Fahrenheit 451 Social Commentary Essay

Fahrenheit 451 is full of indirect social commentary about social and political issues today. Ray Bradbury made it so that the dystopian society is parallel to our society today in ways such as technology, substance abuse, lack of feelings and compassion in a relationship, and social media causing people to not communicate with one another and making it able for people to easily forget and ignore what’s around them. Technology nowadays is a distraction. “And in her ears the little seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind… There had been no night in the last two year that Mildred had not swum that sea, had not gladly gone down in it for the third time.” (Bradbury 10). In this quote, Bradbury used seashells and the ocean, comparing it to earbuds and music, or sound. He states that Mildred always swims that sea, meaning that she’s always listening to something with her earbuds, whether it’s music or people talking. He had a …show more content…
The use abuse of any sort of drug or alcohol can lead to isolation by peers. Some people find it as a way of distracting oneself from others. In Fahrenheit 451, Mildred overdoses on some pills. “Maybe you took two pills and forgot and took two more, and forgot again and took two more, and were so dopey you kept right on until you had thirty or forty of them in you.” (Bradbury 17). This quote allows you to realize that Mildred is pretty much numb to her surroundings, and is careless that she has overdosed. This is a real life problem, and Bradbury gets the reader to be aware of what overdose or substance abuse can do to a person. Like said before, substance abuse causes isolation from peers, and it is clear that Mildred was not even aware of her surroundings. Mildred did not die, but it did affect her and others which does happen in our society