Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

In 1953, author, Ray Bradbury, wrote the novel Fahrenheit 451. At this time, novelties taken for granted today, such as cell phones and the internet, had yet to be invented. Astonishingly, Bradbury wrote about a world in which technology was the focal point of daily life, and reading books was illegal. The novel highlighted this ignorance of its society due to their reliance on media for all knowledge and information. Although there is a significant gap in the amount of time passed since the book was originally written until society in 2015, the central themes and ideas of the media consuming life, technology becoming a focal point in the education system, as well as social aspects of life changing due to the widespread acceptance of technology …show more content…
17), allowing Mildred feel as if she is part of the show. She also felt so attached to the soap opera that she reffered to the actors as her “family.” In society today, missing parts are not written into the script, however, the combined use of social media and television makes the viewer feel as though they are watching the show with the actors. For example, in today’s society, television shows of all genres create hashtags for Twitter that appear on the corner of the television screen throughout the show. The viewer can then tweet their opinion about the show with the hashtag on the screen, the television show will then feature a small number of tweets with the hashtags as they happen, allowing viewers to feel as if they are part of the show. This encourages viewers to watch the show live, rather than recording it and viewing at a later time. Although the media, as it appears in Fahrenheit 451, does not act in the same way as media in the present day, the central idea of viewers obtaining a role or …show more content…
In contrast to Mildred, who is entirely consumed by technology, Clarisse McClellan is one of the few members of the population in Fahrenheit 451 who dares to be different and is looked down upon because of it. She does not fit in with her peers at school because she is deemed to be anti-social. Clarisse explains that from her perspective she is “very social indeed” (p. 26). She goes on to explain that she does not “think it’s social to get a bunch of people together and then not let them talk” (p.27) just as they do in school each day. In the novel, society decides what is considered social and who is considered to be normal. Similar to the society in the novel, there is a general stigma surrounding those who go against the norm. For example, the vast majority of people living in society today have a cellphone that accesses the internet, anyone who does not follow this norm is considered to be different. Clarisse is considered to be different because she does not follow the norm just as those who do not have a cellphone are considered to be different. Although being different harms no one, human nature forces society to be critical of anything and anyone who does not follow the norm. Stigma surrounding those who are different in the novel is no different than the stigma surrounding those who are different in present day