Hartle 1

Mackenzie Hartle

Mrs. Cramer

College Composition 1

Period 1

11 November 2016

Technology Threatens the Social Landscape

Fahrenheit 451 is an engaging novel from 1953 that predicts the present world, a place

where technology damages the quality of human interaction. The story is about a place in a

futuristic city where firemen start fires, rather than putting them out. Guy Montag is the main

firefighter, and his society bans books to prevent further thought and knowledge. The community

bans books in fear that ideas and knowledge from them will allow people to discover faults in

their society, and within their government. When finding faults and creating an unequal amount

of intelligence, people become unhappy. Instead of reading and enjoying nature, they watch

television screens the size of walls and listen to radios that block out reality. Book censorship is a

recurring theme in Fahrenheit 451, where Bradbury tries to depict the dangers of technology that

threatens our human rights.

At the beginning of the book, Montag meets a young girl named Clarisse McClellan.

Clarisse is a talkative, intelligent, down-to-earth girl, who constantly expresses her love for

people and nature. Clarisse stands unusual from the society that Montag lives in, and Guy

Montag begins to create a friendship with Clarisse that alternates his viewpoint on his society. "I

didn't know that" (9), Montag expresses as Clarisse provides him with a variety of different facts.

Montag is astonished by the knowledge Clarisse shares with him, and this begins to open his
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eyes to the brainwashed society. Clarisse's knowledge changes Montag's viewpoint throughout

the rest of the story.

Furthermore, Bradbury begins to address the social issues that Montag discovers after his

realization. For example, his wife becomes addicted to sleeping pills and is required to seek

medical attention from an overdose. Montag's wife, Mildred, is assisted by two large machines

that replace a physician, which infuriates Montag (15). Bradbury expresses a concern for future

machinery taking trained individuals' jobs through Guy Montag's frustration in the story. Another

social issue is brought to the reader's attention, when Montag gets sent to an old woman's house

who refuses to leave her house full of books. The woman cherishes her books immensely.

Consequently, she ends up dying in kerosene soaked house, and burns alongside her books. This

is a social issue that Bradbury brings to the reader's attention, the selfishness seen in society. If

one's beliefs are different than the majorities, the majority will look at the different individual

with disdain. Bradbury takes this social issue to an extreme, and the outcast with a different

standpoint becomes punished to death. The novel also addresses an overall social issue of the

government's control, and Bradbury's fear of obedience expressed from the people. These social

issues addressed can be solved with one simple thing, and that is books.

Above all, Bradbury proclaims the main theme of the book Fahrenheit 451 persists

censorship, and indicates that the story is about how the interest in television can take away

interest in books (Ray). Bradbury once said, "Television gives you the dates of Napoleon, but not

who he was", his adoration to books influences the loathing towards technology expressed in the

book (Ray). His statement claims that the television will just inform you with data, while books

on the other hand show you the characters thoughts and feelings first handed. Guy Montag's

society burns books to prevent meaningful thought that could make people unhappy with the
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world they lived in. The government creates the thoughtless society because it becomes easy to

control with no controversies. Montag's boss, Beatty, explains how books often offended people

and made minorities unhappy, "Colored people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White

people don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it. Someone's written a book on tobacco

and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity Montag.

Peace Montag" (59). Beatty claims that the censorship makes each individual equal, so the less

intelligent individuals don't feel bad about themselves, "We must all be alike. Not everyone born

free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of each

other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves

against" (58). Instead of making minorities and less intelligent people unhappy, his society

refrains from that possibility by outlawing books. Therefore, the censorship in the society that

Bradbury chooses as his theme, he depicts by making literature illegal to refrain from inequality.

All things considered, book censorship is a recurring theme in Fahrenheit 451, where

Bradbury tries to depict the dangers of technology that threatens our human rights. The book

potray's technology's endangerment to a bookless society, generating a community without

meaningful thoughts and ideas. The society fears that books may bring people a sense of

unhappiness, with inequality, and lack of obedience to one's government. Bradbury shows an

appreciation and love for books, by presenting the faults in a world that prohibits the use of

books. Bradbury brings social issues to the readers attention, with an overall fear of technology

dominating the landscape of society, creating meaningless conversations and a lack of

intelligence. Montag defeats the censorship in his society, allowing the main character and the

author to both achieve success, thus demonstrating the importance of books.

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Works Cited
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.

"Ray Bradbury." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.