Fahreinheit 451

The TV walls that filled the living room of Guy and Mildred Montag and all of the other homes in town did not just separate the people from the world for a few hours of entertainment; they separated people such as Mildred from several aspects of everyday life.

Mildred spends hours of each day in front of her TV wall absorbed by her program that allows her to play along with the actors on the screen. The news, which is broadcasted through the screen, is manipulated by the government; such as when an innocent man is gunned down so that the government can say that they captured Montag. The wall even informs the occupants of the house that someone is at the door. The majority of the people in Fahrenheit 451 are so enamored with their TV walls that they spend their entire day in front of it. They do not question anything broadcasted over it; they believe everything to be fact.

The trust that the characters have in the media broadcasts, along with their fascination with the TV walls, allows them all to be manipulated by the government. The government uses the technology to keep everyone dumb because knowledge allows people to make informed decisions and to ask questions. Burning books was not the only way that people were kept unaware of the actions of the government. The TV walls isolated people, and convinced them that they were happy. For instance, Mildred rarely interacted with Montag because she would miss her programs, and Mildred believed that the people who were burned in their homes for having books deserved it because she was taught by information she received through her TV walls and from early in life that the information in books was all lies and jargon that was meant to define people from one another, and therefore create controversy. Mildred did not know that those people who were burned were good people with great arsenals of knowledge, or that people were run down on the street because she never investigated information for herself; she just followed what she was told without question. For instance, when Montag informed Mildred that their neighbor Clarisse had been run over, Mildred mentioned that she always thought Clarisse was strange. Mildred never questioned why Clarisse was treated so inhumanely.

Mildred, among others, such as her friend who is burdened by the presence of her children, is numb to many basic emotions. She does not seem to feel pain and sympathy for others, or much true love for Montag. She rarely spends time with him because she is watching programs or with friends, and when she finds out that Montag has books in their home, she calls in the alarm on him. Despite obvious faults in the society, Mildred does not react to any of them. She is isolated by her TV walls and the messages that are broadcast over them. Mildred is manipulated by the false sense of happiness that technology gives her; separated from basic human emotions and events taking place in the society. She is very consumed with what she thinks she wants, and thinks little of anything else.




I enjoyed Fahrenheit 451 even though it is a science fiction novel, a genre that has not always been a favorite of mine. There are some startling technologies, such as the dog, but the story is not over powered by scientific jargon and inventions. Bradbury balances his use of technologies in Fahrenheit 451 very well; the technologies supplement the plot and themes, while not overpowering the story so that it is just about the technology. I thought that the TV walls, while it is disturbing how isolating they are, are not that different than technologies we have today. People can buy huge plasma TVs that cover an entire wall, and media can be extremely manipulative just as it is in the novel. Just look at how the paparazzi can publish a picture of a celebrity in a magazine, and many people will believe what ever the article says without any concrete facts that support the story. One could also look at how some books are banned from certain schools, or at how in some countries, the news is edited for content by a government agency before it is broadcasted.

There are probably many people who would act in a similar manner as Mildred because it may be easier to make yourself believe that you are happy, than to question what is going on around you and fight for change; that is not that new of an idea to me. What was disturbing to me about this book was how many comparisons that can be made between this society that clearly had major issues, and the one that we live in.