Many of us would rather live in a perfect place, somewhere where everyone is happy, a utopia, but in such a place can we really live a fulfilled life? In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag believes that he lives in a utopia. Those beliefs are shattered when he meets Clarisse McClellan, who tells him all her ideas about the past and present of their society, which makes Montag question everything around him. Montag and Clarisse live in a society where burning books is the law and firemen are paid to start fires and not put them out. Books are banned and anyone found hiding any is sent to a mental institution or burned along with their books and homes. Montag lives with his wife, Mildred, and works as one of the firemen.
In a utopian …show more content…
When Montag reads through a handbook for firemen it states, “established, 1790, to burn english influenced books in the Colonies. First fireman: Benjamin Franklin” (Bradbury, 34). The government is teaching them that books have been burned for many years, and that firemen always burned them. The government is lying to them and telling the people that they are doing the right thing by burning books. Once when Clarisse and Montag are talking she asks, “Is it true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?” (Bradbury, 8) and Montag replies, “No, houses have always been fireproof. Take my word for it.” (Bradbury, 8). Clarisse has other ideas and information about their society, but Montag only believes what he is told, because that is the only thing he knows to be true. Their society is teaching everyone, from young children to adults that books are useless and should not be read, and everyone should report people who are reading or hiding any books. Those young children turn into adults like Montag, who only believe what the government tells them, and go on to believe that unless they are influenced by relatives who believe otherwise, like Clarisse’s uncle who had a huge influence on her, and taught her many things the society did not. In a utopian society people cannot live fulfilled lives because they are only taught the …show more content…
Like when Clarisse tell Montag, “If you showed a driver a green blur, oh yes! He’d say, that’s grass, … white blurs are houses”(Bradbury, 9). If the blur is all white, that means that all of them have the same type of house. No one has a different house than the other, and as they all talk about the same things over and over again that might also mean that they all have similar things in their houses. In addition to that Mildred is complaining that they don’t have what everyone else has, “How long you figure before we save up and get the 4th wall torn out and the 4th tv wall put in? It’s only two thousand dollars.”(Bradbury, 20). Mildred is saying that they need to have the 4th wall put in, and it shows that she really wants it because she is saying that 2,000 dollars is not a lot even though it is a big chunk of Montag’s yearly salary, and they just have that kind of money to spend. It seems like Mildred only wants it because it has become a very popular piece of technology, and everyone else has it. This also shows that in utopian societies every one is similar to one another. There is no diversity and because of that people cannot live fulfilled
In a utopian …show more content…
When Montag reads through a handbook for firemen it states, “established, 1790, to burn english influenced books in the Colonies. First fireman: Benjamin Franklin” (Bradbury, 34). The government is teaching them that books have been burned for many years, and that firemen always burned them. The government is lying to them and telling the people that they are doing the right thing by burning books. Once when Clarisse and Montag are talking she asks, “Is it true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?” (Bradbury, 8) and Montag replies, “No, houses have always been fireproof. Take my word for it.” (Bradbury, 8). Clarisse has other ideas and information about their society, but Montag only believes what he is told, because that is the only thing he knows to be true. Their society is teaching everyone, from young children to adults that books are useless and should not be read, and everyone should report people who are reading or hiding any books. Those young children turn into adults like Montag, who only believe what the government tells them, and go on to believe that unless they are influenced by relatives who believe otherwise, like Clarisse’s uncle who had a huge influence on her, and taught her many things the society did not. In a utopian society people cannot live fulfilled lives because they are only taught the …show more content…
Like when Clarisse tell Montag, “If you showed a driver a green blur, oh yes! He’d say, that’s grass, … white blurs are houses”(Bradbury, 9). If the blur is all white, that means that all of them have the same type of house. No one has a different house than the other, and as they all talk about the same things over and over again that might also mean that they all have similar things in their houses. In addition to that Mildred is complaining that they don’t have what everyone else has, “How long you figure before we save up and get the 4th wall torn out and the 4th tv wall put in? It’s only two thousand dollars.”(Bradbury, 20). Mildred is saying that they need to have the 4th wall put in, and it shows that she really wants it because she is saying that 2,000 dollars is not a lot even though it is a big chunk of Montag’s yearly salary, and they just have that kind of money to spend. It seems like Mildred only wants it because it has become a very popular piece of technology, and everyone else has it. This also shows that in utopian societies every one is similar to one another. There is no diversity and because of that people cannot live fulfilled