The Role Of Happiness In Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451

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Lack of Happiness in Farenheight 451 Happiness plays an important and necessary role in the lives of people all around the world. In America, happiness has been an important idea in people’s minds since Thomas Jefferson wrote these words in the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson). Since Jefferson wrote those famous words in the Constitutution Americans have been focused on the idea of pursuing happiness. Happiness seems to be the ultimate goal in our society. In Farenheight 451, Bradbury creates a flawed society where the citizens …show more content…

Suicide is common within the society. This is revealed by when Mildred tried to kill herself and also when Chief Beatty also let himself be killed by Guy Montag. Also by the nonchalance with which the technicians treat Millie after her overdose. “He thought of her lying on the bed with the two technicians standing straight over her, not bent with concern, but only standing straight, arms folded”(Bradbury ?). The people attempt suicide so often that there is a special tool used to pump their stomachs. The tool is operated by technicians, so no doctors are needed. Proof that the people do not love life is shown when Montag killed Captain Beatty. Montag, thinking back, realizes, "Beatty had wanted to die. He had just stood there, not really trying to save himself,...joking, needling, yelling at people and making fun of them" (Bradbury ?).Beatty was in fact a lover of books, but he valued happiness and peace in society as being most important due to the influence of the government. He realised what he had done and felt burdened because of all the books he had burned. The people are not happy because they do not love their life and many want to or try to kill their

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