Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley are very different stories, however they have many common themes. In both novels, readers will learn that complete happiness and truth can not coexist with each other. We can also grasp the importance of freedom and individuality by observing two societies in which have none at all. Things like love and compassion, which are normal qualities of human nature, cease to exist in either of these worlds. Although these two novels are quite different in many aspects, their common themes deliver many of the same messages about dystopian culture.
Both novels prove that happiness and truth can’t always belong together. “‘It isn't only art that's incompatible with happiness; it's also
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science. Science is dangerous; we have to keep it most carefully chained and muzzled”’ (Huxley 225). Mustapha Mond explains that science tells a truth. In certain cases, however, this truth may be horrifying for the people of the world state. Instead of being informative about it and allowing people to explore science, Mond claims that the best thing to do is to limit what the people know and cover up what they might not want to know. The exact same thing is done by people of authority in Fahrenheit 451. “‘Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book”’ (Bradbury 59). Again, the scary truth is trying to be covered up just so there can be temporary satisfaction. Neither worlds allow people to express individuality nor freedom, and that isn’t what a good society looks like.
‘“Yes, 'Everybody's happy nowadays.' We begin giving the children that at five. But wouldn't you like to be free to be happy in some other way, Lenina? In your own way, for example; not in everybody else's way”’ (Huxley 91). People in the World State are put in one of several different classes, and are designed to perform only certain duties, but beyond that, they have little to no control over what they do with their life. In Fahrenheit 451, people are targeted even if they have so much as a book. There is no freedom to do anything that doesn’t go along with society. In certain countries of the modern world, especially the United States, citizens have what seems to be an unlimited amount of freedom, and both of these novels can deepen the understanding of readers and teach them the significance of being …show more content…
free. Love and compassion are basically nonexistent in both stories.
When Montag is talking to Mildred and her friends, Mrs. Phelps says that she’s on her third marriage, but she and her husband are very independent. He tells her that if he dies, she shouldn’t cry, but should just go get another husband (Bradbury 95). This obviously isn’t a typical loving relationship. In Brave New World, John and Lenina want to be together, but for very different reasons. John wants a long lasting relationship, but Lenina wants a short, meaningless one. Everybody in this society, however, is just like Lenina. People may think that they’re better off because they have nothing to lose, but they don’t know what they’re missing out on. They aren’t aware of what a real family is like, and are actually quite alone in life. This message is portrayed by both authors and is done very similarly, and
effectively. Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World obviously have quite different story lines. One of them depicts a world where people are forced to live a restricted life, and the other one engineers people to play a specific role in society as if they’re robots. Huxley and Bradbury point out the obvious flaws of each world, and by looking deep into the texts, many common themes can be pulled out and observed.
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 leads from an average beginning by introducing a new world for readers to become enveloped in, followed by the protagonist’s descent into not conforming to society’s rules, then the story spirals out of control and leaves readers speechless by the actions taken by the main character and the government of this society. This structure reinforces the author’s main point of how knowledge is a powerful entity that would force anyone to break censorship on a society.
In Fahrenheit 451, the government exercised censorship supposedly for the purpose of happiness. Through technology and media, the government was able to eliminate individuality by manipulating the mind of the people into believing the propaganda of what happiness is. The people’s ignorance made them obediently abide that they failed to realize how far technology and the media have taken control of their minds. The free thought of characters such as Montag and Clarisse collided with that of Captain Beatty, who strongly believe in and enforce the censorship, and the firemen, whose role was to burn illegal books; these clashes were Bradbury’s way
Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction book that still reflects to our current world. Bradbury does a nice job predicting what the world would be like in the future; the future for his time period and for ours as well. The society Bradbury describes is, in many ways, like the one we are living in now.
Imagine living in a world where everything everyone is the same. How would you feel if you were not able to know important matters? Being distracted with technology in order to not feel fear or getting upset. Just like in this society, the real world, where people have their faces glued to their screen. Also the children in this generation, they are mostly using video games, tablets, and phones instead of going outside and being creative with one another. Well in Fahrenheit 451 their society was just like that, dull and conformity all around. But yet the people believed they were “happy” the way things were, just watching TV, not thinking outside the box.
Today we have several dystopian novels out, such as; Divergent and The Hunger Games. While we know all the different societies we still have trouble trying to decide which one we believe the most, which one is the most realistic. There is older novels that most people really haven’t even heard of, like Fahrenheit 451. In Divergent and Fahrenheit 451 we were showed both authors visions of our future and how it compares to our modern day. There are so many ways that these two novels are alike, through characters, authors, and the time difference, but I believe that Fahrenheit 451 is a better overall view of our world today.
“Revealing the truth is like lighting a match. It can bring light or it can set your world on fire” (Sydney Rogers). In other words revealing the truth hurts and it can either solve things or it can make them much worse. This quote relates to Fahrenheit 451 because Montag was hiding a huge book stash, and once he revealed it to his wife, Mildred everything went downhill. Our relationships are complete opposites. There are many differences between Fahrenheit 451 and our society, they just have a different way of seeing life.
Fahrenheit 451 is about the United States turned narcissistic. The government has eliminated all things that will or could cause thinking. They think by doing this people will be happy. Honestly they are even more miserable without books or good movies then they are with those things. They are controlling all thoughts, anyone with hidden books is arrested and all books are burned they are destroying all history by doing this. If people cannot be happy for what they have and they always think negatively then that is their problem it should not be reason enough to take every thought away from everyone or even the choices. Nobody should have wall sized televisions in their house that is ridiculous and unnecessary. Characters in Fahrenheit
The theme of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 can be seen from several different viewpoints. Bradbury's novel primarily gives an anti-censorship message. Bradbury understood censorship to be a natural projection of an extremely tolerant society. The society envisioned by Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 is often compared to Huxley's Brave New World, according to the researchers at novelguide.com. Though both works certainly have an anti-government theme, that is not the core idea of Bradbury's novel.
Because the Government removed the ability to question, the people in Fahrenheit 451 have deceived themselves into believing that they are happy. Guy Montag had been harbouring books for quite a long time, but only recently made it known to his wife. She had friends over, and he took out a poem book and read from it, in front of his wife’s dumbfounded friends. “Then he began to read...Mrs. Phelps was crying. The others...watched her crying grow very loud as her face squeezed itself out of shape....She sobbed uncontrollably... "Sh, sh," said Mildred. "You're all right, Clara,... Clara, what's wrong?" "I-I,", sobbed Mrs. Phelps, "don't know, don't know, I just don't know, oh oh...””. The poem book caused Mrs. Phelps to actually think about her life for the first time ever. Government censorship prevented the people from ever being exposed to material that would make them question. For the first time, she thought about her l...
Fahrenheit 451’s relevance to today can be very detailed and prophetic when we take a deep look into our American society. Although we are not living in a communist setting with extreme war waging on, we have gained technologies similar to the ones Bradbury spoke of in Fahrenheit 451 and a stubborn civilization that holds an absence on the little things we should enjoy. Bradbury sees the future of America as a dystopia, yet we still hold problematic issues without the title of disaster, as it is well hidden under our Democracy today. Fahrenheit 451 is much like our world today which includes television, the loss of free speech, and the loss of the education and use of books.
When one first examines these two stories, they see a dehumanized society which is one way Orwell and Bradbury present their warnings about society. Both authors show this through lack of positive emotions, particularly love. In Fahrenheit 451, a teenager named Clarisse McClellan rubs a dandelion under Montag’s chin. Since the dandelion doesn’t rub off, she says Montag isn’t in love. He originally denies this, for he has a wife name Mildred, but later he realizes “That awful flower the other day, the dandelion! It had summed up everything” (Bradbury 41). Montag has reached the conclusion that he doesn’t love Mildred, his own wife! This epitomizes the dehumanized society of Fahrenheit 451, a society in which there are no strong emotions. Emotions are part of what defines being human. W...
Guy Montag’s wife, Mildred, is the epitome of conformity. She almost killed herself but still claimed to be happy because that was how society had told her to act. Clarisse and Mildred are complete opposites. As written in Novels for Students Vol. 1, “Clarisse is shown in contrast to Montag’s wife, who totally accepts the values of the society, even when it is harmful to her health. Clarisse does not like the social activities that most people in the society like” (Novels for Students 142). Mildred acts represents most of the members of society by conforming and supporting society’s views. Clarisse, as well as Montag, was not pleased with the way society was. They both resisted conformity by asserting their views. Montag felt especially constrained by his society and the conformity it fostered. This motivated him to resist it and find others who shared his views, such as Faber and
The one main similarity and difference that goes hand in hand is what makes them dystopian. In both books the main characters, Winston Smith and Guy Montag, experience having to submit to their government’s rules and eventually not being able to do so anymore and going against the most enforced rule. Winston, character of 1984, wrote and thought against dystopian leader Big Brother which lead to mental, emotional, and physical manipulation to get him to not only follow but love Big Brother. Guy , character of Fahrenheit 451, on the other hand, did not write against his political leader, but read against him
Happiness: an idea so abstract and intangible that it requires one usually a lifetime to discover. Many quantify happiness to their monetary wealth, their materialistic empire, or time spent in relationships. However, others qualify happiness as a humble campaign to escape the squalor and dilapidation of oppressive societies, to educate oneself on the anatomy of the human soul, and to locate oneself in a world where being happy dissolves from a number to spiritual existence. Correspondingly, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Krakauer’s Into the Wild illuminate the struggles of contentment through protagonists which venture against norms in their dystopian or dissatisfying societies to find the virtuous refuge of happiness. Manifestly, societal
“Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose” (Dwight Eisenhower). In each of the two novels Brave new world by Aldous Huxley and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury this was displayed when each government created laws to control the public they didn’t go in guns blazing. The governments In Fahrenheit 451 and Brave new world put a ban on books limiting the knowledge the population could get, but equally each book also had similar characters in John from brave new world and Clarisse from Fahrenheit 451. Between the books Fahrenheit 451 and Brave new world, there are many differences but the similarities outweigh them. Both book have laws that ban books and similar characters but each book the a unique way of controlling the population