Distraction Versus Happiness Frequently, individuals have amusing distractions and happiness that conflict one another— moreover, individuals live in a world where enticing distraction dominates all of society. The societies in both Fahrenheit 451 and ”Equilibrium”, citizens are so focused on distractions that they do not realize that they have never been truly happy before. Kurt Wimmer’s film “Equilibrium” and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 demonstrate the distraction of over-stimulation from both societies prevents the citizens from realizing that they are truly unhappy. Over-stimulation causes both societies to make citizens content with what they have by having them excessively focus on nonessentials rather than what is actually occurring …show more content…
In Fahrenheit 451, Clarisse talks to Montag and asks him if he is truly happy in which Montag comes to the conclusion that “He was not happy” and that “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask” (Bradbury 32). By being distracted by the overstimulation of society, Montag never realizes that “he was not happy” until finally having a meaningful conversation with someone for the first time (Bradbury 32). By Montag realizing that “he wore his happiness like a mask”, it is implying that Montag believed that he was happy until “the girl had run off with the mask” which is when Clarisse took Montag's belief of being truly happy and made it able for Montag to see that he was never truly happy. A character named John Preston, played by Christian Bale, accidentally dropped his dose of Prozium, which lead him to be able to feel emotions for the first time. By Preston being able to feel emotions, he realizes that killing sense offenders, destroying anything that allows people to feel emotion, and Prozium. By the resistance movement destroying everything that relates to emotions, it eliminates anything that relates to happiness and the ability to have emotion. This causes Preston to realize that without the Prozium, he is truly unhappy with the way the society is. The societies remain oblivious into realizing their unhappiness because they have never felt happiness which contribute to them not realizing that they are