Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury

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As social creatures, humans feed off the fruits of community and intellectual growth. Humans create and thrive under companionship and knowledge. However, humanity begins to sour in the wake of alienation, bringing out the worst in society. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury explores the theme of alienation through the loss of social interaction and information, signifying the importance of community and reliable information sources. Throughout Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury toys with the theme of alienation through his characters and their rare social interactions. Bradbury gives the reader a bite of this society's fruit within Montag’s early conversations with Clarisse. “I like to watch people”, Clarisse confesses, “I just want to figure out who …show more content…

In this society, knowledge is scarce and humans continue to live in unawareness because of it. “How are you supposed to root for the home team when you don’t even have a program or know the names?” Clarisse's uncle questions (Bradbury 15). The uncle’s question introduces the idea of alienation from society as a whole due to lack of general information about it; these citizens devour the decay that is shoved into their mouths without question as they don’t have any resources to pose questions. Further into the novel, Montag has a conversation with Beatty that fully opens his eyes to the nature of the society. Beatty tells him, “If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one.” (Bradbury 58). This reveals the reason for the destruction of information sources as the society wants to consolidate power and sprout social alienation, eliminating individuality and political awareness. Although society has put all its might into destroying information sources, some survive to be slashed and burned as Montag and his squad are called to burn down a house full of hidden books. The owner of the house makes a final stand against the firemen, “you can’t ever have my books”, she states as she prepares to burn the house (Bradbury 35). The firemen let the hope, information and life of the woman burn, parading the idea of social alienation as the firemen no longer care about this woman’s life because she has been harboring illegal information. This lack of information throughout the novel leads to the decomposition of the society and highlights the aspects that make Bradbury’s dystopian world so terrifying as morals and logic begin to

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