Mindless Technology In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

Since the beginning of time, the human mind has thrived immensely from learning new information. As an individual grasps new material, they start to form new ideas on their own, which branch out more and more as they are shared and considered into further detail. Throughout Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, the characters learn that replacing education with mindless technology only leads to destruction of one’s self and society. In this book, the main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman that burns books that are appointed to be illegal by the government. He is in a world where reality shows are prioritized, and education is neglected. He doesn’t realize how corrupt his life is until he’s introduced to the idea of stealing a book and reading

They’ve been converted into these violent fools, and they aren’t even able to comprehend what they’re doing wrong. The amount of violence that the citizens experience is so consistent that it has even spread to their children and their lives at school and between friends. Clarisse talks with Montag when she shares some of her personal experience with her peers. She says, "I'm afraid of children my own age." They kill each other, too. Did it always used to be that way? My uncle says no to that. Six of my friends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks. I'm afraid of them and they don't like me because I'm afraid” (Bradbury 28). Clarisse reveals that she experiences such an extreme level of violence with her classmates that she’s legitimately afraid of them. Her own peers kill each other. This society is resorting to violence because they don’t know any better. As they have been prohibited from most literature, they rely merely on technology to provide entertainment for them. Without an escape into the world of fiction, they’re stuck in a cycle of struggle with one’s

This causes struggle within individuals, which then leads to conflict with others, which results in abuse as we can see happening with the characters.Your brain controls your emotions which affect how you act around other people. If your brain is struggling, you cause others to struggle. Since the citizens of Fahrenheit 451 are prohibited from reading real truth, the human mind has resorted to violent defense in order to survive. The characters in Fahrenheit 451 face a lack of truth, they’re stuck in a mindset that’s overflowing with pure lies. Being constantly surrounded by false advertisements on television and everywhere you look will make your opinions seem to be the same. If you’re oblivious to what true literature looks and sounds like, your mind is going to be completely astonished once you get the slightest exposure. Mrs. Phelps is one of Mildred’s friends, who has also been overly obsessed with her television. Montag reads her part of a poem and she says, "You see? I knew it, that's what I wanted to prove! I knew it would happen! I've always said, poetry and tears, poetry and suicide and crying and awful feelings, poetry and sickness; all that