Social Issues In Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'

During the 1950’s, the number of homes with a television increased from 0.4% of homes to 83.2% of homes. This was accompanied with the increase of birth rates and much more. Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, wrote about these trends along others in his novel. Fahrenheit 451 revolves around a man, Guy Montag, who lives in a dystopian future where books have been banned and many social trends and issues exist. He based his book around societal trends that he predicted were going to become a problem in future society. Fahrenheit 451 accurately reflects many societal trends in modern-day society, such as the desire for instant gratification, the devaluation of human life, and the impact of technology on human relationships.

It was a time of book-burning and close panic, which left Bradbury in disbelief that "[we] would go all out and destroy ourselves in this fashion'; (Moore 103). The writing of this novel was also an opportunity for Bradbury to speak out against the censorship of written literature that was taking place by showing the consequences of it. Bradbury believed that the censorship of books destroyed important ideas, knowledge, and opinions and restricted the world from learning about the problems of their culture. His writing came to show that without such knowledge, society could become very passive, which would make it vulnerable to the control and mind manipulating techniques of the government. Ironically enough, this book itself was subject to censorship on its initial release (Touponce 125). These political, social, and military tensions of the 50's lent to Bradbury's own tensions, calling him forth to alert the people of their own self-destructive behaviors.

The 1950s was a time of booming everything, from new technology, to never ending wars, the 50s had it all, and it was a time where man became more aware. However, in also be-coming more aware, the nation became a recluse towards one another, always being stuck up against a television screen, ignoring their family and not acknowledging the wars that were hap-pening around them, people started to become the same. The novel Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, is about a dystopian society that has banned books, the novel follows around a firefighter, who burns books, named Guy Montag, who begins to ponder on the idea that books are not pointless but resourceful. The author Ray Bradbury uses the novel to depict a nation blinded by technology,

Ray Bradbury created the novel Fahrenheit 451 as a way to admonish future generations against social and economic trends that would emerge during the twentieth century.

Fahrenheit 451 is currently Bradbury's most famous written work of social criticism. It deals with serious problems of control of the masses by the media, the banning of books, and the suppression of the mind (with censorship). Even though Bradbury published this novel in 1953, it predicted a major outlook on how the future’s society would turn out. Technology plays a big part in how we all function in our everyday lives. With technology, everything is much more convenient, and everyone has a much easier access to voice their opinions. In the novel, in order to keep this in line, the government created a culture where it is forbidden to have any outside influences which would promote individual thoughts. In the result of this new law,

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel published in 1950. The novel takes place in the futuristic American society where technology dominates in people’s lives. This is an era of prosperous technological advances, but people’s life quality is bad. The people live their life without knowledge, wisdom, and self-awareness. People are not critical because all books are banned, and illegal. The people think the same thing and they look alike also. The government uses propaganda to manipulate the people. Fear is the effective method the government uses to control them.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Modern World The futuristic world that Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, so vividly describes is frighteningly close to our own. It might not seem so at first glance, but if you take a closer look, you'll find that Bradbury wasn't far off the mark with his idea of what our lives would be like in 50 years. As he envisioned, technology would be extremely sophisticated, families would start becoming distant, and entertainment would take a more significant role in our lives. The problems at the present might not be as extreme as Bradbury's, however, if left unchecked, they could grow to be just as monstrous as he predicted.

This study examines the issue of freedom of information in the story of literary oppression found in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury presents the oppression of an authoritarian state that does not allow its citizens to reads books. Guy Montag is initially a servant of the state that requires him to locate and persecute members of the community that still collect books. In various cases, Bradbury defines the rights of certain citizens to rebel against Guy and the other “book burners”, which suggest liberation from tyranny and the freedom of information. Guy also becomes convenient that the policy to destroy books is a threat to civilization, and the rebellion allows him to change his views and to rebel against the government. More importantly, Clarisse’s role in inspiring Guy to revolt becomes a major catalyst for freeing the society from banning books that are deemed a threat to the social order. In essence, an analysis of freedom of information will be examined in this study of literary oppression found in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

When an author produces a work of literature, they are greatly influenced by the world around them. Inspired by life in society, authors are able to create work that speaks to their observations and views on society and its functions. In the book Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury incorporated the corruption of the society in which he lived in into the dystopian society created in his book. Fahrenheit 451, a fictional book about a protagonist’s attempt to overcome a dystopian society’s corruption, was written by Ray Bradbury while living in 1950’s America. The book focuses on themes of censorship, and illustrates the effects of when a society is controlled and limited. The correlation between the story and the time it was written is

The average person in our society spends 7-8 hours a day(The Washington Post) using technology; that is stuff like television, video games, surfing the web, etc. Let that set in; that’s a long time. Our society procrastinates also is constantly distracted by technology like no other. We are practically glued to technology; before we become slaves of technology we must change that. The theme of technology in Fahrenheit 451 informs us that the overuse of technology makes people lazy/procrastinate, that technology will overpower people’s lives, and technology takes away from people’s education.

Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 presents readers with multiple themes. In the fictional society of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, books are banned and firemen create fires instead of putting them out. Bradbury portrays the society as dystopian. Bradbury crafted the novel to be interpreted intellectually. The characters claim to be happy. However, the reader can conclude otherwise. Bradbury creates a question for the reader to answer: Is ignorance bliss or does the ability to think for oneself create happiness? Bradbury shows the importance of self-reflection, happiness and the ability to think for oneself as well as isolation due to technology, and the importance of nature and animals. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury conveys the stories’ themes through characterization and symbols.

First, the novel expresses the consequences of free will. Kristi Hiner says, "Through Clarisse, the unidentified woman, Millie, and Beatty, you are shown the consequences of what happens when humans aren't allowed to fully express their individuality and choice" (Hiner 1). This shows us how a world without freedom may end up. Next, Bradbury also provides an example of society without books. Hiner goes on to say, "Television, for the majority of individuals in Fahrenheit 451, does not create conflicting sentiments or cause people to think, so why would they welcome challenge?" (Hiner 1). This example helps to paint a picture of the world without books. Finally, the novel illustrates a future without socialization. Paul Brians says, "Socialization has been reduced to group television viewings, and creativity narrowed into brief moments in shows when the audience is prompted to respond to the virtual events they are witnessing, and which absorb them far more than the real world around them" (Brians 1).

Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a display of how humans are relying more and more on technology for entertainment at the price of their ability for intellectual development. It is a novel about technological dystopia, often compared to other novels such as, George Orwell’s 1984 and Asimov Ender’s Game. Although today’s technology has not quite caught up with Bradbury’s expectations, the threat of having his vision of a dystrophic society is very realistic. He sees a futuristic society in which this submission of thought is highly valued. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury displays a futuristic utopian society where "the people did not read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations" (Mogen, Pg. 111).

Ray Bradbury´s wrote a book about this dystopian society where everything in our world is backwards in their world, they can speed, they burn books, and everybody is always gloomy and sad. Montag changed his mindset throughout the book, he went from burning books to saving them from getting burnt. Mildred on the other hand, continuously stayed the same throughout the book. She beginned the book showing she did not care, and carried that same mentality through the rest of the book. Ray Bradbury´s uses contrasting characters in Fahrenheit 451 to illustrate the differences within views of a dystopian society with his development of Montag and Mildred.

Today technology controls almost everything we do, from the way we go places to what we eat. With this power of technology comes good and evil, medicines and poisons. Through technology we have accesses way more information than before. For example every day you can absorb as much knowledge as King Henry the eighth did in his entire life. This is all due to the improvement of technology. Sadly technology also has a bad side, with faster communication, rumors can be spread faster and kids can be bullied easier. The internet can easily become a second world for many people, especially young adults. Technology is the basis for many relationships, especially long distances. Match.com and other dating sites take advantage of the fact so many people use technology as a way to make or maintain relationships. With technology comes a large amount of knowledge that is easily accessible. Some of the knowledge offends or scares many people but our government hasn’t gotten the point of completely censoring everything. In Fahrenheit 451, a novel about a dystopian society, Ray Bradbury illustrates what he believes our world should be like right now. This scarily accurate novel demonstrates the way technology has affected knowledge and relationships in both our world and the world of Fahrenheit 451 in the same way.