Fahrenheit 451 Meme Analysis Essay

(MIP)The main idea of this meme is to convey the strong message proving that citizens in F451’s society are far from human. They are like mindless robots who want materialistic things and the only thing close to feelings is about themselves and no one else. (SIP1) This meme symbolizes how people in F451’s society live their lives mindlessly with no emotion, a materialistic behavior and that they act like machines. This image visually shows this and symbolizes this in many ways. (STEWE1) The central figure shows an emotionless individual with skin that is cut to reveal a mechanical robot like face underneath, this represents the non human like behavior of people in this society. Mrs. Phelps, one of F451’s citizens exhibits this as she explains

“Anyway, Pete and I always said, no tears, nothing like that. It's our third marriage each and we’re independent. Be independent, we always said. He said, if I get killed off, you just go right ahead and don't cry, but get married again, and don't think of me” (Bradbury, 91).

Mrs Phelps shows some insight to the normal lives of people in that society, they are emotionless toward one another. (STEWE2) Beside the figure, near the border of the meme there are objects like earbuds, a tv and a phone. This represents the materialistic behavior of the citizens in this book’s society. There is many instances of this when Mildred was depicted to only care for seashells (earbuds that play music), Mildred, "...her eyes fixed to the ceiling by invisible threads of steel, immovable. And in her ears the little seashells...coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind" (Bradbury,10). Mildred is like a robot, she is using her seashells which she uses all the time throughout the book because they provide her with enjoyment. (SIP2) In the book there are many details that support this meme about how F451’s citizens care only about themselves follow society's commands like

sleepwalking. (STEWE1) Montag witnesses a conversation between Mrs.

Bowles and Mrs. Phelps, Mrs. Phelps reveals how Mrs. Bowels also acts like a mechanical emotionless being that only cares about herself not her family, “I put up with them when they come home three days a month; it's not bad at all. You heave them into the ‘parlor’ and turn the switch. It's like washing clothes; stuff laundry in and slam the lid. Mrs Bowles tittered. They’d just as soon kick as kiss me. Thank God, I can kick back” (Bradbury,93). This is far from a human thing to say, people usually love their kids and not refer to them as “laundry”, it just shows how far they are from being human like. (STEWE2) There are even time when people have done things without thinking and with no emotion, they just follow orders, literally. When Montag is fleeing the city to get to the river and when he is getting close to the river he listens to the broadcast on tv which reports on how to help police find the fugitive (him). The broadcast in a dictating way orders people to look out of their houses to see if they spot him “At the count of ten now! One! Two! He felt the city rise. Three! He felt the city turn its thousands of doors. Four! The people sleepwalking in their

hallways. Five! He felt their hands on the doorknobs! … Ten! The doors opened. He imagined thousands of faces peering into yards, into alleys, and into the sky, faces hidden by curtains, pale, night-frightened faces, like gray animals peering from electric caves, faces with gray colorless eyes, gray tongues and thoughts looking out through the numb flesh of the face” (Bradbury,132). The citizens who fulfill this action are described as lifeless and like they've done this process before electronically. Their houses are even described as electronic caves because all they care about is materialism and technology. (CS) This meme’s goal was to symbolize the non human behavior exhibited by the citizens in F451’s society and the fact that they really only care about inanimate things in life.