Conformity in Fahrenheit 451: Echoes of Bradbury’s Dystopia in Modern Society

Dystopian Reflections: The Disquieting Parallels between Bradbury's World and Ours

“It was a pleasure to burn” (Bradbury, 1). To open up the novel Fahrenheit 451 begins with a menacing statement that can often confuse and throw readers off guard. This statement unravels the story of the eerie society in Fahrenheit 451. The society of Fahrenheit 451 shares several similarities to modern-day cultures, with relatable technology that multiple characters in the novel use for their own enjoyment. They also have some differences with the firefighter duties in both societies.

The role of a firefighter in Fahrenheit 451 is almost the opposite of the role of a firefighter in our modern community.

Moreover, society in Fahrenheit 451 is very discomforting, and it sometimes scares the citizens of this dystopian society. For example, the government in the novel forbids anyone to have a book or read it. As a result, this futuristic civilization turns to find happiness in nature, technology, and, most importantly, spending time by themselves. While this happens every day, Guy Montag, the main character, cannot sleep at night thinking about how society would be without books. On top of that, Montag worries about his wife Mildred, who has had mental issues, and she eventually overdoses on sleeping pills. She would live through the traumatic experience, receive new blood, and intense medical care from two untrained strangers on the street, who smoke a cigarette while they operate on her. These men also claim that they deal with cases like Mildred’s all the time and that Montag should not worry about her and her overdose or her personal health.

Fahrenheit 451 Conformity: The Technological Tethers and Ethical Divides between Bradbury's Vision and Modern Society

Although Fahrenheit 451 has several differences from our current culture, there are also a lot of similarities. For instance, the characters use advanced technology that can reflect how our society runs on technology and games, and it can even take over our lives. This is shown in the novel as one of the characters in the novel becomes so encrypted in technology that she refers to her television set or “parlor” as her “family” (Bradbury, 46). We can be caught up in technology and relate to how the members of the society in Fahrenheit 451 function. Many people also have things that they value and adore; sometimes, people can value objects more than people in both worlds.

There are more differences between Fahrenheit 451 and our society. Furthermore, Fahrenheit 451 has several people who do not care about rules or limitations, go out after school, and purposefully wreck cars and other people’s property and don’t get into trouble for it. Mildred, for example, chose to drive around drunk as a skunk and kill innocent animals with her car out in the country for no reason at all; “Sometimes I drive all night… It’s fun out there in the country. You hit rabbits, sometimes you hit dogs” (Bradbury, 61). Additionally, when animals and people die sad and depressing deaths, the people impacted by the death move on with their life like nothing happened. On the other hand, our civilization is different because we have strict animal cruelty regulations, and we harshly punish out-of-control driving.

Reflections on Fahrenheit 451: Bradbury's Prophetic Insights and the Echoes in Modern Times

There are several aspects of Fahrenheit 451 that can be analyzed against our own experiences. These similarities and differences can also help us to appreciate Ray Bradbury’s novels. His use of figurative language keeps the audience attentive to the story that is told about the eerie circumstance of Fahrenheit 451. What we see in Fahrenheit 451 should be a warning of some areas we have seen problems and how they could continue to get worse in the near future.

References

1. Bradbury, R. (2013). Fahrenheit 451. Simon & Schuster.

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