Examples Of Dystopia In Fahrenheit 451

Kellee Vest
Matthew Simon
English 103-011
12 September 2014
Utopia: Dystopia in Disguise “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do” (Gandhi). The quote above explains that if one seeks social or personal change, both aspects must change together or not at all; they have a symbiotic relationship with one another. Change must be a cause and effect reaction, meaning that if a change is made, others will see the change and do the same. A thematic example of this would be the film Pleasantville. In the film, the society is one commonly described as utopian or perfection but in reality
it is quite the opposite. The members of the society or symbolically painted black and white to show their lack of individuality and creativeness. As the story progress, members of the society begin to learn about things outside of their so-called perfect life; their change is seen when they transform from black and white to living in a world of color. Similarly in the novel Fahrenheit 451, the characters live in a false reality where challenging the status quo is frowned upon to the utmost consequence. Both forms of society function in an imperfect form of Utopia; the government makes their decisions for them, their means of entertainment have no deeper meaning, and everything they experience and are apart of has surface level depth. Because of that, being a rebel in this society does not go unnoticed just as changing from black and white to full color in Pleasantville was hard to disguise. However, the rebels in both settings are the difference makers. The world is altered is by their desire to see change, even though that change differs from the situational norm that is forced upon society. By challenging the societal norm and wanting more for themselves and their families, both societies are actually transformed from a falsely utopian society to a functioning dystopian society. They do this by speaking out for things they believe in; such as free will and the ability to find memories or imaginative qualities in books, and not being afraid to go against the grain or to stand up for something that is clearly unjust. Although the term “dystopian” usually has a negative connotation, in this setting it is seen as more of a term of relief and rebuild.
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is set in a futuristic yet believable mid-twentieth-century America where: the people of the society have “started and won two atomic wars” (73), books have been deemed unrighteous, and anyone who partakes in reading books or even having them in their households are threatened by the firemen to have both their belongings and households burned to ashes. The technological advances in the novel supports the dystopian genre by showing that because of the rise of new technologies books have become obsolete and with books being gone the general level of intelligence is seemingly low. People are more focused on what is already available to them rather than what the outside world has to offer. The firemen own an eight-legged Mechanical Hound that hunts and chases those who escape from the firemen’s raid, four-wall televisions hold the entertainment for the members of the society, “Seashell” radios are in the ears of some as they sleep and even transmit entertainment full of commercials so the town never has to be bored. By having these advances, there is no need for people to have ingenuity or creativity in any part of their daily lives: work, school, or entertainment. These luxuries interrupt them from seeing that the way they are living is leading them into a false
reality. In addition to the takeover of technology, it is easy to to see that this society is generally emotionless.
The families and individuals of Fahrenheit 451 are empty, loveless, suicidal, and displeased; these characteristics originate because they are truly living in a false utopian society, if everything was perfect like the government had planned it to be there would be no world wars, no death, no crime, and a lot more emotion. On boring nights in the town, the firemen let rats, chickens, and cats loose in the streets and then release the Hound on them, creating a betting game on to which will die first. The women of the society take nightly drives out to the country, driving fast and hitting rabbits or dogs for their own entertainment. Teenagers of the society will often do the same only striking pedestrians instead of small animals. The lack of emotion across the board causes Guy Montag to come to one of the most honest realizations of the novel, when he states, “We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing” (82). This realization is what sets him apart as a rebel in this society. He sees that there is more to life than being violent and living in a painted happiness. In agreement with this ideal is Rafeeq O. McGiveron, of Critical Insights, he states, “yet even as they serve governments that quash thought and emotion and individuality, often in the name of some greater societal goof, they are not mere yes-men or slogan-mongers”
(McGiveron). McGiveron refers to Montag’s rebellious nature in saying that although he works for the government, who is ironically an organization formed to protect the good of the society, he is not a conformist or a “slogan-monger” rather someone who seeks originality. Eventually Montag becomes aware of this and is able to reveal his true self by finding a way that allows for the city to begin to grow again from the ashes of its past ways. This new world will be a place where reading books is accepted, freedom of speech is allowed, and individuality is praised. All of these traits represent what it is truly like to be an American in a perfectly imperfect society. Without rebels, realizations like Montag’s, and even the eruption of advanced technology, there would be no change. A society without change is a society that fails because when the nature of one person changes “the attitude of the world changes….”

Works Cited
McGiveron, Rafeeq O. "“They Got Me a Long Time Ago”: The Sympathetic Villain in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451." Critical Insights: Dystopia. Ed. Keith Booker M. Salem Press, 2012. Salem Literature Web. 15 Sep. 2014.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.

Pleasantville. Dir. Gary Ross. Perf. Tobey Maguire and Joan Allen. New Line Home Video, 1998. Film.