The Significance of Technology Depicted in Bradbury's Novel, Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, is based in a futuristic time where technology rules our everyday lives and books are viewed as a bad thing because it brews free thought. Although today’s technological advances haven’t caught up with Bradbury’s F451, there is a very real danger that society might end up relying on technology at the price of intellectual development. Fahrenheit 451 is based in a futuristic time period and takes place in a large American City on the Eastern Coast. The futuristic world in which Bradbury describes is chilling, a future where all known books are burned by so called "firemen." Our main character in Fahrenheit 451 is a fireman known as Guy Montag, he has the visual characteristics of the average fireman, he is tall and dark-haired, but there is one thing which separates him from the rest of his colleagues. He secretly loves books.

One night on Montag’s usual walk home from work, he meets a young unusual girl named Clarisse McClellan. She is different from most people, she is idealistic and hates what being social has turned into. She tells Montag of a society where firemen once use to put out accidental fires, and not start them as they do now. Montag thinks this is nonsense the Chief has reassured him that firemen have always started fires, it’s even in rule book. Clarisse continues to tell him about her uncle, who remembers such things from the past. She tells Montag about her family and how they stay up all night talking about a variety of different things. Montag thinks this is very odd, why would anyone want to waste their time just staying up and talking?

Montag finds himself starting to grow fascinated with Clarisse and her eccentric idea’s. He hopes that when he gets off work ...

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...nt books. Montag realizes he now belongs to the group that continues the never ending battle against society.

One thing that is important to note in Bradbury’s writing is, that even though we may have technological advancements in today’s society, for better or worse, we cannot forget the important things in life. Mildred in this story, represented a mindless drone that technology has gotten the better of. Her role indicates that technology may cause the loss of personal interactions between people. We must not forget that without the original ways of doing some things, there may be no way to advance. The loss of personal interaction, can cause the lack of advancement due to the lack of knowledge, therefore, we have to mix the old along with the new. This way we as a society, will not rely too heavily on the reliance of technology in modern and future times.