Social Problems In Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'

While writing a book, an author usually tries to deliver an idea to the audience. These ideas are often connected with a society and a place of a person in it, especially when a book is considered as an anti-utopia. That is why Ray Bradbury's novel "Fahrenheit 451" and Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel "We" can be compared from the perspective of the social sciences, as they both describe the totally rationalized society where the social problems are always put in front of the personal ones. However, this does not mean that the endings of this stories are similar.

To begin with, social problems are always far more significant for the society than the personal ones in both of these books. Thus, the society in them is considered as a homogeneous machine

Thus, the government's aim is to "kill" any kind of romantic emotions and imagination. In the "Fahrenheit 451" this is achieved by making the books completely banned, as they can deliver the ideas that cannot be controlled by the government. All of the books are meant to be burnt and people who read them are considered as mentally deranged. In the same way, in Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel, the government tries to exclude any kind of individual initiative by controlling the social life. There is an exact schedule for every person in this country, everything is made out of glass in order that there are not any secrets. Any nonobservance of this order is punished by death penalty. Moreover, any kinds of art are also ruled by the algorithms, accounting, and logic. In other words, the societies in these books are kept totally rationalized by excluding the ability of imagination and creative thinking, which can make the ideas of going against the society and ruining social structures

Thus, when society tries to achieve the total equality, there always could be found people who would struggle to prevent it and go against the flow. In the "Fahrenheit 451" the system of keeping the people away from any ideas that are not controlled by government starts to fail by the end of the book. In spite of the fact that still, the most people are kept under control, there is a group of people who found the alternative way to spread books and ideas that they try to deliver - remembering them by heart. Whereas in the "We" the same system wins due to the invention fo the medical surgery that is supposed to deprive people of the ability to imagine and dream. This is a great demonstration of how strong is the will of the human to self-expression, as the only way to stop it at all is prevent everyone from physical ability to do