Examples Of Brainwashing In Fahrenheit 451

The media is a tool used to brainwash its viewers. Throughout the book, Fahrenheit 451, people how signs of being manipulated by the media. The media uses its entertainment to send subliminal messages to its viewers and keep them happy and mindless. To be happy is a blessing, but it is also a curse in disguise. The masses’ thoughts are kept under lock and key, only given the freedom to think what the media wants them to think. These effects are shown in scenes of the book such as the parlor families, Captain Beatty’s lecture and Montag’s police chase. An example of brainwashing in Fahrenheit 451, ties in with the so called “parlor families”. The main character’s wife, Mildred, loves to spend er time watching the parlor walls, wall-sized television …show more content…
At the time, Montag had been wracked with guilt over seeing a woman light herself on fire and burn along with her books. Beatty visits him during his leave to give him a lecture about why the world is the way it is and to help open his eyes to the reason why people allow it to be so. Beatty state, “Peace Montag. Give people the contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damn full of “facts” they feel stuffed, but so absolutely brilliant with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking.”(61) The people of Fahrenheit 451 do not think for themselves. The media shoves pointless facts down their throats and bloat their minds with statistics. The people learn nothing important and have no real thoughts, yet they do nothing about it. The facts and statistics they learn pacify them and make them feel content, as if they know all there is to need to know. They are the equivalent of sheep in a pen being fed the same grass over and over without growing tired of