The Illusion Of Happiness In Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'

The Illusion of Happiness

In today’s modern life, tv, videogames, and social media seem to have taken over people 's day to day lives. Nowadays it is getting harder to tell what really is real. We have created portals to new worlds, such as Facebook or Twitter, where one can create a new being, a new person. The problem that Ray Bradbury addresses in his novel“Fahrenheit 451” has to do with the product of humans being able to access and progress in these new, fake worlds and forgetting about their progress in real world. In “Fahrenheit 451”, Ray Bradbury creates a world in which happiness is associated with distractions, arguing that true satisfaction, however, cannot be obtained from such illusions.

A distraction is anything that takes

After reading the tale of Montag and his plight to find the truth, we were given the choice of several themes and/or characters to write about. I chose to respond the question “Are we truly happy? Is happiness just a distraction?”. Besides the book itself, there were a few other resources given to us for this task. In the very beginning of the unit, we learned a little about Bradbury’s life and the factors that influenced his novel. We were also provided examples of previous essays written by other seniors. However, with there being so many themes and characters to write about, it made each student essay unique and generally separate from the others. The topic of happiness had been just one of the many options presented to the class. I chose it because it was the one I felt most passionate about. Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451”, as do all great novels, draws its content from real world influences. Therefore, when analyzing his work, though it may be fiction, one still gains valuable insight towards many of life 's greatest struggles. Books can harbor great lessons, one just needs to know how to extract them. Ironically, this message is the main theme of “Fahrenheit

However, when it came time to write the essay, I was confronted with my old enemy, writing. Writing and I have a history, I have never enjoyed being in the presence of writing, due to its both mentally and physically taxing requirements. Despite our deeply rooted feud, there are times where I cannot simply dismiss writing, and generally with help such as guided activities, exemplars, and therapy; Writing and I can put aside our differences for a brief moment of time. One example of this is in my argument, In the beginning sentence I feel that I was able to reach what was expected of me by created a strong counter argument and quickly proving it wrong: “Some might argue that if an individual has grown fond of an illusion, then why wake them from that joy? Now, that is a fair point, but as we see in the book, if they wake up, they realize how unhappy they truly are.” As I face more and more of these assignments where I am forced to implement writing, I grow more accustomed to the process. Writing might not be my ideal major, but I understand its importance. While I dread typing a 5 page essays, I know they are coming. Better I struggle know and learn than struggle later and