Technological Culture In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

In 1689, John Locke published an essay arguing that the mind was like a blank slate (tabula rasa). As one grows older, the experiences one has makes the person one becomes, and influences one’s decision. This theory can be recognized in a multitude of literary works, such as Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit-451. In the aforementioned novel, staples of society in 1953, such as the television, book burnings, and the Cold War, each had a profound effect on it.
The effect of the technological culture of the 1950s is prevalent throughout the book. Even the TV entered the market in 1927, according to Mitchell Stephens from New York University, commercial consumerism of the TV did not begin until 1947 (Stephens). This phenomenon can be exemplified by the

One major influence on the novel was the nuclear weaponry that was a major aspect of the war. As stated by Paul Brians from Washington State University, “Russians had just the previous year exploded their first atomic bomb . . .” this event jump-started the arms race between Russia and the United States (Brians). After this, the threat of nuclear warfare increased to a level never surpassed before. Bradbury reflects this fear, and the possible outcome if the Cold War were to go nuclear, at the end of the novel. Towards the end of the work, a nuclear bomb decimates the city. One characters notes, “‘It’s flat . . . City looks like a heap of baking powder. It’s gone,” (Bradbury 155). The character goes on to wonder how many people knew that the bomb was coming, which was a fear during the years after the first nuclear bomb was created (the fear that at any moment a nuclear bomb could decimate an entire city). Since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism in 1991, there still remains the threat of nuclear war. However, this time, it comes from North Korea. But, as of recently, news outlets, such as CNN, report that North Korea will be stopping its nuclear program and the leaders of both North and South Korea have “issu[ed] a joint statement committing to the "complete denuclearization" of the peninsula” (Westcott). Furthermore, throughout the book, Montag mentions how “[e]very hour so many damn things in the sky” referring to the jets that, presumably, pass through on the way to the war front (Bradbury 69). The frequency of the jets may have been influenced by events such as the Berlin Blockade. After Germany was defeated in 1945, the Allies divided Europe between the West -- capitalistic, democratic, and generally wealthier -- and the East --