Fahrenheit451

“Fahrenheit 451” Social Commentary Tyler Mesa In the novel “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, society is constantly criticized. The book is about Guy Montag, a fireman, who is married to a selfish and ignorant woman named Mildred. One day, while walking home from work, Montag meets a girl named Clarisse. Clarisse is described as antisocial, because she loves to think and talk, while social people just stand next to each other without a thought and listen to music. Later in the book Montag reveals that he is harboring a book, which is illegal in the country. When his boss discovers this and confronts him, Montag melts him with a flamethrower and flees the city. Throughout the book, Montag realizes that his current society has no loving relationships, no emotional connections with friends, and too much censorship. Montag first realizes that he has no relationship with his wife; she cares more about her TV, otherwise known as the family, than her husband. This realization is first noticed when he is trying to find the purpose of books. In the middle of reading one of the books something happened; “A telephone rang and Mildred snatched up the phone… Montag walked to the kitchen and threw the book down.”(74) Mildred had, instead of helping her husband solve his problem, looked for an excuse to talk to her friends. Reading further into the quote, we discover that they were talking about a TV program. Not long after the first incident, when Montag’s fire truck pulls up to his house, Mildred abandons Montag, runs into a waiting taxi and speeds away murmuring “poor family, poor family, oh everything gone, everything everything gone now.”(114) At this point Mildred has totally abandoned Montag, and only regrets that she can’t watch her beloved wall sized television. When Guy talks to his boss, he finds out that Mildred was the one who sent the alarm to the fire house. Mildred abandons Montag in his time of need several times throughout the book, and it is clear that no one has any relationship with their spouse. In the novel Bradbury also insults society’s censorship. The government hides a lot of information from the public, such as history. Evidence of this censorship is found when Beatty, Montag’s fire chief, says “… Need to know the history of our profession. They don’t feed it to the rookies like they used to. Damn shame.”(53-54) Beatty knows that the history told in the fireman handbook is wrong and has lied about it. The book lies because if the population knew that firemen used to put out fires, they would start questioning why the current firemen started the fires. That would require books to be made. More evidence of Bradbury’s insults toward society takes place when Mrs. Bowles says “… I laid it on the line for President Noble. I think he is one of the nicest looking-men ever became president.”(96-97) Mrs. Bowles and her ‘friends’, as well as everyone else in the country, only care about the looks of their leaders and never look at their political views, causes, or their goals. The candidates are according to their physical appearances and habits. Noble was handsome, while Hoag, his competition was overweight, spoke quietly, picked his nose, and was dressed poorly. The candidate’s views are hidden from the public so they vote based on appearances. People in the book have no emotional connections with friends or family. Mildred proves this when she says, “My ‘family’ is people, they tell me things. I laugh. They laugh! And the colors!”(73) Mildred is stating that her best friends are TV characters and announcers. She has no real friends and doesn’t truly know anyone. Clarisse supports this when she says, “Being with people is nice, but I don’t think it’s social to get a bunch of people together and not let them talk.” Schools let kids form groups, but they don’t let them get to know each other. No one, adult or child, has any emotional connections except with the TV. In “Fahrenheit 451”, Ray Bradbury insults society in several ways. He states that people have no relationships with their spouses. Montag and Mildred certainly prove this when she betrays and abandons him. Bradbury also states that the government censors too much. They lie to the people about history and politics. Who knows what else they lie about' Bradbury comments on how the people have no emotional relationships with friends or family. Clarisse states this when she describes children as people standing next to each other and not talking. “Fahrenheit 451” states that people have no relationships, no emotional connection, and too much censorship.