Fahrenheit 451 Predictions

Bradbury’s Predictions of the Future “Sometimes writers write about a world that does not yet exist. We do it for a hundred reasons. (Because it’s good to look forward, not back. Because we need to illuminate a path we hope or we fear humanity will take. Because the world of the future seems more enticing or more interesting than the world of today. Because we need to warn you. To encourage. To examine. To imagine.) The reasons for writing about the day after tomorrow, and all the tomorrows that follow it, are as many and as varied as the people writing” (Gaiman). Some writers compose books about future utopias just for their own delight and amusement, but others may incorporate their thoughts onto pages of books as a way to send out a message
of warning to the citizens of the current society. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 was written as a book of warning to give a heads up to people about what the future world may turn out to be. From the time of World War II to the present, the dependence on technology for everyday living has grown immensely. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury wrote this book about a world filled with conformity and the advancement of technology, but little did he know that his predictions would come true on how it affected communication, entertainment, and security. When Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in the 1950s, he must have wanted to change something about the world around us after seeing the discrepancies and the struggles that were prevalent during World War II. World War II was a time of dictatorship and control in Germany, discriminating against people based on their appearance as well as their religious beliefs. Citizens tried to conform to the government’s qualifications in order to fit in or would go into hiding in an attempt to stay safe. Adolf Hitler, the ruler of Germany, was in power and had chiseled a vision of a perfect world. With the help of his army and defense system, he slowly began to create his vision of an impeccable world with the use of his power, control, and most importantly his intelligence and charisma. "I ate, drank, and slept books... It followed then that when Hitler burned a book I felt it as keenly please forgive me , as his killing a human, for in the long sum of history they are one and the same flesh” (Bradbury). Since Ray Bradbury grew up during this time period and saw how far Adolf Hitler’s actions got him, he may have wanted to send a message through the use of books in Fahrenheit 451 that being book smart and intelligent will give one an advantage. German citizens began to follow Adolf Hitler’s regulations and ideas, while being oblivious to what damage he was actually causing behind closed doors all due to his use of propaganda. In Fahrenheit 451, when Montag finally escaped from the society he lived in, the government, although they never ended up finding Montag, had to keep their image of control. This being said, similar to Adolf Hitler’s propaganda, the government in Fahrenheit 451 faked Montag’s death by airing it on television. The government did not want the people of their society to know their own perfect government had failed their mission, so they showed what the people wanted to see rather than the truth.
With the United States defeating the Axis Powers, Ray Bradbury may have wanted to write his thoughts about what war would have been like in a future utopia, having an advancement of faster cars, faster communication, and easier ways of living. During the time period of World War II, the daily lifestyle of an American soldier was more complex compared to the twenty-first century. Technology during the 1930s to the 1950s was lacking characteristics that modern technology holds. In World War II, the medical aspects were not as advanced, and some medics during the war almost dreaded having to hear their name be yelled across the battle field. A large percentage of soldiers died in battle during World War II due to lack of medical care. “Once the medic reached the wounded man, he did the briefest examination, put a tourniquet on if necessary, injected a vial of morphine, cleaned up the wound as best he could. Sprinkled sulfa power on it, slapped on a bandage, and dragged or carried the patient towards the rear” (WWII 195). When Mildred overdosed on sleeping pills, the two men who came to the house brought two machines with them: the first to suck the toxins from her system and the second to remove her blood while replacing it with fresh blood. Compared to World War II, in Fahrenheit 451, medical technology was quicker and more reliable by having machines that could detect and fix the problems almost instantly. Weapons were slowly becoming modernized as World War II had progressed. During the war, German officers and Adolf Hitler’s army were discriminating Jews and other people by executing them or sending them to concentration camps. Eventually, the German officers under Adolf Hitler’s control became so used to killing that it appeared as if it was a norm. In Ray Bradbury’s future utopia, the fireman can be compared to Hitler’s army, being emotionally numb from destroying houses that contained books even if there were people in the houses. The firemen in Fahrenheit 451 used advanced weapons to burn the books which could have been a way Ray Bradbury wanted to represent the effect of the boom of weaponry production during World War II will have on the future. “Thus, the wartime planning of weapons research and production might be considered a forerunner of today’s complex project management capabilities, for which we are beginning to plan and develop technologies” (15 Margolin).
Technology in the 1950s was viewed as a privilege.
The use of technology was not as reliant as it is today, and people back then were unaware of its capabilities. Entertainment consisted of watching programs on a boxed television set with less than five channels to pick from, listening to the radio to tune into local baseball games happening that day, or playing records on a record player to dance to music. Compared to the fifties, the people of the world today are more consumed with entertainment than they are with knowledge, which fulfills a prediction Bradbury made in the novel. In Fahrenheit 451, the use of television walls was to show how it can take control of a person’s well-being. Mildred was so consumed with the entertainment the television walls or the parlor brought to her life that watching the walls became more of a necessity than it a leisure. Children, adolescents, and adults are consumed with watching Netflix or television series that it causes them to put off their educational growth opportunities or work life. Apps on cell phones and computers have taken the place of physical activities meant for enjoyment through interpersonal
contact. The use of technology not only serves as a distraction, but affects the ways of communication. People treat technology as important as their significant other or as if it is more important. “Will you turn the parlor off?” he asked. “That’s my family” (46). Mildred was so controlled and engaged with the parlor walls that watching the television was more essential to her than it was having a conversation with her own husband. This idea of a family in Fahrenheit 451 was like a relationship except the love and emotion aspects were not included. Mildred and her friends even admitted that they probably will not cry when their spouses pass away, nor would Montag cry when Mildred passes. Compared to the traditional face-to-face communicating, calling others on the phone, or mailing letters in the 1950s, technology has replaced some of these things with a screen to hide behind. The twenty-first century era is beginning to grow towards an antisocial society. Bradbury portrays this role through the relationship between Mildred and Montag. Mildred becomes more focused on the parlor that she begins to be less interested in what Montag has to say or is doing. One main influence brought to the twenty-first century was the internet. It affects not only relationships, but the way people communicate with others as a whole. Over the past few decades, with the advancement of technology, writing letters has slowly grown to be a thing of the past, being taken over by email. The social media industry has replaced the usual way of getting to know a person, being able to “creep” on a person’s social media profile to see what they are like before actually getting to know them in person. Online dating in the world today is like blind dating in the 1950s, not really knowing exactly who the person is. Face-to-face communication has turned into talking to a person through virtual messaging via text messaging, direct messaging on social media, or by picture messaging. In the novel, Bradbury portrays the television walls like social media, where one is able to communicate with friends through a digital wall. Other than social media, one can interpret the television walls as being portrayed similar to digital billboards, being able to showcase advertisements, warnings, weather updates, or relay information to the public quickly. Hiding behind a screen through social media and the internet does not guarantee that one is actually fully veiled.
Social media allows the user to post or share information freely through the use of the internet, but information being shared every minute of every day is capable of being tracked even if the user does not personally share their location. In Fahrenheit 451, the hound was an accurate representation of a tracking device since it was able to track Montag’s location based on basic information. “The mechanical hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the firehouse” (24). The hound was always able to sense where Montag was at any given time even if Montag did not know he was being tracked. This being said, the role of the hound in Fahrenheit 451 could have been to represent another aspect Ray Bradbury had predicted of the future: how privacy and security will change. The present technology that is being used in today’s world has the ability of finding locations instantly or can unveil where people are located based on what they recently posted on the internet or social media. Therefore, some internet users are not fully aware nor are they well-educated about the internet’s capability of breaking through their wall of privacy. The Global Positioning System, also known as GPS, is a common aspect in technology in our current technical society, found in almost every
smart phone and gives one the power to look up or navigate from place to place. Other than in smart phones, the Global Positioning system is found in drones. Unlike during World War II, drones have tracking competences similar to the hound.
Through Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury wanted to give a glimpse of what the world, filled with conformity, would be like if books were to be replaced with advanced technology. Little did he know his predictions and messages would come true. Technology has transformed our society into an antisocial world filled with people who are so reliant and consumed with the latest technology. The knowledge gained through books is irreplaceable and will never be more important than technology. A book acts as if it were a human life; once one is lost, it is hard to replace the death of living words.