Conformity, ‘Behaviour in accordance with socially accepted conventions or standards’. When one conforms completely, they go through losses. This topic is discussed heavily in the book Fahrenheit 451, a book where reading and being a thinker is widely discouraged and illegal. Showing the loss of innocence, trust in others, and of the attachments between people and their surroundings, the book gives great examples of how conformity affects not just a single person, but their entire community as a whole. A great loss is the innocence people once experienced. In the book, the citizens go on with their lives knowing that people are dying and being killed for owning books, things that bring them joy and cause no outward harm. A quote showing the way some feel losing the way they felt, not feeling the same innocence they once did is on page 78 when Faber says “(Faber’s) one of the innocents who could have spoken up and out when no one would listen to the ‘guilty,’ but (Faber) …show more content…
Now, it’s too late.” He tells Montag that he stood on the sidelines while they burnt legacies. They let the public convince them that it’s okay because they’ll be happier, people in society don’t want to be angry or upset or any other undesirable emotion; they want to be happy and believe the destruction of these things that teach about the world and experiences and tell stories will benefit them. So in the process innocent people who believe they should be able to experience what the public is destroying feel more guilty than innocent because they did not stand up for what they believed and protest the killing of the people who still practice the things they outlaw. They continue to lose innocence through finding out what is going on behind the scenes, the citizens live happily while knowing that everyone else