Mental Illnesses In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

Visualize a society full of unconscious inhabitants who view technology as their source of life and opinion. Without questioning anything, people are content, lounging around all day with their eyes glued to massive TVs which feed them more false information than real news. This society exists as a parallel to our world today. The widespread use of technology is concerning because of its negative effect on the population. In Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, along with modern-day sources, it is demonstrated that technology and social media are detrimental because they cause mental illnesses, a disconnection from reality, and cause people to stop thinking for themselves. Technology and social media have given rise to mental illnesses.

She is described as having "...her hair burnt by chemicals to a brittle straw, her eyes with a kind of cataract unseen but suspect far behind the pupils, the reddened pouting lips, the body as thin as a praying mantis from dieting, and her flesh like white bacon.” (45-46). This description of her not only suggests that Mildred is like an empty shell, who lacks nourishment, but who also has an eating disorder, most likely anorexia. Her extreme thinness due to her excessive dieting is an obvious symptom. Moreover, when Bradbury compares her flesh to white bacon, it further proves this point since pale and dull skin is another symptom of anorexia. Even traits like Mildred’s brittle hair are symptoms of anorexia as well. Mildred sees images of beautiful women on the parlor walls and has a fear of being different from the way women are portrayed, which causes her to starve herself. Her desire to fit into society’s standards of beauty is what led Mildred to burn her hair with chemicals to bleach it and her lips are most likely red from getting something similar to lip filler. Anorexia is not the only mental illness that Mildred is

Technology is the source of disconnection between people, events, and nature. In Fahrenheit 451, the topic of communication and relationships was discussed by Clarisse, the only person fully cognizant of reality. The night Clarisse metaphorically awakened Montag, she explained to him that she had a peculiar family and discussed the strange things they do what they do. She told him, “Oh, just my mother and father and uncle sitting around, talking. It’s like being a pedestrian, only rarer. My uncle was arrested another time--did I tell you?--for being a pedestrian” (7). Based on her tone, Clarrise observes how the government abuses technology by using its totalitarian powers to convict those who carry thoughts and conversation and act like a pedestrian. This is ironic because humans usually act as pedestrians and this is seen as a good thing in present-day society. For many in the Fahrenheit world, abiding by the law of talking with characters in parlors, scripted to say things that the government wants a person to hear, sounds like an easy lifestyle. Since the parlor keeps you stimulated and a person can only communicate digitally, it is easier than having actual social connections. Connecting through a digital way is very easy because the topics revolve around the viewer. Furthermore, since the people use the parlor walls as their only source of information, they