Books, envelopes of information that come in many different styles, forms, and languages, have been a significant source of knowledge and learning for centuries. In her essay “Happy Objects,” Sarah Ahmed explains how “happiness functions as a promise that directs us toward certain objects, which then circulate as social goods” (Ahmed 29). These social goods, in this case books, preserve the connection between ideas, values, and the objects that develop the attributes of our culture. Ahmed’s description of this connection as being “sticky” provides meaning to the positive or negative effects that objects acquire over time. In his novel Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury uses a dystopian society deprived of books and literature to critique the hypocritical mass media transition and conformist …show more content…
Montag’s shift away from the conformal nature of this society truly begins after he sees a crack in the glass façade of the culture that he lives in. Stimulated by an innocent conversation with a young neighbor, Montag starts to question all of what he knows and what he used to believe in. The happy object he comes to grasp are the books that ultimately lead to his societal demise. Rather than allowing Montag, his books, and their possible conflicts of opinion to exist, in an attempt to preserve the censored culture, the entire city is bombed and turned to rubble. Montag’s actions as an affect alien working to maintain his happy object lead to the demise of many of his family and friends. While Ahmed explores what happens to people who do not align their values with society, Bradbury takes it a step further and in a drastic measure exhibits how Montag’s beliefs as an affect alien cause so much trouble for the people in charge that they destroy an entire city in the hope that one societal outlaw will be