Themes of Mental, Emotional and Genealogical Equality in Fahrenheit 451

Literature and media have constantly contemplated the idea of a singular, united mindset and sometimes even genealogy in a group or nation of people. Examples of this idea or plot would be Lois Lowry’s The Giver, the movie Equilibrium, or even Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta. These three examples give three completely altering views on human equality and likeness presented in different ways. In The Giver, it presents a world without color or choices: mental equality. In the movie Equilibrium, it ponders a world where people cannot feel: emotional equality. Lastly, in the graphic novel V for Vendetta, it reflects an England without racial diversity: genealogical equality. In Fahrenheit 451, all of the above equalities have come to be but not through government control. No, in Fahrenheit, the people have disintegrated down to this level of complete mental, emotional, and racial nothingness. People who think differently, look differently, or feel differently are persecuted and often killed. The three themes of equality in Fahrenheit 451 are mental, emotional, and genealogical equality and how I believe they should never occur.

To begin, mental equality is a main theme in Fahrenheit 451 and the example I named above, The Giver. In The Giver, it presents a society where everything is assigned to everyone, and everything is learned at a specific age. What they think and say is monitored in their houses and businesses, and no one is allowed to think differently. While this is true mostly in Fahrenheit, it does not go to extremes as it does in The Giver. Only the suspicious are monitored by the government in Montag’s world. The mental equality comes by way of degradation. Over time, people in the world of Fahrenheit have given up thinking...

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...s poses questions as to its existence. As well as mental and emotional degradation, has there been complete racial degradation also? Have alternate races been annihilated or done away with? Or did the writer simply find race too inconsequential to add into character description? Either way, the warning for today’s world is clear: lose diversity and the world will lose thousands of cultures and influences that stimulate our minds and emotions.

Fahrenheit 451 is a terrifying look at how the world could be if we continue on our current path. As today’s generation grows more “politically correct”, as they grow more apathetic and lax in our education, they toe closer and closer to the world of Guy Montag. The three themes of equality in Fahrenheit 451 are mental, emotional, and genealogical equality and if allowed to go on in our world, we will truly become the same.