Speculative fiction is the art of prophesying problems from that which is observed by the writer and challenging the reader to think up solutions to these problems. During speculative fiction's early days, Ray Bradbury observed the extreme and rapid societal changes of the 1940s and '50s and created a line of best fit in the form of his 1953 novella Fahrenheit 451. Fahrenheit 451 predicted the attitude of the general American populace; the entertainment ingested by their yellowed eyes and digested in their shriveled, underfed minds; the complacency that disseminates throughout the hearts of Man and binds his will to nothing, save self-interest; and the stifling of intelligence in the public school system.
The prototypical modern United States citizen spends a vast quantity of its time staring at a screen, investing itself in the unrealities of a shadow corporation controlling a team of lobotomized (either figuratively or literally) writers acted out by those who put on mirror-masks1 and prance about in front of cameras and boom-mic operators. This game of unreality and escapism is embodied by the protagonist of Fahrenheit 451's wife, Mildred Montag. Mildred spends Fahrenheit 451 watching what is, in essence, a large television. Mildred does not think about what is presented to her in her shows (“‘What’s the play about?’ [Montag asked]/’I just told you. There are these people named Bob and Ruth and Helen.’[Responded Mildred]” (Bradbury, 20)), she simply watches, vacantly, allowing her mind to fill with static and nothingness to the point where she cannot remember where she met her own husband (“‘When did we meet? And where?’ [Montag asked]/‘When did we meet for what?’ [Mildred] asked/‘I mean--originally’/../‘Why, it was at--’/She...
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... ask questions, or at least most don’t; they just run the answers at you…’”(29)). In the current school system, it seems that the novella’s description has not faltered. Hours of classes, most of which not particularly stimulating from an intellectual standpoint, in which students simply memorize answers. Not once have I, as a student, taken a test that concerns understanding of material, I simply regurgitate that which has been thrown at me through hours of notes or reading. No thought, no understanding; thus no intelligence, simply knowledge that sits for a few days, months, years before dissipating into the ether.
The modern day prophets are the speculative fiction writers. Bradbury observed the rapid decline of American civilization and wrote a universe that he thought best fit the unfortunately accurate road from the 1940s and ‘50s to the foreseeable future.
In Ray BradBury’s fiction novel “Fahrenheit 451,” BradBury paints us a dystopian society where every citizen lacks the ability to think critically. Citizens are known to have short term memory, a lack of empathy for others, and an addiction to short term pleasures such as loud music and television. The main character Montag, once a societal norm in the beginning of the book, goes through a series of changes that fundamentally influences him to rebel against this society for their practice of igniting books. Bradbury uses specific events in Montag's transformation throughout the book, such as his conversations with Clarisse and his conversation with his wife’s friends, to help Montag realize that he isn’t
Out of all the characters in 451, Mildred Montag is the best example of this idea. She is the stereotypical, technology dependent norm in 451 society and is constantly using technology - almost every minute of every day. At night, Mildred uses a “seashell” to help her sleep, which is shown as a device that plays calming white noise. During the day, Mildred is almost always in the “parlor,” which is basically a room made up of interactive television. Additionally, Mildred’s only goal in life currently seems to be to add more to the parlor, as she is always asking for another “wall” of television even though it is shown that a wall is extremely expensive and Guy Montag is still financially recovering from buying the last
Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, is a novel about a society that is completely different from ours. Instead of freedom of choice, everything is propaganda otherwise it is burned to the ground. Fahrenheit 451 is the perfect example of a society that rewrites history, bans books that discuss something contrary to what the government wants you to believe, and how propaganda affects those around it.
Science Fiction is a genre that has the ability to reveal the truth of the society and the dystopian elements that capture today's world. The real problems are shown as well as what important pieces are missing. Fahrenheit 451 forms the idea that our world today focuses on the unimportant and ignorant things in life causing people from this book lack some basic human rights. Additionally, in Harrison Bergeron, the public is forced to wear handicaps that hides their gifts they were born with. This world is forced to be equal and anyone who speaks out against it will be executed. Through the pages of Fahrenheit 451 and the Harrison Bergeron, the real flaws in today's society leading many people to have their freedoms diminished, or taken away are shown.
The society envisioned by Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 is often compared to Huxley's Brave New World. Though both works definitely have an anti-government theme, this is not the core idea of Bradbury's novel. As Beatty explains in part one, government control of people's lives was not a conspiracy of dictators or tyrants, but a consensus of everyday people. People are weak-minded; they don't want to think for themselves and solve the troubling problems of the world. It is far easier to live a life of seclusion and illusion-a life where the television is reality. Yet more importantly, Fahrenheit 451 is an anti-apathy and anti-dependence and anti-television message. People in the novel are afraid-afraid of themselves. They fear the thought of knowing, which leads them to depend of others (government) to think for them. Since they aren't thinking, they need something to occupy their time. This is where television comes in. A whole host of problems arise from television: violence, depression and even suicide.
Guy Montag is a fireman but instead of putting out fires, he lights them. Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 following WWII when he saw technology becoming a part of daily life and getting faster at an exponential rate. Bradbury wanted to show that technology wasn’t always good, and in some cases could even be bad. Fahrenheit 451is set in a dystopian future that is viewed as a utopian one, void of knowledge and full of false fulfillment, where people have replaced experiences with entertainment. Ray Bradbury uses the book’s society to illustrate the negative effects of technology in everyday life.
Ray Bradbury points out many thinks in this novel some obvious some not so clear. He encourages readers to think deep and keep an open mind. Ray Bradbury wrote a short story that appeared in Galaxy science fiction in 1950, which later became the novel Fahrenheit 451 in 1953. This novel takes place in a dystopian society where books are illegal and firemen start fires.
Ray Bradbury's vision of a disordered world was expressed in his book Fahrenheit 451. Set in the future, it deals with a man's struggle between his destructive government position and his inner self-conscience. Guy Montag was a fireman but he did not put out fires. Instead, he created them through the burning of books. This was what Bradbury was trying to imply through the title of his book, Fahrenheit 451, the temperature at which books burn. Montag was leading a fairly happy life until he met a girl, Clarisse, who aroused his deepest feelings and fears. He became curious about the contents of books and wondered why they were so feared. This led him through a series of events which changed his life forever. When Montag asked Beatty about the burning of books he was told, "If you don't want a man to be unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none." The futurist government displayed in Fahrenheit 451 tried to prevent any feelings or opinions contrary to their own because they did not want to be challenged. Instead, they fed unwanted junk into the minds of their people through the parlor, a wall to wall television. This machine, that does not inspire the thinking process, lead them to make the conclusion that their world revolves around it and nothing else.
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, describes a whole new world. He demonstrates what the future will be like if new generations do not continue to further their education. This book “teaches us about our recent past, our present, and our own imagined future” with physical abuse (Smolla 896). The new Utopian world started out with major technological advances; “first with photography, then motion pictures, radio, and television” (Smolla 898). “Large flat-screen televisions” were created for an entire room of entertainment, but destroyed relationships (Smolla 897). Guy Montag realizes he is losing his wife, Mildred, to these massive TVs; to which they are in a lot of debt for buying. “His marriage to Mildred is less than ideal,” because she is too busy watching new world shows (Smolla 897). According to Rodney Smolla, her shows may be related to drama TV series, Sex and the City as Millie and her friends gather to chat about their lives and different happenings (897). Montag is shocked by the life they are living now. They hardly talk at all, or even touch. He does not remember what he loves about her or how they even met.
Ray Bradbury’s style of writing always included hidden meanings that present a central theme of the dangers of unchecked technology. Many factors in Ray Bradbury’s life had contributed to his style of writing and the themes that he wanted to present to society. Some factors that influenced Bradbury were events such as the Cold War and the writings of other writers such as Edgar Allen Poe. Bradbury’s style of writing was shaped by many factors in his life such as world events, his techniques learned from famous writers, and the progress of society. From life to death Bradbury’s world was always filled with war and government propaganda that attempted to sway the thoughts of citizens about the dangers of foreign threats (Schofelt, Cordon, “Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury: 1920-2012”). Bradbury’s writings were always influenced by the constant reminder of these governments ideology filling his ears. Bradbury’s writing was also influenced by the writings of other writers such as Edgar Allen Poe. His inspiration as a child began with Poe and was forever changed by his style of gothic writing and the morals that Poe always presented to his readers ("Planetary Pariahs: Bradbury and the Influence of Edgar Allan Poe."). Bradbury’s best known works were considered science fiction and always presented a story of the dangers of unchecked technology (Mataconis "Ray Bradbury And The Real Lesson Of Fahrenheit 451."). All these factor into how Bradbury would style his writing and the major themes he presents to his readers.
Much of what the future holds are consequences of the events that have already taken place. Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 is a story about a lifestyle in the future that has evolved from our present, but in a seemingly different world. There is no flow of ideas, and the main purpose in a person's life in those days was to relax, not think, and be happy. Despite the seemingly unreality of the world in the future, the author is using it as a cautionary tale of what may become of our society. Bradbury stresses his views on how best to keep our society's system of government checks and balances, technological advances, and its fluidity of ideas.
Fahrenheit 451’s relevance to today can be very detailed and prophetic when we take a deep look into our American society. Although we are not living in a communist setting with extreme war waging on, we have gained technologies similar to the ones Bradbury spoke of in Fahrenheit 451 and a stubborn civilization that holds an absence on the little things we should enjoy. Bradbury sees the future of America as a dystopia, yet we still hold problematic issues without the title of disaster, as it is well hidden under our Democracy today. Fahrenheit 451 is much like our world today which includes television, the loss of free speech, and the loss of the education and use of books.
Bradbury, who had grown up with books as a child, uses the plot of Fahrenheit 451 to represent how literature is simply being reduced. He focuses on the contrast between a world of books and a world of televisions. According to the article “Fahrenheit 451,” from the first days of television in the 1950’s, when all Americans scrambled to have one in their home, “watching television has competed with reading books” (148). Edward Eller suggests another reason for the rich use of technology in Fahrenheit 451: in WWII, just before the publishing of the novel, “technological innovations allowed these fascist states to more effectively destroy the books they did not find agreeable and produce new forms of communication implanted with state-sanctioned ideas” (Eller 150). The idea of written fiction being replaced by large televisions evidently seemed logical at the time.
Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction book that still reflects to our current world. Bradbury does a nice job predicting what the world would be like in the future; the future for his time period and for ours as well. The society Bradbury describes is, in many ways, like the one we are living in now.
There are multiple examples of the degradation of human relationships found in Fahrenheit 451. These examples range from simple seashell radios, which are comparable to in-ear headphones, to a television set that spans over an entire wall, and also interacts with you as if it were human. If you take a look around you as you’re strolling down the street, you’ll notice the vast quantity of people that are plugged into the virtual realm, but disconnected from reality. Even today, you can notice the lack of communication in society.