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Ray Bradburry creates a society that is run by a government that manipulates its people by providing them with a happy and simple life. Instead, of allowing their own people to think independently, the government tells its society how to shape their lives. In order to keep control, the executives controlling the town, enforce their own mindset through the brutal use of technology. Adam Gopnik quote illustrates the idea that people tend to forget everything in order to stop constant change. This provides readers with a separation between Montag’s logic and that of the average human being in Fahrenheit 451. Throughout the novel, Bradburry suggests that the use of technology in a modern society, creates an environment that uses machinery that is more animated than humans, and filled with distractions, and is run by a government that tells people what to think instead of allowing them to think for themselves.
In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradurry envisions an environment where the society has a very strong connection with technology. This deep connection causes people to stop interacting with one another, and instead to interact with the animated technology. Mildred is described as a character who is obsessed with technology and develops a deep connection with it because of its more relatable and lively ways. This can be seen through her actions and needs as a person living in this extreme society. When Montag feels sick, he asks Mildred, ‘Will you turn the parlour off?’ he asked. ‘That’s my family,’ she replied. ‘Will you turn it off for a sick man?’ he asked once again. She countered with, ‘I’ll turn it down.’ She went out of the room and did nothing to the parlour and came back. ‘Is that better?’ she asked. ‘Thanks,’ Montag responded in a helpless manor. ‘That’s my favorite program,’ she said’ (Bradburry, 48-49). Eventually, readers realize through this quote, that her bond with her so called ‘family’, becomes stronger than any other of her human relationships, thus causing her to put her supposed ‘family’, who she watches on the parlour walls, ahead of her own husband. Here, she replaces reality with a virtual world, because it seems more animated than real life. Montag is aware that Mildred has not bothered to lower the volume and accepts it, which shows that he has accepted the lack of intimacy in their marriage. This creates a separation between the married couple, and shows readers just how much Mildred values her so called ‘family’. Another example of machines being more animated than humans is when Mildred and her friends, Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles come to visit. This is important, because the sole reason why the friends come over is to watch the parlor walls. They speak in a basic manor and never go into detail with one another because they are too invested in the animated programs on the parlor walls. It is easy to tell how basic their interactions are when one of the friends visiting Mildred say the following, ‘Doesn’t everyone look nice!’ ‘Nice.’ ‘You look fine, Millie!’ ‘Fine’. ‘Everyone looks swell!’ ‘Swell’ (Bradburry, 93). The conservations between the women are empty and superficial, just like the programs the friends love watching. They may say, you look fine, but they lack interest in any topics with more depth. This occurs because Mildred and her friends are distracted from real life, and instead are attached to their more lively and animated programs. The TV parlors that take over Montags apartment are a crucial product that represents machinery being more animated than a human’s real life.
Moving on, Bradburry illustrates a society that confuses distraction with happiness, where people refuse to acknowledge faults and corruptions of society. This produces an environment that allows people to remain extremely complacent and elusive to the outside world. This can be represented by Montag’s transition to realizing the problems of society and how mistaken he lives his life. At first, Montag is just like most of the other society, distracted from real life and the troubles of the community. He finally is asked the question: ‘Are you happy?’ (Bradburry, 10), by Clarrise. He soon realizes that he is not happy by responding with, ‘I’m so damned unhappy, I’m so mad, and I don’t know why. I feel like I am putting on weight. I feel fat. I feel like I’ve been saving up a lot of things, and don’t know what. I might even start reading books’ (Bradburry, 64). After Montag is asked that question, he immediately question people and mainly, the things around him. Montag uses the comparison of feeling fat because it generally leaves someone unhappy with themselves, and people can respond to that unhappiness by being satisfied or creating change. Montag has been satisfied in his life by accepting and settling with the way life is supposed to be according to the society he lives in. This analogy is key because it represents Montag’s resilience to the society. By opening a book and gaining knowledge from it, would be similar to someone exercising their body to lose weight. Here, Montag doesn’t want to settle, but instead, he wants to be happy. Another major example of a distraction are the Seashells, especially the ones that Mildred wears. Seashells are Ray Bradberry‘s, form of headphones. They bring music, news, and entertainment to not just her but everyone else in the city as well. Not only does Mildred use them during the day, but she also uses them as a way to fall asleep. Mildred is making breakfast with her Seashells in, and as a result does the following, ‘Mildred watched the toast delivered to her plate. She had both ears plugged with electronica bees that were humming the hour away. She looked up suddenly, saw him and nodded. ‘You all right?’ he asked. She was an expert at lip reading from ten years of apprenticeship at Seashell ear-thimbles. She nodded again’ (Bradburry, 18). When Montag wakes up in the morning after Mildred’s attempted suicide, he observes her making breakfast in the kitchen. This description shows Mildred wearing the Seashell ear-thimbles so frequently that she is used to reading Montag‘s lips instead of actually listening to him. Her simple not to Montag‘s question of the weather she is all right, indicates she has no memory of taking the pills the night before. This situation describes just how much of a distraction the Seashells are, and how much they take you out of the real world. They isolate you and keep you trapped in a bubble that forces you to obey governments rules, that Mildred cannot escape. Overall, the Seashells are only one component of the society that keep you distracted from the outside world and its corruption.
Throughout the novel, Bradburry uses technology that is more animated than humans, and distractions from this technology, to force people to follow the way that the government runs the society. The nameless government that runs the society, controls its people by limiting their power to think by themselves. Instead, the government tells them what they want to think, through the manipulation of technology. Bradburry writes, ‘It had an Eye. The impersonal operator of the machine could, by wearing a special optical helmet, gaze into the soul of the person whom he was pumping out. What did the Eye see? He did not say. He saw but did not see what the Eye saw’ (Bradburry, 14). The technology in this society is so advanced, that Mildreds overdose can easily be taken care of, by two average people, smoking a cigarette. Bradburry uses the eye of a snake to represent personification that symbolizes the evil government and the cruel technology used to manipulate its people. He describes the society that Montag lives in and uses this wording to show how the government can look into an individual’s personal information, which interferes with their privacy. Towards the beginning of the book, Beatty senses some suspicion with Montag and his behaviour after a terrible incident during the job, when a lady burns her house down herself. He pays him a visit and after a deep conversation with Montag, Beatty responds with this, ‘If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, topheavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag’ (Bradbury, 61). Beatty explains this corrupt society to Montag in a perspective that the changes in society are positive. He describes the ideas of a massively controlling government as good things. The government clearly interferes with the right to be informed of important things, and takes away true happiness and judgment rights from people. Since people cannot think for themselves, the government takes advantage of this, and forces the society to follow their rules.
By taking away the people’s ability to think, the government manipulated technology that is more animated than humans and filled with many distractions, to make the society follow their rules. Bradburry predicts a future that is very similar to the society we live in today. With technology such as TV’s and phones taking over our everyday life, Bradburry writes about a society just like the one we live in today.
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