is in your life … control your day … seize your day … carpe diem … control, control, control!” In today’s age of technology, we have many ways to control what we do, but is all of this perceived control giving us a false sense of control? Is the illusion that everything is fine just a facade strengthened by the desires of more impatient, feel good, pleasure-seeking society? This is the reality of a dystopian America in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Things like virtual families and the decline and outlaw of books in the active search for quick and fast gratification. This gives most people in that society the
When animals overthrew the men, the governance of whom had long been oppressing them, they finally broke the chains of perpetual slavery. They no longer had to work extremely hard in the excruciating conditions solely for the benefits of cruel and greedy men, but for the benefits of themselves. They attained the freedom they were desperately striving for. The times of abuse and maltreatment came to its end. In these new hope-inspiring conditions the animals set up to establish the farm in which there would be no injustice and suffering, but it would be the place where everybody is equal and happy. They knew that establishing such farm would be extremely difficult, nevertheless the thoughts of giving in never crossed their minds. They gradually, step by step started to overcome all the obstacles and hardships on their way to prosperity. Those hardships made clear that the pigs were the most appropriate for a position of a leader. Indeed, the pigs were most intelligent, it was them who were guiding the animals and giving effective advises in farming. Undoubtedly, had it not been for them, the animals would have starved to death not being able to solve the problems regarding ploughing and harvesting. Under their governance the farm was thriving, there were no quarrels and arguments, every animal was happy and contented with their lives. Unfortunately, it did not last for long, the society which was supposed to be just, and where everybody is equal, transformed into the tyrannical society, where everybody lived under strong oppression and in total misery. The reasons why this transformation happened are manifold. This paper will show the main reasons of this.
Millions of people around the world have been questioning the statement, “Which is better, the individual or the society?” Many people debate this question today and even well known authors who have written novels and short stories about this topic. Many of these authors have proven their beliefs by warning their readers what the world could become if society is not controlled properly. In other words, if people rely on technology and equality too much in the future, then society will face multiple consequences that will affect many people’s lives. Another question that frequently appears is, “Why is fear of government pressure control such a huge problem with many sci-fi societies in books, movies and short stories?” The authors Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, and Kurt Wimmer all portray societies where original ideas and freedoms are suppressed because they believed that society could eventually take control of individuals’ freedom and rights to life through technology and equality.
Because of the censorship, the government prevents its citizens from reflecting on their own desires. The person who rules the society distinguishes the remaining population as inferior than himself. For instance, in Divergent and The Hunger Games, these pieces contain the idea of having a central city of which controls the other subordinate cities. In The Hunger Games, only the capitol has control over all the other twelve remote districts. For these twelve districts, the government arranges a set of rules for them to participate in the annual hunger games. By allowing these districts to partake in these games, the government takes advantage of this idea as it is their form of entertainment. Another negative component is that the government does not value the individual’s lives as they do not sympathize with anyone outside of their capitol. A person’s passing did not matter to them. Furthermore, a totalitarian government can be seen by the people in Do Androids dream of electric sheep? as well as the people in the book Fahrenheit 451. Those under the totalitarian government were prohibited from thinking on their own. In Fahrenheit 451, the firefighters were the ones to start the fire, to burn the books; this is an example of censorship. In Fahrenheit 451, books are prohibited if the books are found in the house. The firefighter’s mission is to burn the books to ashes because the books contain so much knowledge, which leads people to question and to think. Therefore, it would be difficult for the government to control their society if its citizens are well-knowledged. The government would have a hard time to persuade everyone in acting the way they want them to act. People would be able to think for themselves and do what they want and reason through. The curiosity and hunger for more
The majority and the minority bring forth change in policy in a democratic society. Majority rule means that, if there were an over whelming amount of support on a issue their voices would be heard by the government. Our government is run on a majority rule. People in our society elect officials and put their faiths in them to make their choices.
Governments should be afraid of their people.”3( Quoted by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta) .In contrasts to the definition of authoritarianism, power is no longer in the hands of one ruler; but it now rests in the hands of the citizens of the state. According to Robert Dahl; “democratic theory is concerned with processes by which ordinary citizens exert a relatively high degree of control over leaders;”4 ( Quoted by Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory, expanded edition). Dahl expressed that citizens are a definite factor for this political system to further define the system of democracy in a state. In one of Dahl’s work; “On Democracy”, he made a criteria on how Democracy works. In this criterion he expressed that this system does not give you what you want but gives you the chance to fight for what you want. The citizens are highly active in this system, because they get to address the needs of the community as a whole and not as individuals, and if it represents the majority, then the leader will grant this request for the citizens. The beauty of this system is that it represents all types of non-violent movements without absolute freedom. It even highlights the term “Public Servants” to the state. It bonds the representatives and constituents. When it comes to weighing in the cons, I believe that the only downfall for this system is that, because it is somewhat transparent, citizens can figure out the leader’s next move and they can easily take advantage of this. With that being said, people might think they have absolute freedom, and instead of asking for what they need, they might just start asking for what they