Fahrenheit 451 Conformity Quotes

Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451 shares a lot of Bradbury's personal feelings, predictions, and criticisms of how society was changing during 1953. His feelings were influenced by Germany's book burnings and the Second Red Scare, which took place during the writing of the book and influenced the dystopian elements of the society in Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury argues that the rise of communism in the future could lead to a society that values conformity over individuality; this view can be seen today from the effects of political polarization and with the shifting parties in our democracy, as both republicans and democrats are traveling farther to the left and the right of the political spectrum.
Communism is evident through Bradbury's dystopian

This leads to why Beatty announces to Montag that “If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him [just] one” (Bradbury 61). This phrase shows the deepness of the quote and what Bradbury was dealing with when he mentioned this quote, as it impacts both the dystopian novel and the real world as well. This quote evidently shows how the government takes control of the people by forcing conformity towards the people, and in turn getting rid of the thought about individuality in order to better control the large majority of people politically. The elements of communism are also shown clearly here, as the people are shown one side of a story, as well as limited to what they want, all great examples of communist and totalitarian elements. The communist side is also shown in the novel through the government's use of the Mechanical Hound as a symbol of a

Political polarization is one way that communism can occur, especially in the U.S. legislation. This is seen evidentially according to Michael Garcia of the University Wire. In this journalistic article, Michael refers to the issue of the large political divide occurring now as “The media [is] the main culprit behind this division” (Garcia 18). In other words, this refers back to the original claim about communism, in which communism uses forms of propaganda and media control in order subject a general population to thinking the same way. This relates to how political polarization is created from the persuasion of the media; how Bradbury's warning is coming true evidentially, from his view of the effects of Mccarthyism ( The practice of making accusations of subversion and treason, related to more extreme political opinions such as communism, and typically done in public) and how it caught major media attention. Garcia also talks about how “We as a population no longer think for ourselves” (Garcia 49). This quote confirms criticisms that Bradbury had about society, in that communism sprouts from the ideas of political polarization, people who do not think for themselves can lead to a dangerous society, which was seen in Fahrenheit 451. Garcia relates this to the media, which control the power to influence people based off their views, a powerful tool that is being