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Fahrenheit 51 Society Quotes

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Society can change a person positively or negatively. In the novel Fahrenheit 51, by Ray Bradbury, Mildred is the wife of the main character Guy Montag. Society has made Mildred feel self-centered, robotic, and unfeeling. First, Mildred is self-centered. She loves her TV’s, in fact, she already has three of them. On page 18, Mildred asks Montag for a fourth TV. She states, “How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a fourth wall-TV put in? It’s only two thousand dollars.” To which Montag responds, “That’s one-third of my yearly pay.” Society has made Mildred feel as though she needs the fourth wall-TV. On page 55, Captain Beatty states, “technology makes people happy.” Society has made Mildred and everyone else, believe that technology is a necessity in living out a happy life. The result, is a whole lot of self-centered people, including Mildred. …show more content…

On page 39 the book describes that Mildred, “was listening to far people in far places, her eyes wide and staring at the fathoms of blackness above her in the ceiling.” This is a good description of how Mildred spaces out and does not pay attention to things around her, much like a robot. Society has shown her another world in the seashells inside her ears. On page 52 Captain Beatty says, “flings off all unnecessary time-wasting thought”. Captain Beatty is trying to explain that society has made people less aware in order to reduce thought because, that is what supposedly makes people happy. All of the technology that society told Mildred she needs has caused her to act in a robotic

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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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837 Words | 4 Pages

Ray Bradbury was a man of his time. He was able to accurately predict the future in Fahrenheit 451. He shows that our societies are not different. In Montag 's Society people show desensitization, brainlessness, and self-centeredness. The streets are shown everywhere in the 21st-century.

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386 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, Montag, the main character, goes from loving his job to rethinking of his job. Montag came in mind that his job not only hurt him but also hurt society. He began to realize that he no longer enjoyed his job. Montag did not like the fact of knowing that his job was only hurting other people.

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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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1795 Words | 8 Pages

Mildred cares more for the price for the TV than she cares for Montag. “‘It’s really fun. It be even more fun when we can afford to have a fourth wall installed. How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a fourth wall- TV put in/ It is only two thousand-dollars.’ ‘It’s one-third of my yearly pay’” (18).

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1086 Words | 5 Pages

Through the characterization of Mildred, and his use of figurative language in Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury warns that technology has the ability to hinder independent thoughts and ideas. In this book about knowledge and change, it makes sense that Bradbury introduces a character in that tries so hard to hold onto a sense of sameness. Bradbury does a wonderful job of incorporating

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1316 Words | 6 Pages

Addiction and Control in Fahrenheit 451 Addicts often rely on their habits in order to give them a sense of control over their lives, but are frequently met with the opposite. Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 is one set in a futuristic society in which books are outlawed. This single law has set off a spiral of negative effects on the citizens of the city. One of these effects includes recurrent cases of addiction and control by the government through dependencies such as drugs, technology, and sadistic tendencies, and these obsessions aren’t too far from today’s reality.

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935 Words | 4 Pages

Mildred does not want to hear about Montag's issue and turns to her large television as another escape option. “‘I’m tired of listening to this Junk’, said Mildred, turning from him to the announcer again”(65). By referring to Montag's problem as “junk” Mildred makes it seem as though his problems useless just like trash and he talks about nonsense that deems irrelevant to her. Her movement, “turning from him to the announcer” in the direction away from Montag and toward the TV, shows that when she faces an issue her instinct brings her to technology as a coping mechanism. Once Montag talks about his problem she immediately blocks it out with the “[announcer's]” voice.

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859 Words | 4 Pages

Ray Bradbury’s novel ‘Fahrenheit 451’ warns of the dangers of technology and blind obedience through the character of Mildred Montag amongst others. Although Mildred is a minor character throughout the text, her image as the poster girl of the dystopian vision of the future Bradbury had created highlights that in a society where technology is all-powerful and all-consuming, true happiness is seldom found. Bradbury depicts characters who have an awareness of life outside of technology to be genuinely happier and more sincere, whereas those who have conformed to mores of society are consequently dissatisfied with life. Ultimately, it is Montag’s realisation that there is more to life than shallow conversations and parlour walls, and the happiness

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576 Words | 3 Pages

In other words, the overwhelming force to follow and chase after so-called ideals blinds people from the truth and pushes them to believe in whatever the social norm claims to be correct. For example, in Fahrenheit 451, readers discover that it is Mildred, Montag’s own wife, who betrays him for the comfort of not being suspected herself. Even as she is leaving the burning house, her only concern is for the parlor walls, as depicted when Bradbury describes her to be “mumbling, ‘Poor family, poor family, oh everything gone, everything, everything gone now ...’” (Bradbury 116). Through this small excerpt, readers can identify how materialistic her mindset is and realize that her priorities are highly disorganized.

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1809 Words | 8 Pages

A dystopian society is a dysfunctional society that is marketed to its citizens as a utopian society. It includes elements such as a lack/ downplay of religion or one government sanctioned religion that everyone must follow. The government either uses force and or fear to control its population. There is a suppression of freedom of speech and a suppression of intellectualism. In this society, there is a protagonist who rebels against the status quo.

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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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1583 Words | 7 Pages

“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.

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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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