Fahrenheit 451 is a futuristic novel about a technologically advanced dystopian society, written by Ray Bradbury in 1953. Bradbury depicts a society that is completely content with the suppression of alternative knowledge and learning. The novel reveals that nobody has meaningful conversations, reads books, or explores nature. Instead they are filled with “noise” from televisions that are as large as house walls, radio broadcasts through “seashell” earbuds, or repetitive commercials on subways. Speed limits are so fast, billboards have been stretched out two-hundred feet long, in order to see the advertisement. The primary job function of firemen is to burn all books that are found and reported. Firemen will also burn humans that refuse
…show more content…
The most revealing scenario that leads the reader to such a conclusion is when Mildred and her friends get together to watch a program blaring from Mildred’s three wall televisions, and they begin to discuss politics and the war. They express that they voted for Mr. Noble for president instead of Mr. Hoag, because Mr. Noble was much better looking than Mr. Hoag. “Even their names helped. Compare Winston Noble to Hubert Hoag for ten seconds and you can almost figure the results” (Bradbury 93). Clearly, it was not about the qualifications of either man. It is how attractive the man looks, or how well his name will be perceived. Beyond that type of presidential selection mentality, knowledge about the war is even worse among the ladies. The known facts that they contain are only what they hear from their husbands, which is regurgitated information from the government. “Quick war, because that’s what the Army said. They continued to nervously tell each other that nobody dies in wars, just jumping off buildings, but not wars” (Bradbury 90-91). The behavior and statements demonstrated by the ladies shows that the general public does not want to know or care to know more than what they are told through their televisions or by their government. Power and control in the top levels of the hierarchy structure will always result when people relinquish their own inquiry or limit their access from …show more content…
While there are many indications that point toward censorship through the legality of possessing, reading, or distributing books, there are many more indications that power and control are primary subjects throughout the text. The stratified levels of hierarchy, lack of questioning, and fear of trouble or death are symbolized through the laws, reactions of society, and technological programmed killing machines. Bradbury led readers to ask, why? Without sources to seek information like books, people are left to the suppression of knowledge, relinquishing their own power or
The most revealing scenario that leads the reader to such a conclusion is when Mildred and her friends get together to watch a program blaring from Mildred’s three wall televisions, and they begin to discuss politics and the war. They express that they voted for Mr. Noble for president instead of Mr. Hoag, because Mr. Noble was much better looking than Mr. Hoag. “Even their names helped. Compare Winston Noble to Hubert Hoag for ten seconds and you can almost figure the results” (Bradbury 93). Clearly, it was not about the qualifications of either man. It is how attractive the man looks, or how well his name will be perceived. Beyond that type of presidential selection mentality, knowledge about the war is even worse among the ladies. The known facts that they contain are only what they hear from their husbands, which is regurgitated information from the government. “Quick war, because that’s what the Army said. They continued to nervously tell each other that nobody dies in wars, just jumping off buildings, but not wars” (Bradbury 90-91). The behavior and statements demonstrated by the ladies shows that the general public does not want to know or care to know more than what they are told through their televisions or by their government. Power and control in the top levels of the hierarchy structure will always result when people relinquish their own inquiry or limit their access from …show more content…
While there are many indications that point toward censorship through the legality of possessing, reading, or distributing books, there are many more indications that power and control are primary subjects throughout the text. The stratified levels of hierarchy, lack of questioning, and fear of trouble or death are symbolized through the laws, reactions of society, and technological programmed killing machines. Bradbury led readers to ask, why? Without sources to seek information like books, people are left to the suppression of knowledge, relinquishing their own power or