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Fahrenheit 451 Quote Analysis

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Mildred Montag is an ordinary member of the society built in the novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. She sits at home everyday with her seashells plugged into her ears, staring at the wall, watching a pointlessly violent television show. But Mildred has also been cursed by being the wife of Guy Montag, someone who had just recently been struggling to grasp the true nature of the society. Because of Montag’s actions against society, Mildred has been left to make some complex decisions. Even though she is endangering Montag, the reader still feels sympathetic towards her because Bradbury has written her off to be the helpless wife who has been too brainwashed by her society to be saved. The first sign of Mildred’s helplessness that the reader is exposed to is her attempt of suicide. “Her face was like a snow-covered island upon which rain might fall, but it felt no rain; over which clouds might pass their moving shadows, but she felt no shadow” (Bradbury 13). This quote from the …show more content…

Previously, Montag had been yelling at her and her friends about the flaws in their society, as well as reading a part of a poem, which was considered illegal. “‘Was it my wife turned in the alarm?’ Beatty nodded,” (Bradbury 117). By turning Montag in to the authorities, Mildred had finally put her foot down and made one of the first real decisions in her life. The reader still pities Mildred, even though her actions harmed her husband, because Bradbury has built her character to show how her actions reflected upon her battle between choosing her society or her family. Choosing her society over her husband reflects on the impact this society has from people, that not even family can convince you of its evils. This strong bond Mildred has with her society once again emphasizes how weak she is because no matter what Montag does to convince her, society has already oppressed her into being one of its mindless

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Times have changed and people have become dull. Montag has realized this. His wife, Mildred is now dull which has caused him to no longer love her. Mildred is self-centered. One night while Montag was talking to Mildred, he realized how self-centered she was.

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718 Words | 3 Pages

Mildred, the wife of Guy Montag, accurately portrays one of society’s brainwashed citizens who is controlled by technology so much to the point where she’s emotionally and physically drifted away from her own husband. From whenever Montag tries speaking to her or asking her for assistance, she can never seem to be disconnected from her so-called, “parlors” that symbolizes a modern day TV. She’s constantly referring to the people on her parlors as, “her family”(49), which is quite strange considering that Montag is the only family she has, yet she shows no feelings or contempt for him. Even Montag realizes their distant relationship which is why he, “wouldn’t cry if she died”(44). This implies how a normal person in their society is modernized

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601 Words | 3 Pages

In the book, Fahrenheit 451. Illiteracy has led people into a dystopian world and not being educated has made the people of this society easily taken in and advantageous. Bradbury explains and warns us that the more society develops technology and leaves books, the more people will be illiterate and society will be easily controlled. In the book, Fahrenheit 451 the character Faber said “ The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are.”

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450 Words | 2 Pages

The society of the world in the book Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, has made Mildred, wife of Montag, into someone that doesn’t care, think, or feel. This is what happens when

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686 Words | 3 Pages

In society, some people have conflicts with things and people around them. In Fahrenheit 451, the main character, Montag, has to burn books for a living. Montag’s life began to change when he has a decision to steal, hide, and read the books, or turn the books in and act like everyone else. Ray Bradbury shows Montag’s conflict with his wife, a friend, and technology in Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury uses Mildred, Montag’s wife, to show how everyone there is like robots.

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431 Words | 2 Pages

To begin with, in the novel Fahrenheit 451, the author Ray Bradbury displays numerous ways characters are saddened and not properly living their lives. For a profuse amount of time, human beings thrived for one thing: happiness. In older and modern societies, an abundant amount of people do not get back to the real world, simply stuck in an imaginary fantasy. Bradbury showcases how one cannot truly live in a reality that is not real, that individual is only surviving. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury clearly shows that the characters are only surviving without happiness where Montag battles himself constantly throughout the story.

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493 Words | 2 Pages

In the book Fahrenheit 451, we are introduced to two characters with two very different, but also very important, characteristics. Mildred, Guy Montag’s wife, is a shining example of how a member of this society should think and act. Clarisse, however, is the polar opposite of Mildred. The society of 451 is that of one without thought, creativity, and books.

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756 Words | 4 Pages

Ray Bradbury 's novel Fahrenheit 451 delineates a society where books and quality information are censored while useless media is consumed daily by the citizens. Through the use of the character Mildred as a foil to contrast the distinct coming of age journey of the protagonist Guy Montag, Bradbury highlights the dangers of ignorance in a totalitarian society as well as the importance of critical thinking. From the beginning of the story, the author automatically epitomizes Mildred as a direct embodiment of the rest of the society: she overdoses, consumes a vast amount of mindless television, and is oblivious to the despotic and manipulative government. Bradbury utilizes Mildred as a symbol of ignorance to emphasize how a population will be devoid of the ability to think critically while living in a totalitarian society. Before Montag meets Clarisse, he is

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605 Words | 3 Pages

In the following by Carson McCullers, “All men are lonely. But sometimes it seems to me that we Americans are the loneliest of all. Our hunger for foreign places and new ways has been with us almost like a national disease. Our literature is stamped with a quality of longing and unrest, and our writers have been great wanderers. ”(McCullers)

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935 Words | 4 Pages

But I think she’s dead. The family moved out anyway. I don’t know. But I think she’s dead”(47). The use of the phrases “I’m not sure” and “I don’t know” proves how careless Mildred appears when it comes to other people; they are talking about the death of a person and Mildred shows no empathy toward the situation.

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859 Words | 4 Pages

This can be best demonstrated through the characters of Mrs Phelps and Mrs Bowles, a pair of Mildred’s friends who “jabber about people and their own children and themselves…and their husbands” in a callous manner. Mrs Phelps even mentions that she is so “independent” that if her third husband was to be killed in war it was agreed that she “…[would] not cry, but get married again and not think of [him]”. Likewise, Mrs Bowles speaks of her “ruinous” children as burdens, stating they were only born for “the world [to] reproduce”, and until then they are “[heaved] into the parlour”. ” These monsters”, as they are described are used to emphasise the lack of unity that can result from abuse of technology. This disconnect is further highlighted when it is noted that “the three women fidgeted and looked nervously at the empty mud-coloured walls” as soon as Montag unplugged the parlour, indicating that although the trio are friends, they do not know how to communicate with one another.

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580 Words | 3 Pages

Mildred is very obviously detached from most facets of life that we value. She doesn’t remember meeting her husband, and she watches TV constantly. She tries to overdose on pain medication and Montag wishes that “If only they could’ve taken her mind to the dry cleaner’s and empties the pocket and steamed and cleansed it” (Bradbury 14). Seeing that he wishes his wife’s brains could be cleansed is a sharp contrast to how we consider how modern marriage is supposed to go.

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573 Words | 3 Pages

“A time to keep silent and a time to speak,” (158) is a quote from the book Fahrenheit 451. This novel is all about how people conform to a society that burns books. They do so because they make people “think” thoughts that the government doesn’t want them to. Though there are some who are not conformed and read books to enlighten themselves to the ways of the past, that changes the way they see the present. Mildred, Faber, and Clarisse are characters that represent different aspects of conformity or nonconformity in the Fahrenheit 451 society.

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541 Words | 3 Pages

Montag’s wife Mildred is an example of someone who conforms to society and can not imagine a lifestyle outside the one she has. In Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 Mildred says to Montag “books aren’t people. You, read and I looked all around, but there isn’t anybody! Now, my family is people.

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1139 Words | 5 Pages

While Mildred’s characterization is an exaggeration, with today’s technologies she has become more relevant, relatable, and tragic. It is remarkable how much prescience Bradbury demonstrated in writing Fahrenheit 451. The Seashells Mildred uses resemble modern day earphones, and how she tunes out the world in favour of “an electronic ocean of sound” (19) predicted how people today would do the same while listening to music or podcasts on their mobile devices. Her TV walls are much like the numerous digital screens that permeate all parts of our lives and hold our attention. Or, the TV parlour and the scripted parts Mildred plays in the shows can be seen as an early concept for virtual reality video games.

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