Herd Mentality In Fahrenheit 451

Only without fear can one truly be free to stand up for what they believe in and pursue their own path. Herd mentality is often found in everyday life whether it be at a workplace environment or school, found most often when a group of friends are together. In the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards said, “We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on earth…” Throughout “The Crucible” one person started accusing others of being witches and soon others followed that example. The members in the puritan society first attacked the homeless, insane or even the servants due to their lower social status. No one in Salem was willing to stop the accusations due to the fear that was being implied on

People will behave in a certain manner when in a group compared to when they are by themselves or with just one other person. In Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag needed help getting away from the law so that he can create a better life for himself. If Montag had been by himself while he was in the process of running away he would have gotten caught immediately. Sad to think that in many situations people will often just want to talk to a person they have not talked to in a while when they need something in return. Abigail Williams is an example of this, in Act 1 of The Crucible she is discovered dancing in the woods along with other girls. The other girls say they were not doing anything wrong, but they all know that Abigail drank the blood of a chicken as a form of sacrifice for John Proctor’s love. Abigail Williams was willing to do whatever was needed in order to get John Proctor all for herself and killing his wife wouldn’t have been an exception. Jealousy makes people act on impulse and when acting on impulse they forget of reasoning and become overfilled with emotion. People do not think about the consequences of their actions or how their actions will affect the people they care about and

In group situations of two or three people out of four can influence the mentality or decision making of the one person that disagrees, but does not want to feel left out so they give in to the peer pressure. An example would be when people are buying things online they would search up reviews and that would cause them to change their opinions on whether to buy the item or not, the person did not have to get influenced by the opinion of a stranger ,but when you see someone disagree in a certain situation it makes people examine the problem more than it should be. Herd mentality is done in a subconscious matter, take a look at your life or even the way you text a person, if you text the person for a long enough time you will start to develop a similar style or tone of writing or talking. Society is prone to herd mentality due to the lack of individual ideas and not wanting to think for themselves. An example of herd mentality would be one of the many challenge that are done online such as; Juju challenge, 100 layers challenge, cinnamon challenge, no brushes challenge, kids makeup challenge.. Etc. Many of these “challenges” are followed by tons of people because a famous person did the challenge so they too want to follow in their footsteps. It is time to make a change and be your own person. There is too much pressure and so many social norms put