The Pedestrian And Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury once said: “Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.” In his works “The Pedestrian” and Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s ideas of the possible future come to life in dangerous ways. Another author, Kurt Vonnegut, in his work “The Big Trip Up Yonder”, also shows a possible future of society. The common ground of these stories is that the issues stem from technology. In science fiction novels there is generally a broken world that contains an

underlying warning for humanity. In the three texts “The Pedestrian”, Fahrenheit 451, and “The Big Trip Up Yonder”, the themes contain a warning for humans: be careful about how one uses technology, because the abuse of it can cause society’s demise through the addiction and brainwashing of humanity, ultimately dehumanizing society.
In “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury, technology makes life boring and lonely for the people by sucking most of them into screens, creating submissive creatures.

These actions cause society to be torn apart. This reinforces the idea that the misuse of technology can harm society through addiction and submission. In the story, an example of the extent of addiction is shown by the images that the narrator paints into the reader’s mind as Leonard Mead walks by seemingly empty houses: “And on his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows” (Bradbury 1). This quote shows the reader how dismal and seemingly-dead the town is. Since it is only 8PM when this scene takes place, the reader can make the connection that humanity’s addiction to technology is what lead them down this path. This shows how technology is dangerous to society in the way that humans become couch potatoes with a serious addiction to clicking through channels. However, there is another side to the human addiction to society: the people who haven’t gotten a taste of technology yet. These people are not immune to technology either, they can still fall under its influence: ‘“Where are you taking me?” The car hesitated for a second, or rather gave a faint whirring click, as if information, somewhere, was dropping card by punch-slotted card under electric

eyes. “To the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.” He got in’ (Bradbury 2). This quote from the text allows the reader to come to the conclusion that in this society, nobody is safe from becoming addicted to technology, and everyone falls victim to it in the end. After years of rebelling and avoiding technology, Mr. Mead reached his breaking point. Overall, the story “The Pedestrian” shows how dangerous a misuse of technology can be, causing an addiction.
In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, technology leads the people into a dark age of all technology and no books. In this futile quest for happiness, the people believe that destroying books is the answer to a successful society, however, it just leads them into an age of ignorance which is shown through the people’s words and actions. In this society, people believe that they are happy, when they are simply only shells of happiness. Montag realizes that his life is not as cheerful as he thought after talking to Clarisse: “He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask” (Bradbury 5). This quote allows the reader to see how unaware until now Montag was that his happiness was a facade. This brings one to the conclusion that society has become blind to even their own emotions. People’s emotions aren’t even their own anymore. This shows how dangerous technology can be to a society by limiting knowledge and even insight about themselves, and compromising happiness. Another example of technology being misused is in the case of people not remembering events or even sad feelings. This is shown the morning after Mildred overdosed on sleeping pills, but is so wrapped up in technology that she doesn’t even remember: “His wife in the TV parlour paused long enough from reading her script to glance up. “Hey,” she said. “The man’s THINKING!” “Yes,” he said. “I wanted to talk to you.” He paused. “You took all the pills in your bottle last night.” “Oh, I wouldn’t do that, she said, surprised” (Bradbury 8). From this quote the reader can infer that the people of this society are so wrapped up in technology they barely take time to live their lives the way they want to. The people are completely clueless to what they did or are doing in life, making it pointless to live at all. The people cannot learn and therefore will never evolve.
In “The Big Trip Up Yonder” by Kurt Vonnegut, technology defies nature in the way that it makes humans live forever.

When humans use technology in this way, they endanger their society. In society’s new, twisted form, the people devalue their family since technology allows them to live forever, and families live smooshed together in the same houses. In the story, the family only cares about gaining space and money for themselves, and not family. This is shown by the family member who is the new favorite, Morty, trying to murder the guy who wrote him into the will, Gramps: “Morty kicked the door shut, but not before Lou had glimpsed what was in his hand - Gramp’s economy-size bottle of anti gerasone, which had apparently been half-emptied, and which Morty was filling with tap water” (Vonnegut 4). The reader sees through this quote that the family doesn’t care about being a family at all, thanks to the technology causing them to live forever. This makes family mean nothing to the people. Family only seems to mean something when the people don’t know how long they have left, reinforcing the theme that technology makes people devalue their family. Another quote that reinforces the theme is one where Gramps gets his family arrested to have the house to himself: “He had called a cleaning woman to come straighten the place up, then had hired the best lawyer in town to get his descendants a conviction, a genius who had never gotten a client less than a year and a day” (Vonnegut 9).

This shows just how much the society desires space and alone time over good family relations. Family means nothing in this world. In this story, the message is how society needs to be careful where technology takes them, for the price to pay could be a piece of humanity itself.
All in all, the three stories “The Pedestrian”, Fahrenheit 451, and “The Big Trip Up Yonder” contain a warning for all humans: beware of technology. These texts show that every good idea can have a bad side as well, and one must be aware of the negative possibilities to ensure success with these technologies. In the end, the stories show that the final decision is left to the humans which way they decide to survive.