Symbolism In Fahrenheit 451

The National Book Foundation is founded on the ideal of creating a better, brighter future through education and self-thought. Ray Bradbury expresses these values in Fahrenheit 451 through the theme of the necessity of self-thought, which he buttresses with his characterization of Mildred and Clarisse, and the conflicting imagery with which they are paired. He uses the two characters to portray the two sides to his defense of self-thought; Mildred the dangers of mindlessness, Clarisse the benefits of intellectualism. The Characterization of Mildred is analogous to the characterization of her society; her mindlessness and ignorance can be transcribed to the populace as a whole. She is a warning from Bradbury; an example of what society should

As it turns out Mildred is dead; she committed suicide by overdosing on pain medication, though not on purpose. In fact, it was her inability to think that really killed her, for she got stuck in a positive feedback loop of taking her pills to forget her pain, immediately forgetting she had taken her pills, and then proceeding to take more. Forget any assertion that Bradbury believes that an absence of self-thought poses a minor inconvenience to society, for he goes right from the very beginning to say that mindlessness can quite literally spell an end to society, just as it did for Mildred. Mildred’s Society is obsessed with the idea of forgetting everything in order to achieve a twisted take on ‘happiness’, primarily through the employment of televisions. The televisions provide a refuge from anything with a possibility of causing sadness, and Mildred fully embraces this norm. She is shown to surround herself with televisions, quite literally with one on each side, so she can see nothing but their ecstasy. They are the source of her

Fahrenheit 451 was written at a point in time in which the world was just being introduced to televisions, which accounts for many of the fears Bradbury addresses about the effect they can have on society. This new form of mass media was largely unknown at the time, and a fear of the unknown is a naturally human trait. While looking in retrospect from today the effects might not be as bad as Bradbury predicted them to be, there are still valuable lessons that can be learned from his cautionary message. Self-thought is a crucial aspect of society, especially so in the modern world where is it all too easy to get lost in mass communication of ideas from all over the