Fahrenheit 451 Technology Analysis

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Technology, the Ruler of the World

Imagine a world where there is a room in every house with televisions instead of walls. When the doors are closed, everything inside is cut off from the outside. It is a world where technology can overpower the very people that created it. In Fahrenheit 451, the novel starts with the protagonist, Guy Montag, doing his job as a fireman and burning books. After work, he meets a girl named Clarisse who questions him about things he would never talk about, like happiness and love. After many conversations with Clarisse, Montag is inspired to steal the books he is supposed to burn and read them, something that is forbidden by his society. He meets up with an old professor named Faber who helps him come up with a plan to prevent the downfall of their society and end the censorship of books. His fire captain, Beatty, finds out about Montag’s stolen books and goes to his house to burn them. His wife, Mildred, obsessed with her possessions, flees the house while Montag kills Beatty with a flame thrower. Now a fugitive, Montag just barely escapes his city and floats down a river to a group of travelers that have adopted a new way of life and memorize books …show more content…

Social criticism analyzes flaws in a social structure. It then exaggerates the structures and places them in a new society to attract attention to the problems. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury exaggerates the overuse of technology, a flaw of American society, in his novel’s society. In this society, the inhabitants spend the majority of their day in front of screens. Bradbury criticizes the use of technology in America which has gotten even worse in the fifty years since the book was published. He suggests that instead of sitting in front of screens, people socialize, read, or learn. Overall, Ray Bradbury is saying that if people continue relying on technology, they will become distant and unsocial, resembling the world in Fahrenheit

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