Written in 1953, Ray Bradbury’s science fiction novel Fahrenheit 451 depicts a society where books are outlawed and people indulge in modern technology. Because books contain profound knowledge, they represent individualism, which refers to free and independent action or thought. The totalitarian government in the novel fears that individualism will lead to rebellion; therefore, books are banned and burned. The government also implements various modes of indoctrination in order to establish conformity, or correspondence to certain standards, in society. Montag, the protagonist, is a fireman whose job requires him to burn books, but several mentors help him recognize the faults of government suppression. By doubting the government and defying …show more content…
To maintain social and political order, the government broadcasts its indoctrination through the radio (Bradbury 11). According to scholar Christopher Atkinson, citizens have been “conditioned to stop questioning” the government because they are supplied with “a constant drumbeat of information” (5). Because citizens are accustomed to the government’s propaganda, they do not doubt or challenge the news being presented. As a result, no one in society thinks original thoughts. Instead, they accept the information that the government imposes on them, which is detrimental because society becomes stagnant without diverse ideas. Faber, a retired professor and one of Montag’s mentors, muses, “We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam” (Bradbury 83). Good rain and black loam, in this case, represent the authentic and distinct thoughts of individual people. Flowers, then, portray the standard views that the conformed citizens have. The citizens rely on the government to feed them ideas, resulting in society’s failure to thrive. Because people do not even attempt to think original thoughts, no one learns anything and the society therefore remains static. Furthermore, the government forces people to watch television in an attempt to create a “quiescent population, lulled by a kind of non-thinking awareness” (Patai 42). Because people have television to indulge in, they can “forego independent thought” and instead revel in “mindless escapism” (McGiveron 246). Therefore, the mindlessness of society can be attributed to conformity,