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Television and Society
Television and Society
Television and Society
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Mildred finds Montag’s other books and tries to fight him but trusts him, but ends up reading one of the books with Montag. In addition the text evidence says that Montag says to Mildred (pg.65) “We’ll start over again, from the beginning.” Another trial Montag faces is learning about the books from Faber,
Mildred is stuck inside of this world where her life revolves around the parlor. Mildred believes that her family are the walls. Mildred listens to the walls, and it effects Montag’s and her relationship. “ ‘Nobody listens anymore. I can’t talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me.
Montag starts arguing with Mildred about how she is acting. She is depressed and does not even know it. Mildred thinks that the voices in the walls are her family. Montag tries to get her to see what is really happening in society. She is so unaware of her actions that Montag has top tell her, “maybe you took two pills and forgot and took to more, and forgot again and took two more, and were so dopey you kept right on until you had thirty or forty of them in you” (Bradbury 17).
This kickstarts Montag’s massive change in his life. He reads poetry to Mildred and her friends that have come to watch “the parlor”. Her friends freak out and leave. Mildred calls the fireman on her own husband. Montag’s fire chief, Beatty comes to confront Montag who has a moment of moral conflict.
Mildreds first reaction shows the fear in her eyes and face, “Mildred backed away as if she were suddenly confronted by a pack of mice”(63). The description of Mildred backing away can help the reader understand the contrast between them. From an outsider's perspective, it is easy to see that everyone is in a trance and Montag is trying to get
The first line of dialogue that Montag says is “it was a pleasure to burn”(pg. 1), which elucidates that he is just like the rest of the society. Bradbury introduces both of these characters as ignorant so the reader is able to draw a similarity between the way Montag is illustrated in the first page and how Mildred is characterized throughout the novel. This aids in tracing Montag’s coming of age journey because as he gets enlightened, the reader is able to distinguish how his mindset starts to diverge further away from Mildred’s. At the very end of the second chapter leading into the beginning of the third chapter, Beatty orders Montag to burn his own house, and as Beatty is speaking to Montag, Mildred runs past them “with her body stiff”(pg. 108). Through the employment of body language, Bradbury implies that Mildred is the one that turned Montag in to
She is completely innocent and shows Montag the world through a different set of lense. She tells him that people don't talk as much and that why porches stopped being built. She also tells him that firemen used to put out fires. Mildred plays the fool caught up in herself and in her wants. She is there to show how naive people are and what's the norm, always sitting around talking to her “family”.
‘I’ll turn it down.’” (Bradbury 46). Mildred’s unwillingness to turn off the parlor walls emphasizes her true mental state. Mildred spends all her time in front of the walls watching the people on them interact and even interacting with them herself. Moreover, she has formed such a connection with the people on the walls that she begins believing the people on the parlor walls are her family.
(Bradbury 41). Montag considers that he and Mildred are disconnected because the walls between them get in the way of their relationship. Since all Mildred is doing is getting more and more machines, there are fewer real-life connections and a lack of interaction in their marriage. (STEWE-2): Montag came home sick and asked Mildred to get him aspirin and water and turn down the parlor.
After Montag’s house burned down montag was thinking of some of the things that were know buried under it and he couldn’t move. “A great earthquake came with the fire and leveled his house, Mildred had been buried under their somewhere and his entire life was under there somewhere” (Bradbury pg.112). Montag probably couldn’t understand why he did what he did because his entire life was in that house. Montag could be feeling that everything is being taken from him, like now his house is gone and Mildred left. Mildred had decided to turn in her husband then give up her parlor family.
Mildred in the novel is Montag’s wife. She is the perfect example of a conformed person in this society because she is brainwashed by the tv that the government has set in place. Proof of such is when she said, " 'Books aren't people. You read and I look all around, but there isn't anybody!' ".
When Montag reveals his hidden books to Mildred, she does not take time to understand them. “‘It doesn’t mean anything!’” (Bradbury 65). She, instead, worries about how it might affect her image if they are found out. “He could hear her breathing rapidly and her face paled out and her eyes were fastened wide” (Bradbury 63).
One time Montag walked into the ‘parlor’ and saw unknown people saying words that held no depth or meaning. He asked, “What was it all about? Mildred couldn’t say. Who was mad at whom? Mildred didn’t quite know.
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.
In the past few years humans have spent much more time indoors with their technology than outdoors. Televisions, computers, and smartphones tend to draw greater numbers of people inside their homes, just as humans did in the futuristic world of Leonard Mead where no one left their homes at night. (“The Pedestrian”). Children especially have been infected with the media bug, much like Peter and Wendy, who are unable to stray away from their virtual reality in “The Veldt”. It is understandable that many-particularly older- people believe that technology is affecting how human naturally interact with each other and their surroundings.