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The moral and ethical implication of guy montag in fahrenheit 451
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Everyone has dreamed for the perfect society. A society where there’s no violence, or hunger. But has it ever been possible? In countless books there are utopian societies turned by dystopian because it is not possible to please everyone. The book Fahrenheit 451 many thought that getting rid of books would get rid of minorities but only got rid of people’s happiness and their knowledge, something that our society strives for today.
In this dystopian society, people burn books for the fun of it and think nothing of what it is doing to them. This is where we start in this world, with Guy Montag a seemingly ordinary man with a seemingly ordinary job, or is it? He is a fireman, but not a normal one in this world they rush to people's home not to help them, but to burn their homes down for having in their possession the one banned item: books. This leads to my thesis today: in the novel Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury writes about the idea that the government is controlling this group of people using technology and false knowledge, this becomes clear to the reader when they burn books to get rid of free thought and free will.
“ It was a pleasure to burn.” (pg. 1) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a dystopian novel written in 1953. The novel is based in a futuristic American society, where technology has affected humanity negatively. The story revolves around a firefighter named Montag, who lives in a futuristic American society where books are banned by a government that fears an independent society.
Effects of technology The overuse of technology has affected man’s willingness to be successful for centuries. This overuse has it caused a lack of communication between humans as well as reaffirming man’s reliance on technology. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury displays how the overuse of technology can lead to the lack of knowledge and communication in society. There are many contributing factors to why the overuse of technology has led to the lack of communication in Montag’s society.
The Doctor, main character of Doctor Who, once said, “You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world! This room is the greatest arsenal we could have.”
When technology holds too much power over a society the people become empty. In the society of Fahrenheit 451 the common person is empty and emotionless, like technology itself. In this dystopian society there is little deep human interaction.
Is our society starting to parallel the one shown in Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451? The book was written in 1953; however the setting takes place in Bradbury's predicted future. Throughout the novel about the firemen who burn books instead of reading them, Bradbury writes about his fears of the future while talking about the consequences of advanced technology. He shows how swift technology has enabled the citizens to constantly move about, and try to accomplish everything. However, this creates a certain speed in their life that also has its consequences.
Albert Einstein once said “ I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots”. Society shouldn’t rely on technology because it can cause lack of knowledge. When people solely rely on technology they're not utilizing their brain. Ray Bradbury predicted the same thing as Albert Einstein when he wrote the novel Fahrenheit 451.
“The small crystal bottle of sleeping-tablets which earlier today had been filled with thirty capsules and which now lay uncapped and emptying the light of the tiny flame” (Bradbury 6). Guy Montag, the main protagonist, had just walked into his home to find his wife passed out and knocking on Death’s door, waiting patiently on his doorstep. Mildred, Guy’s wife, had been prescribed sleeping pills which were supposed to be taken moderately. She tried to take the easy way out of life using the sleeping pills, swallowing all thirty at once. When Bradbury wrote this novel, a lot of people were hooked on opioids because of major companies mass producing drugs like morphine or heroin (CNN).
The opposition of technology in Fahrenheit 451 discourages the technological advancement of the modern world, resists the advantages of innovation, and scrutinizes the younger generation’s interest in technological advances. Bradbury implies in Fahrenheit 451 that the advancements of technology in the modern world will only lead to our downfall. The resistance of innovation is clearly seen throughout Fahrenheit 451 by the blatant referencing of television taking away the need for human interaction, fireproof housing leading to the burning of books, and faster cars pointing to irresponsibility. Bradbury implies that the progression in technology will only lead the next generation into an ignorant stupor.
Prophecy. A word one rarely uses outside of biblical terminology. A word one would not associate with the works Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, yet a term that fits aptly with both novels. To prophesy, as the Webster Dictionary so nicely puts it, means "to predict with assurance...", which is exactly what both authors, George Orwell and Ray Bradbury did through their works. Some might argue that both novels were reflections of the times, or eras, that both authors lived in, and that is a correct assumption.
Bradbury implements the motif of technology further with the aim of evaluating the impact technology has on relationships with one’s identity. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag has an epiphany of what is wrong with his society and how it impacts him emotionally. This development in Montag’s character is guided by Bradbury’s exertion of diction within the line “’Happy! Of all the nonsense.’” (10).
Fahrenheit 451 is a book about the ignorance and censorship of a society where they lack originality, knowledge, and individual thought. Throughout the novel, we learn the dangers of an obsession with technology and no acknowledgment for books. The message that Bradbury was trying to convey, in my opinion, is the importance of curiosity, asking questions, and learning the mistakes from the past. You could see what happens to people when they lose their own emotions such as Mildred and her friends because they simply don’t know. There were no books to teach them how to feel or what to think.
The dystopian classic, Fahrenheit 451, was written by Ray Bradbury at the height of McCarthyism and the Cold War paranoia, a difficult time in history where people lived in fear and censorship reign supreme. Bradbury witnessed in that era a world that discarded knowledge by burning books, while mass media was utilized to fill the minds of the public with useless information. Such elements were present in the novel. In fact, the protagonist, Guy Montag, is a “fireman” who is employed to burn houses containing books rather than to distinguish fire. The novel presents itself in a futuristic American society where books are outlawed and technology has helped to eliminate the need for critical thinking, intellect, and curiosity.
“The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one. ”-Malcolm Forbes. Forbes’s message was brief; nevertheless, the meaning behind it is something that the citizens living in Ray Bradbury’s, Fahrenheit 451, did not seem to comprehend. As readers are introduced to Guy Montag at the beginning of the novel, it’s evident that he is brainwashed by the oppressive demands of the firemen and the rest of his dystopian society. The society in which these people live in is one that deems it necessary to burn books and have these people’s lives revolve around the technology that it has to offer.
