A Dystopian Society in The "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury

Our world as we know it today will turn into a dystopian society! Governments will end up stalking it’s citizens and soon control their own thoughts and behaviors about certain subjects. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag is a fireman who burns books and later meets a teenage girl named Clarisse. One day when Montag goes home he realizes he wife Mildred had tried to commit suicide. IN a world where books are forbidden Montag become more unsatisfied with his life and starts to collect books secretly. His boss, Captain Beatty, starts to become suspicious since Montag starts to skip work to visit Faber a retired English professor.

Mildred finds out he had been collecting books and turns him in but Montag does not realize he has been turned in until he gets a call to burn a house down until he has to burn his own house down. Montag almost gets caught but somehow runs away to the country where he finds his place in society and escapes the jet bombing the city. Fahrenheit 451 is an ideal dystopia because citizens who depend on technology have trouble maintaining genuine relationships, freedom of thoughts are only slightly limited, and censorship is limited to books.

The citizens encompasses multiple technologies such as telescreens making them have problems with sustaining pure relationships. In Fahrenheit 45, Ray Bradbury illustrates the dangers that come with the overuse of technology such as troubled relationships with other citizens in society. Mildred has been watching the tv parlor for a long while now and Montag, Mildred’s husband had wanted her to stop watching so much of the telescreens.

Montag had had enough so he asks Mildred to turn the parlor off and she replies with no. Montag asks, “‘Will you turn the parlor off?’ he asked. ‘That’s my family’” (Bradbury, 48-49).Mildred seems to be a lot more focused on the telescreen rather than her husband, Montag. Technology is being used to entertain the citizens and is slowly diminishing the purity in having genuine relationships with other citizens. Mildred shows how the society is controlled by technology and how the tv parlor is affecting the authentic relationships. Mildred is overusing the tv parlor and her social interactions are repressed due to the obsession of technology. Mildred’s obsession of telescreens are preventing Mildred from being more social towards her husband. Mildred is not the only character throughout the novel that proves that this is the most ideal dystopia to live in.

Clarisse shows how freedom of thoughts are only slightly limited. Freedom of thoughts are slightly limited to society because the government want to allude to the fact they live in a perfect society.Bradbury emphasizeshow the citizens freedom of thinking had been restricted to make the society look perfect. The government did not want the citizens questioning the society or become curious about how the outside world works, however, Clarisse had asked multiple questions which leads to Montag taking a look at his profession of burning books. Clarisse exclaimed, “I’ve lots of time for crazy thought, I guess”.

Clarisse take the time to slow down and acknowledge the world around her instead of rushing. Clarisse had a lot of time to question many things the government is hiding from the society. She questions Montag’s happiness and tries to understand why he isn’t happy. Clarisse also questions things about the society that would affect her knowledge of the outside world that the government is trying to hid from the society itself to make the society look perfect when in reality it isn’t. Not only had the government been restricting the freedoms of citizens thoughts the government had censoring books.

Included by topic sentence to previous paragraph as a transition. Bradbury wants us to realize information and various other things are constantly being kept from us. Burning books is to keep the society unschooled in a way that the government is controlling what information is being passed to the citizens. Books present knowledge and the society is banned from books because it raises concerns of the way the government works and what’s wrong with their world. Captain Beatty proclaims to Montag, “Cram them all of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of facts they feel stuffed, but absolutely brilliant information”.

Books are illegal because the government wants the society not to be educated because knowledge of the outside world is bad. Having ownership of a book will end up with your house being burnt if the someone finds out you have one. The citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance because one person will end up turning you in for possession of a book, this is the government’s way of controlling the society and keeping the citizens uneducated of the outside world or even the world around them. Censorship of books is displayed and present throughout the entire novel since the government doesn’t want its citizens to be educated.

Day to day nothing will change in a dystopian society, the way people think and interact with others will change with technology and show knowledge will be the same as it was today. Technology troubles many people interactions with other while people’s freedom of thoughts and censorship of books are limited. The United States government had its citizens under constant surveillance especially when we shop for things on the internet and go to facebook and see an ad for that product. The government tracks our technology and what we search as a way to control its citizens. The world will turn into a dystopian society over time with governments constantly tracking every citizens mover in their daily lives.

Works Cited

1. Bradbury, R. (1953). Fahrenheit 451. Ballantine Books.
2. Brians, P. (2011). Common Errors in English Usage. William, James & Co.
3. Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Secker & Warburg.
4. Postman, N. (1985). Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Penguin Books.
5. Rosenfeld, S. (2016). Dystopian Visions: Dystopian Novels and Films and Their Influence on Contemporary Culture. Lexington Books.
6. Sargent, L. T. (Ed.). (2005). Women of Wonder: The Classic Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1940s to the 1970s. Wesleyan University Press.
7. Suvin, D. (1979). Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre. Yale University Press.
8. Weinberger, D. (2011). Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room. Basic Books.
9. Westfahl, G. (Ed.). (2005). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Press.
10. Yaszek, L. (2018). The Future Is Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin. Library of America.