Dehumanization In Fahrenheit 451 Analysis

“Gray animals peering from electric caves, faces with gray colorless eyes, gray tongues and gray thoughts looking out through the numb flesh of the face” (Bradbury 132). The people in Fahrenheit 451 are exactly as the protagonist, Montag, describes them: gray, animal, dehumanized and lifeless. Ray Bradbury has built a society in which people spend their days mindlessly watching television. Violence, bullying and murder are common, especially coming from school children, who spend their school days watching even more television. Montag is a fireman who burns books and slowly comes to understand the dehumanized and meaningless state that his society is in. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 demonstrates how dehumanization can lead to a meaningless

The people in the society have no purpose and spend their days doing mindless actions that have no effect on anything substantial. Clarisse explains to Montag how no one does anything in school, and that their schedule consists of “an hour of TV class, an hour of basketball or baseball or running, another hour of transcription history or painting pictures, and more sports” (27). No one learns anything in school because no one has a need for knowledge in daily life. In school, they do what their parents spend all day doing: watching TV and mindlessly going about their days. Mildred spends all day in her ‘parlor’, and not even TV has any meaning to it. One time Montag walked into the ‘parlor’ and saw unknown people saying words that held no depth or meaning. He asked, “What was it all about? Mildred couldn’t say. Who was mad at whom? Mildred didn’t quite know. What were they going to do? Well, said Mildred, wait around and see” (42). What followed was a display of colors and sounds, and the people were back to shallow words again. The TV that everyone spends their lives watching does not have a plot, purpose, moral or point. It is nothing more than unconnected sentences, bright colors and loud noise. No one does anything with their lives, and that is a result of

In Fahrenheit 451, the people spend their days watching colors and sounds on TV. Society has made it so every house has a ‘parlor’ with multiple television walls, and children spend all day at school in front of a television or playing sports instead of learning. This meaningless life is a result of society taking away human emotions. The people took away anything that made anyone unhappy, which lead to a lack of human emotions and, therefore, human relationships. This is most clearly shown through Mrs. Bowles’ C-sections and her lack of relationships with her children. Montag recognises his lack of emotions towards Mildred, demonstrating the dehumanization of society. Granger explains how society used to be, with meaningful lives and human emotions/relationships. Without these human characteristics, life is not valued and not seen as important. Because of this, the people spend their days doing whatever makes them think they are happy for that moment in time. No one thinks about others, or about love, or about true happiness. To lead a life with purpose, one must first lead a life of humanity, a life full of emotions and relationships, good and