Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel that displays extreme ills of society. The novel follows the antagonist Guy Montag as he learns to reject the common way of thinking, or rather not thinking. Basically, the main focus of the book is the effects of media. While some might argue the novel is more focused on censorship, this is incorrect because it shows how the time spent on technology is the issue, not so much what the media contains. It also contains shunned characters, who don’t revolve around technology and displays Montag’s wife, Mildred, who is destroyed through the media. Ultimately, while many lessons can be learned from Fahrenheit 451, there is an emphasis on technology and media.
In continuation, this book is about media because people who don’t consume media like it’s the only thing keeping them alive are
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Mildred is first introduced through the comparison of a cold tomb, or corpse. She lies on her bed encompassed by the swirl of technology. Without fail, on her ears are “thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in” (Bradbury 82). Mildred’s obsession with the media continues to be revealed as she refers to TV show characters as “my family” (Bradbury 505). Constantly Montag is fighting technology for his wife’s attention. He expresses this frustration by saying “I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls” (Bradbury 129). Mildred’s priorities are further revealed towards the end of the novel, when she reports her husband for illegal activities; an act of revenge for unplugging her digital family. Mildred dies in the end, because she stays in the city when a bomb is dropped on it. She ends up dying because she wouldn’t give media up. In the end, the novel is about media because much of the book’s ‘air time’ is given to show Montag’s wife’s fatal mistakes which shouts a warning opposing