Technology and the dangers that modernization can bring is a
common theme that runs throughout Fahrenheit
451. Technology controls the society
of this novel. Televisions and radios
dominate the past times of citizens, and they are led to think that it is fun. Society teaches these people that life is
about enjoying yourself and being happy.
Love and compassion to others seem like an obsolete thing in this novel. Technology remains in control because it
overwhelms its prey. "Thank God for
that. You can shut them, say, ‘Hold on a moment.’ You play God to it. But who
has ever torn himself from the claw that encloses you when you drop a seed in a
TV parlour? It grows you any shape it wishes! It is an environment as real as
the world. It becomes and is the truth. Books can be beaten down with reason.
But with all my knowledge and scepticism, I have never been able to argue with
a one-hundred-piece symphony orchestra, full colour, three dimensions, and I being
in and part of those incredible parlours." (Bradbury 80). In this quote Faber is explaining to Montag
that books are different from television because books have to be thought about
and understood while TV is like a flood hitting you. Technology goes to the senses first, not the
brain. Its power can brainwash a person,
yet leave them as empty as before. The
dangers that technology possesses are very real. Even in our society today these modernized
ideas both do terrible deeds and make great advances. Ray Bradbury was simply stating his case that
television can be a tool used for evil purposes if allowed. He understands that a fine line exists
between enjoyment and obsession with the intangible. Literature is important because it involves
thought to accomplish reading, and the reader than has the chose to believe
what is written or not. Reading involves
conscious decisions while watching television does not.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.
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