Callie Chen Borihane English 2 2023 May 9 The End of Mankind In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and the poem “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats, both pieces of literature emphasize the common theme of society’s increasing ignorance and lack of humanity and similar distresses of the eventual self-destruction of mankind. Both pieces of text warn of mankind’s growing violence and loss of morality. Yeats illustrates a world where the “ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all convictions, while the worst are full of passionate intensity” to warn society of their imminent fate (Yeats). As a result of their thirst of violence, the sense of innocence and purity is drowned in their bloodshed. Even the best of mankind is unable …show more content…
As civilization turns into a place of violence, “the centre cannot hold” and “mere anarchy is loosed upon the world” (Yeats). The poem suggests that control in society will collapse and the center of better judgment is no longer enough to hold people accountable for their actions, leaving a civilization in a “gyre”, or a continuing cycle of violence and bloodshed. Therefore, the people are only to blame for this complete disorder and chaos of mankind. Similarly, this idea is further supported in Fahrenheit 451, as the atomic bomb leaves the cities’ imprint of their lifestyle “in gouts of shattered concrete”, “then the city rolled over and fell down dead. The sound of its death came after” (Bradbury 153). Violence is inordinately normalized in society, almost incorporated in every aspect of their lives. Consequently, it implies how this gruesome end of the city is brought upon them by their own doing. The lengths of going to war brings their violence to a whole new level, yet the civilians’ ignorance makes them completely unaware of the battle that shadows right on top of their heads. This serves as a cautionary tale of the inevitable fate of the self-destruction of mankind of such cruel