A Dystopian Society In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

A dystopian society is a dysfunctional society that is marketed to its citizens as a utopian society. It includes elements such as a lack/ downplay of religion or one government sanctioned religion that everyone must follow. The government either uses force and or fear to control its population. There is a suppression of freedom of speech and a suppression of intellectualism. In this society, there is a protagonist who rebels against the status quo. In Fahrenheit 451, this protagonist is Montag. Once an oppressor of freedom and intellectualism by burning books, Montag goes against the norms of his society and uncovers the truth about the society. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury elucidates that technology imprisons the human mind, limiting individual

Technology is so prominent in the lives of the people that Montag, the protagonist, could predict the actions of each and everyone within his community. “He imagined thousands on thousands of faces peering into yards and alleys, and into the sky, faces hid by curtains, pale, night-frightened faces, like gray animals peering from electrical caves,facs with gray colorless eyes, gray tongues and gray thoughts…”(132) The fact that they aren’t described as humans, but animals in caves, portrays their captivity and imprisonment. The electrical caves represent technology and its barricades that have the ability to keep them within bounds. The description of them being ‘gray’ eludes to them all being alike and equal. Their colorless eyes and gray thoughts manifest that they don’t have thoughts of their own and that they don’t see what is going on around them. Having colorless mind implies they see everything in black in white or how it is said to be by their society. The connotation of gray in this case is dull, and without interest or character which supports the people are being described as emotionless controlled robots. The control of them with technology is developed as montages being chased. “As the hound seized him, in view of ten or thirty million people…the Hound had turned clenching him in its metal-plier jaws, trotted off in darkness, while the

Though they are material things and objects, they are viewed as people while “books aren’t real people.” Mildred said that if she looks around, there isn’t anybody. When she turns on the T.V. she says “my family is people. They tell me things;I laugh, they laugh! And the colors.” This manifest that Mildred isn’t properly informed about books, but judges them. The televisions on the other hand she identifies as ‘family’ and a human. Them being able to telling her things eludes to the fact that she takes orders from her ‘family’ and that her family influences her thoughts and idea. Laughing and colors are more important than knowledge. This illuminates how her ‘family’ is able to control her actions by telling her what to do. The technology is able to dictate her thoughts enforcing its version of the truth. This leads to the captivity of her mind. This idea of captivity and the power of technology is further developede by the death of Montag.The death of Montag exhibits that technology is a tool used for the control of the human mind. With the civilians of the Fahrenheit 451 watching the death of Montage, they are easily controlled because the consequence of thinking for themselves could be deadly. This was developed as “the Hound leapt into the air with a rhythm and a sense of timing that was incredibly beautiful. Its needle shot out. It suspended for