Preview

Conformity In Fahrenheit 451 Essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1256 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Conformity In Fahrenheit 451 Essay
Imagine a world where citizens no longer think, books are illegal, and TV is the main form of entertainment, this is the type of society described in Fahrenheit 451. Mildred Montag is a woman molded by society to be their perfect robot of a citizen. She keeps a seashell radio in her ear preventing any thoughts, ideas, or memories she may have. Mildred also hates books and believes they are meaningless, which is an average characteristic of the people in Fahrenheit 451’s society. A third characteristic of her that makes her an ideal citizen is that she is an emotionless drone. Overall Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, presents the dangers of conformity through the works of Mildred Montag, who is molded by society to be their ideal citizen. In Fahrenheit 451, Mildred is like an average citizen at the time because she hates books and believes that are meaningless. As stated in Fahrenheit 451,”Mildred kicked at the book. Books aren’t people. …show more content…
Mildred Montag is a fireman’s wife who is controlled and shaped into society’s perfect citizen. She keeps a seashell radio in her ear preventing any thoughts, ideas, or memories she may have, which completely withdraws most of her mind’s skills. Mildred also hates books and believes they are meaningless, which is an average characteristic of people at the time. A third characteristic of her that makes her an ideal citizen is that she is an emotionless and desensitized robot. The dangers of these characteristics are far worse than they may seem, they stretch anywhere from completely debilitating their choice making skills to completely destroying their memory. What is even scarier is that every single one of these issues we have seen before, from the Nazis burning books, to people keeping earbuds in their ears, these issues are not at all as far fetched as they may

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 was a futuristic novel written by Ray Bradbury in the 1950s. In this new society the government rules and citizens are expected to obey the rules. Guy Montag, the main character, is your average man: a firefighter who is living happily, or so he thought, with his wife, Mildred, and follows the rules set in place by the government. He was average until a girl, Clarisse, helped him understand the value of knowledge therefore, allowing him to see the truth of society. The characters of Mildred and Clarisse serve as foils to one another in Bradbury’s novel thus symbolizing the dark and isolated aspects of the dystopian society, via Mildred, versus the light and incorporated aspects of society via Clarisse both sparking a sense of curiosity in Montag.…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Imagine a world where everything has changed-- firemen start fires instead of putting them out, books are illegal, and TV dominates life. Imagine a world where family dynamics have changed, and society is about as twisted and delusional as possible. In Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, this world becomes a reality. In this novel, the firemen start fires, not put them out, because they live in a world where television is life and the family dynamics and definition of social have changed quite a bit. In this world, a fireman named Montag changes his perspective on life after he meets a young girl named Clarisse, who teaches him the true value of life. In the wonderful book Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury creates a world where family dynamics…

    • 1661 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    How would you react if everything you knew wasn't right but wrong? The book Fahrenheit 451 by, Ray Bradbury is about a man name Guy Montag that is unhappy with his life being a firefighter that starts fires by burning books. This book is based on the future. When Montag finds out the truth his life changes. Montag meets Clarisse, Faber and, Beatty his world changes for better and worse.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451, is a sci-fi novel that informs the reader of the potential damaging capabilities of technology and mass media. Bradbury also expresses his concerns that individual interactions with others will become shallow, insincere, and devoid of any emotion. This is portrayed through Mildred and the way she is consistently focused into the parlor walls and her technology which makes her unaware of her surroundings. Her lack of emotional presence is presented by the way Montag walks into the room and initially describes it as “not empty” then “indeed empty”. The use of this paradox is to emphasise to the reader that although Mildred is physically present, her emotional existence is absent. Further into the novel, the reader understands that Mildred’s attempt at suicide alludes the fact that she is in great pain and that her obsession with technology is an escape from confronting the emptiness of her life. Her unawareness of her own suicide attempt signifies that although she is alive she lacks the ability to truly live.…

    • 955 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Society can change a person positively or negatively. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, Mildred is the wife of the main character, Guy Montag. Society has made Mildred self-centered, robotic, and unfeeling.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mildred runs away from problems instead of facing them head on, and she also thinks technology is the most important thing in the world. On the other hand, Clarisse finds the little things in life so enjoyable and so precious. At the beginning of the story, Montag catches Mildred trying to commit suicide. He comes home to his lifeless wife. When he comes home and sees Mildred, the books stats, “His wife stretched on the bed, uncovered and cold, like a body displayed on the lid of her tomb, her eyes fixed to the ceiling by invisible threads of steal, immovable” (Bradbury 10). Mildred the next day denied that she tried to kill herself. She tried to take the easy way out of her problems. Her view of the world is that if someone has a problem or flaw in their life the best thing to do is to commit suicide. She would rather die then face her problems. Also, she thinks the most important thing in life in technology. In the book, they have parlor walls. The walls are huge TV screens where people are consumed in useless shows that brain washes anyone who constantly watches it. Later in the book, Montag gets sick and instead of Mildred helping her husband, she stays glued to her TV show. Montag asks her to turn it off so that she could help him, but instead she just turned it down and continued to watch it. Her view of the world is that technology is more important then the well being of others. She rarely…

    • 897 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To some people knowledge is what powers society to new heights, to others however knowledge is just another word in the english language. There is a distinct difference between these two types of people making it so easy to compare and contrast them in many aspects. Fahrenheit 451 shows these two people in the world at an ongoing battle between each other which sets it up for quite the conflict. In Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury conveys that knowledge supersedes ignorance through Clarisse changing Montag, Montag getting Mrs Bowles out of his house, and showing the effects of television to society in negative ways.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 Paper

    • 1747 Words
    • 5 Pages

    People start to think about rebellion when the government rules people tyrannically for a long time, trying to control people’s thoughts in a forceful way. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury describes a dystopian society where no one is allowed to read books or think freely. The government’s strong control of people’s minds infuriated Montag so much that he even abandoned the job that his father and grandfather both did, which was being a fireman and burning books. With the help of Faber, an old English professor who also wanted to go back to the free-thinking and free-reading world, Montag managed to steal books and carry out a plan against the corrupt society and firemen. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury uses the theme of the relationship between conformity and rebellion to illustrate how books enlighten people and how an oppressive government can stimulate people to revolt.…

    • 1747 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 features a fictional and futuristic firefighter named Guy Montag. As a firefighter, Montag does not put out fires. Instead, he starts them in order to burn books and, basically, knowledge to the human race. He does not have any second thoughts about his responsibility until he meets seventeen-year-old Clarisse McClellan. She reveals many wonders of the world to Montag and causes him to rethink what he is doing in burning books. After his talks with her, the society’s obedience to the law that bans knowledge, thinking, and creativity also increasingly distresses him. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury shows conformity in the futuristic America through schooling, leisure, and fright.…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Most of Fahrenheit 451’s dystopian society spend most of their time inside their houses controlled by technology unable to respond to their surroundings. Mildred, like others, lives inside her house in front of screens, they are unable to process what is going on around them, they live inside unable to socialize with others. In her house, mildred is not…

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In our day and age, books, ideas, and creativity, are widely acclaimed throughout the world and make up everyday life. Imagine living in a world where all those things are feared and the only time they are brought up is when they are destroyed. Individualism sure means the world to us, but it certainly did not mean much to most of the characters in Fahrenheit 451. Within the text, books represent danger, and the ideal life in society revolves around the use of technology as a form of entertainment. Characters are flat and cannot see what they are missing in life by getting rid of everything they think is bad. Ray Bradbury uses an idea of skewed “happiness” in society to create a dystopian world that outlines the effects of human society conforming to sameness to establish, “the ideal life.” In the text, people chose to censor the world because they believed that was the way to “happiness.” Furthermore, Mildred was used as a symbol of the people in society to show how mindless the world can be in order to achieve the perceived idea of “happiness.” On top of that, the notion of totalitarianism was used to show how easily people can be molded into doing things to create a “happier” outcome.…

    • 1648 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Usually the first thing that comes to someone’s mind when they think of dystopia is the opposite of Utopia which means happy. Many people live in a world of modern dystopian tradition in that their country may be under communism, some type of cruelty, forced to believe a specific way, or just live in a strict world in general. In a dystopian world, such as Anthem, people are raised and must live by extremely harsh rules with forced beliefs and a world of forced happiness but overall internal unhappiness. Social commentary and Dystopia relate to each other in that a lot of people advertise dystopian societies or universal issues by using social commentary. A billboard of corporate funding companies with devil wings shoveling stacks of dollar bills in a pit of fire next to a anorexic sick child, a true example of social commentary advertising a dystopian issue. Fahrenheit 451, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?, and American Oxygen, are all examples of how people use social commentary and style within advertisement.…

    • 1661 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The people in Montag’s society don’t think and feel like the people in today’s society do. Mildred, who is Montag’s wife, spends most of her time taking in mindless media. She is so consumed by the parlor walls and the Seashells that she no longer spends time with her husband. When asked,…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mildred is a prime example of a conformer in Fahrenheit 451. This society turned her into a drone, she believes…

    • 876 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a book that should be taught in a high school student’s education because of the warnings and important messages it displays. In my opinion, the most important message in the book has to do with the misuse of technology. Bradbury even says himself that technology can be useful in some ways, but that it can’t and shouldn’t replace human connection and interaction. He uses the example of TV’s on all four walls to get his point across that people are paying more attention to TV, rather than actual people speaking to them. This repeatedly happens with Mildred throughout the book and it helps flip a switch in Montag’s head. He finally realizes that’s not how human interaction is supposed to work. It propels…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays