The Destruction of the Fahrenheit 451 Society Essay Example
The Destruction of the Fahrenheit 451 Society Essay Example

The Destruction of the Fahrenheit 451 Society Essay Example

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When major or even minor problems are found within a society, they can cause a huge meltdown and even the destruction of the whole society. In the book Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the society has to deal with some very big problems. The Fahrenheit 451 society was destroyed through its disregard human life, inability to think, and absence of imagination. In the book Fahrenheit 451, the society has to deal with some big problems that eventually lead to the destruction of itself.

One of the problems that they had to deal with was its disregard for human life. One example of this is when Mildred hears about Clarisse’s death. She forgets to tell Montag until he brings it up to her four days later when she says, “Whole

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family moved out somewhere. But she is gone for good. I think she is dead” (Bradbury 47). This shows that even when Mildred knew that someone died, she did not really care, she just forgot about them.

Another example of the disregard of human life in the Fahrenheit 451 society is when Mr. Beatty figured out that Montag had books, and Montag was trying to decide whether to go to work, when Montag says, “I have not decided. Right now I have got an awful feeling that I want to smash things and kill things” (64). This shows that even when there is the danger of driving fast, he is going to kill things just to let out his emotion, even if it is a human. The Fahrenheit 451 society had to deal with the disregard of human life, and without this, nobody

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cares about anyone else, they just care about themselves. This explains why the society was destroyed.

When the importance of human life is taken away, the freedom to think is also taken away. In the Fahrenheit 451 Society, the government does not want people to be able to think, so it takes away everything that allows them to think. This is the main reason that the society is destroyed. One example is when Captain Beatty was talking to Montag about why books were burned, he said, “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” (61).

When he said this he was saying that when a man gets the chance to think, he probably won’t be happy because he has to make choices. Another example of the inability to think is when Montag was talking to the people who pumped Mildred’s stomach, one of the guys said, “We get these cases nine or ten a night” (15). This shows that a lot of people are so used not to thinking that they even forgot that they took pills. When thinking is taken out of a society, the ability to live and be with other people is diminished almost completely, and this is why the Fahrenheit 451 society was destroyed.

When thinking is absent in a society, it is very hard to find imagination, and when the Government in the Fahrenheit 451 society burns books to stop people from imagining, it greatly shows why the

society was destroyed. One example of where burning books to get rid of imagination was a problem was when Montag was in the fire house and he was playing cards with the other men, and he asked, “Didn’t firemen used to prevent fires instead of stoke them up and get them started? ” (34).

After Montag said that, the other firemen showed Montag that the first fireman was Benjamin Franklin, and his purpose was to burn English influenced books. This explains that the society had this issue for a very long time, which overall lead to the destruction of the society. Another example where imagination and burning books caused an issue is when Montag and the other firemen had to burn a lady inside a house with all of her books. Beatty says, “We’re due back at the house.

Besides, these fanatics always try suicide; the pattern’s familiar” (39). This shows that even when their books are about to be burnt, the people want to die because they do not want to live without having an imagination. When books are taken out of a society , people do not have the freedom to imagine, and if they cannot imagine, they cannot live. This clearly explains why the Fahrenheit 451 society was destroyed. In the book Fahrenheit 451, the society had problems which lead to the downfall and eventually the destruction of it.

Three main problems that the people in the society had to deal with were: the disregard of human life, which ended up making people not care about other human beings; the inability to think, which made the government interfere in

people’s lives to stop them from thinking whatever way necessary; and absence of imagination which made people commit suicide rather than live without having imagination. All of these problems lead to a confused and rather inhabitable environment for everyone in the Fahrenheit 451 society, which is why it was destroyed.

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