To comfort her friend into obediently listening to Montag’s book of poetry, Mrs. Phelps remarks that “‘if we listen nice, Mr. Montag will be happy and then maybe we can go on and do something else’” (95). Even though Mrs. Phelps isn’t agreeing to follow the majority in this circumstance, she still is promoting submission through conformity to a person in a position of power. She attempts to make listening to literature, a highly illegal crime in their society, seem like no big deal by using positive language like “nice” and “happy.” Those words put a positive spin on submission of self, all in hopes that “Mr. Montag will be happy.” She promotes conformity so as to please authority, so that they can eventually do “something else;” she wants the problem simply solved by conforming, even if it’s not what she believes in. …show more content…
Bradbury uses this line to show how natural conformity has become in their society; the desire to please authority comes even before self-indulgence, another strong value of their culture. If everyone surrenders themselves to authority, then they would have a power that no one else could ever vanquish; the power over other people. Bradbury warns with this totalitarian government that putting all of oneself into the hands of other people can eventually become dangerous; conformity to the wills of power demolishes individuality and all future hope of change in the future. Even if the people decide they want otherwise in the future, they have already locked themselves too far into a system to ever