Similarities Between Animal Farm And Fahrenheit 451

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Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” When one person is placed in complete control, they have a tendency to strive for higher power. That power continues to manifest, and could eventually lead to their own self destruction. In these four literary works: Animal Farm by George Orwell, Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury, “Beowulf” told by an Anglo-Saxon poet, and Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the common themes portrayed are that power has led to immense greed and selfishness. Orwell demonstrates this theory best in his book, Animal Farm. He uses animals to represent people in positions of complete power. Overall, the ambition for power could lead to corruption, greed, and/or selfishness …show more content…

Fahrenheit 451 is controlled by what the reader can assume is a group of people, such as a government. Bradbury writes this story taking place in 2026, and gives us a glimpse of what the future could hold for us if we have a leader whose only ambition is to have absolute power (Bradbury 1). Citizens in 451 are being stripped of their knowledge of the real world, and what it used to be like. Montag has no idea that a fireman is supposed to be the one to put out fires, not start them (Bradbury 6). Their government wants everyone to think and know the same thing, it wants the people to act like one person. Bradbury is displaying this message to the reader as a warning. The lust for power leads to corruption, greed, and complete disregard for the well being of the …show more content…

For example, the use of the seashell radios. Montag's wife, Mildred, constantly has this latest technology in her ears. Montag finds her several times lying in bed with them in, and zoned out of the real world. Montag vividly explains the time he saw her with the earpiece in: “There was a tiny dance of melody in the air, her Seashell was tamped in her ear again and she was listening to far people in far places, her eyes wide and staring at the fathoms of blackness above her in the ceiling (Bradbury 39).” The seashells are intended for the people to focus on other people, different noises, and thoughts so that they do not think about their real life reality. The government wants to have control, at all times, over what everyone is allowed and not allowed to think