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Emma Smith
Miss. Van Straten
ChemLit 106
18 November, 2015
The Dystopic World of Fahrenheit 451
Some say ignorance is bliss, at least that's what the society of Fahrenheit 451 seems to
think, but is it really? Where a world is so fast-paced it's hard to tell if a blur is a flower or a
field. In a world that has censorships on books, which are the very thing everyone needs, because
people gradually intertwined with technology. A world where consuming real knowledge is
against the law, unless it's what the government wants a person to hear. Ray Bradbury was right
to fear that modern technology would replace books; in his novel, Fahrenheit 451, he describes
that a life without books is a life without knowledge, people are brainwashed by technology, and
that life is fast-paced and dissatisfying with no time for leisure to process anything.
In Fahrenheit 451, Professor Faber's first rule is quality, or texture, of information. Faber
explains to Montag that "it's not books you need, it's some of the things that once were in books"
(Bradbury 79). The society that Montag lives in lacks the ability to see the pores and
imperfections of the world like they should. Furthermore, Faber says that "books were only one
type of receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is
nothing magical in them, at all" (Bradbury 80). Bradbury illustrates books being messengers that
passed on the harsh reality of the world, or texture, and without them, people live ignorant lives
about the world around them. In the novel, the television, or the parlor walls, replaced the use of
books. This happened gradually, of course, because televisions were shinier, newer, exciting, at
one point everyone had to have one. According to Faber, books may have only been a receptacle

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for thoughts, but they also showed truth. The parlor walls don't, they hide the truth, and keep
people distracted so they don't see the problems in the world. The society falls victim to a sort of
"intellectual holocaust." The government is killing off their ability to think about the truly
important things, leaving them ignorant and hollow. Montag lives in a immensely terrifying
world, a world where a life without books, is a life without knowledge. It's because of the
widespread use of technology in the City that they are prey to such a life.
Ray Bradbury also warned about the dangers and being heavily influenced by technology.
The society of Fahrenheit 451 are vacant bodies for their government to control. Mildred
Montag is a prime example. Mildred just sits around watching "the parlor walls," she even
pretends to completely forget about her near-death experience (Bradbury 17-18). She does
nothing but follow her script and thinks about nothing but the "family." One time in Part One,
Mildred is watching her three-hopefully-four-to-be parlor walls, and Montag watches. The
"family" (mainly the "wife" and the "husband") is fighting, when Montag questions her about
them, Mildred never really finds an answer (Bradbury 42-43). She doesn't think, just watches,
saying her parts so she can feel like she's a part of something. Later, Faber expresses to Montag:
"But who has ever torn himself from the claw that encloses you
when you drop a seed in a TV parlor? It grows you any shape it
wishes! It is an environment as real as the world. It becomes
and is truth. Books can be beaten down with reason. But with
all my knowledge and skepticism, I have never been able to
argue with a one-hundred-piece symphony orchestra, full color,
three dimensions, and being in and part of those incredible
parlors."

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Ray Bradbury, page 80
Faber knows the dangers of this technology and how people can be "brainwashed" by it. He
knows that books can be reasoned against, but no one can argue with an overpowering, indulging
television like their society has. Faber shows Montag his tiny television, and explaining that he
know the dangers of such technology, and why he has a television small enough that he can
block it out with his hand (Bradbury 126). He has control over what the television can say to
him, so it can't influence him like everyone else. He knows the horror technology can cause, and
is so afraid of it that he calls himself a coward to not be able to stand up to it.
Some technology can be used for good, but for the majority of Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury
illustrates that almost every piece of technology is vile. The people think some of them create
good, such as the Mechanical Hound. Montag encounters the eight-legged Mechanical Hound
that seems so alive initially in Part One in the dark corner where it resides (Bradbury 24). It's
essentially a silent assassin able to go in and get the job done without consequence. It mostly
goes after people who escape when they're harboring books. The Hound may not be exactly
replacing books, but it makes sure technology does replace books. The society and government
think that the Hound and such technologies would be good for the people, to protect them from
other dangers. However it has its downsides of being programmed, making it even more
dangerous than people make it out to be. It can be programmed and take anyone out, Montag
even believes that someone may have reprogrammed the Hound to be out after him. In Part
Three, nearing the end of the chase, Montag escapes the Hound (Bradbury 131). He reminds
himself that he is not watching his chase on the parlor walls, that this is actually happening to
him in real-life. This sums up the entirety of the society of Fahrenheit 451 and being distracted
by technology. Even Montag is affected by the technology. Not only was being "brainwashed" by

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technology awful enough, Montag's society is also dissatisfied with their lives, no matter how
fast-paced they are.
Fast-paced lives are what surround the people around Montag like a plague. Days and
nights go by and people barely notice, it's just as Faber suggested in his second rule. Leisure, the
leisure to digest information, something Fahrenheit 451's society doesn't do on their own
(Bradbury 80). The world Montag lives in is so fast-paced, that people never slow down to
register anything. Technology is so distracting for the people, that life goes by in an instant. Not
only is technology distracting people, but it's speeding up their lives. Prior, in Part One, Clarisse
mentions the billboards to Montag; how they used to be twenty feet long, and now their two
hundred feet long so they last long enough for people to see them (Bradbury 6-7). Cars are faster,
lives are faster, and like Faber said, there's no time to digest information enough anymore.
Clarisse also divulges about how she's afraid of kids her age (Bradbury 27). The teenagers mess
around, they don't care, and they drive cars faster than they ever should, even "accidentally"
killing people and continuing on like it never happened.
Not only are people's lives fast-paced, people are also dissatisfied with their lives in
Montag's world. A perfect model is Mildred, and her almost dying from an overdose (Bradbury
10-13). Those men come and pump her with the electric snake. When Montag inquires about it,
the men tell him they get nine to ten cases a night. Mildred does nothing, everyone else does
nothing, it's seems like the firemen are the only ones who think, but their the ones burning people
and books who think for themselves. Along with the leisure to digest information, or anything
really, no one even noticed when the Three White Cartoon Clowns chopped off each other's
limbs towards the end of Part Two (Bradbury 90). Montag notices, questions Mildred, who
saying she saw it, but didn't think of the morbid style of it. When Mildred's friend, Mrs. Bowles,

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talks about having children only to keep the human race going, then sending them off to boarding
school, she doesn't even think about how wrong it is (Bradbury 92-93). They also talk about if
their husbands died, and how they would honestly feel nothing if such a thing happened. The
people of Montag's society are desensitized to the horrors around them.
Instead of ignorance, the world of Fahrenheit 451 needed knowledge, which they could
only find contained in books. It's with that ignorance because of technology, the dangers of said
technology, and the fast-paced, unhappy ways of life in Fahrenheit 451 compared to ideals in
modern society proves that Ray Bradbury was right on his fear of technology replacing books.
Bradbury describes exactly what could happen to a society due to technology taking over, a
dystopic world where everyone is controlled one way or another. In modern society there are
televisions just as large as Bradbury described: smart phones that do things so people don't have
to, and even virtual reality simulations for people to feel like they're doing something. Compared
to today's society, is it truly that hard to think that Bradbury may have been right? That in some
ways, the modern world is not all that different from the themes of Fahrenheit 451?