What Is Technology In Fahrenheit 451

Albert Einstein once said, “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” Einstein indirectly referred to the society in Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451. In this story, the protagonist, Guy Montag, is a “fireman” that sets homes on fire if it rumored to have a book in it. The society that Montag lives in is completely dependent on the use of technology. This story shows just how powerful technology can be. Though today’s world hasn’t reached the extreme of the world in Fahrenheit 451, there are many similarities between the societies. Technology has become so psychologically powerful that machines are replacing people, censorship is an extreme part of the government, and …show more content…
Technology has taken over and is destroying the capacity of the human mind. As a fireman, Montag’s job is to burn literature. By burning these books, he is literally burning knowledge. The community in this story knows the law, they cannot read books, it’s simple, but everyone gets curious, “At least once in his career, every fireman gets an itch. What do the books say, he wonders. Oh, to scratch that itch, eh” (Bradbury 59). So much knowledge is being damaged that people don’t even know what is inside of a book anymore. Books help gain intelligence and without some sort of brainpower, people are unable to have a standard conversation. Montag is fed up with nobody having discussions anymore. ”Nobody listens any more. I can’t talk to the walls because they yell at me. I can’t talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it’ll make sense” (Bradbury 78). Montag just wants someone to have a conversation with but everyone is too preoccupied on technology to pay attention to him. No one can even think for themselves, or have a creative thought because they rely on technology to do it do them. Some might say that if we have machines to do work for us, then there is no need for us to obtain an extensive amount of knowledge. To that I say yes, machines are able to do work for us but, there needs to be someone …show more content…
“Burn all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean” (Bradbury 60). By burning everything, the government is putting shield on what people are able to know. If the government is trying this hard to censor information then they must be hiding something. Clarisse made a good point when it comes to censorship, "It's a lot of funnels and a lot of water poured down the spout and out the bottom, and them telling us it's wine when it's not” (Bradbury 27). Clarisse is saying that the government is sugar coating the information they are giving us. In reality, not only the government does this to people but families do it as well. Parents tell their kids lies all the time. For the most part, these lies are to protect the children, or are told because they aren’t old enough to know the information, but censorship is still happening in our everyday lives whether we realize it or not. It is said that the public doesn’t have a right to know what is going on in the government. In my opinion, the government is supposed to represent the people and everyone has a right to know what is going on. If the government is up to something people don’t necessarily need to be told what’s happening, but if a person was curious, that person should be able to find out what is going on. Censorship to a point is understandable, but when it goes as far as burning