Theme Of Drug Addiction In Fahrenheit 451

Drug abuse is the habitual taking of addictive or illegal drugs in order to feel a euphoria, treat pain, or help with sleeping disorders. Drug abuse is a chronic brain disease that causes drug use despite the harmful consequences to the user and the people around them. In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the dystopian society portrayed is oblivious to the impact of the censorship around them. Books are banned and if found, they are burned along with their houses. The people in this society do not have time to think about anything because they are constantly surrounded by the constant chaos of loud noises on commercials or televisions and are over stimulated. Addiction and drug abuse is used as a way to escape the harsh problems in society.

When Montag starts to question his society, he begins to take action in order to change the continuous cycle of destruction this dystopian society faces. Montag’s wife, Mildred has been sucked into the addiction of technology along with the rest of this society. Due to over-stimulation from the wall TV’s and other technology surrounding them, they are not able to sleep. To sleep, they continually use and abuse pills, because they are so distracted by the technology around them, they forget how many they take and do not stop until they overdose. As well as over-stimulation, the people in this society also use prescription pills as an escape mechanism from the bleak and fast paced society in which they live. Mildred becomes so distracted with her TV family that she forgets that she takes the pills until the whole bottle becomes empty. “Her face was like a snow-covered island…her eyes all glass, and breath going in and out, softly, faintly, in and out her nostrils, and her not caring whether it came or went, came or went” (11). Bradbury uses Mildred to portray the unfavorable effects drug abuse has on memory and moods. When Montag comes home to his wife it is clear that she has overdosed and it appears to be looked at as normal due to its constant recurrence with Mildred and others. The men who come to bring the people in Fahrenheit 451 back to life

These pills, such as xanax and oxycodone allow people for short periods of time to withdraw from the harsh reality faced today. “Between 1997 and 2002, sales of oxycodone and methadone nearly quadrupled” (Okie). Around 15 years later and the prescription pill problem is continuing to skyrocket. Since prescription pills are dispersed out to anyone by doctors, many people do not realize that it is as much of an illicit drug as cocaine and heroin is. “Misinformation about the addictive properties of prescription opioids and the perception that prescription drugs are less harmful than illicit drugs are other possible contributors to the problem” (NIDA). When people take these synthetic heroin pills, they do not feel as though it is a drug addiction as much as it is a way for them to deal with pain, over-stimulation, and as a tranquilizer. Today, we are currently facing an epidemic with drug addiction and continuously trying to solve the problem with a war on drugs. “The U.S. spends about $51 billion a year enforcing the war on drugs, and arrests nearly 1.5 million people for drug violations, according to Drug Policy Alliance, a drug policy reform group” (Ferner). Since the United States spends so much money on this epidemic, the numbers should start to go down, but it is instead doing the opposite. It is easy to figure out the numbers through doctors, “Increases in prescription drug misuse over the last