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Progression In Fahrenheit 451

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A Society Without Progression
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a book about a dystopian society where books are burned and thoughts are censored. The society in Fahrenheit 451 is qualified as dystopian, as everything about it is unpleasant and bad. In the story, the main character, Guy Montag, realizes that the society he is living in is being controlled by censorship and ignorance, preventing people from having their own thoughts or ideas. Throughout the story, Bradbury uses many different literary elements and topics to show his view on society and how it can change. The author compares books to imperfection and weapons, and portrays Montag and society as unhappy and ignorant to demonstrate a theme. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury uses metaphors …show more content…
In Fahrenheit 451, the society is made to believe that books are evil and are the cause of judgement and personal comparison. This censorship and way of thinking discourages and prevents the ideas that can be formed by reading. Without new ideas, people are unable to think for themselves, resulting in a shallow-minded, thoughtless society. If a society doesn’t think and create ideas for itself, then progression is impossible. By getting rid of books and a person's ability to use the ideas they receive from the books (taking ‘the shot from the weapon’), the society is making books useless. Later in the story, Faber tells Montag the three requirements for a book to be valuable. Books need to have quality, leisure, and ability to take action based on the ideas you gain. Faber then also explains how this relates to societal rejection of books. “So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life” (83). Bradbury is comparing books to a porous and imperfect face. This shows how the society likes fiction; just as they like clear and perfect faces. However, this expectation is unrealistic as is fiction. Books can cause judgement and hurtful emotions within society. Valued literature shows the reality of life; how the world really is. Society rejects ideas that they don’t agree with, therefore causing everyone to think the same and have the same thoughts. However, this causes lack of unique ideas and real emotion, …show more content…
“He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back" (12). Montag is characterized as unhappy as he realizes that when he really thinks about it, he can no longer be so sure in saying that he’s content with his life. He comes to realize that he is the complete opposite of happy, and what’s worse is that he never noticed the mask covering the reality of his life. The society thinks that books create conflict and getting rid of them will bring happiness, however as Montag learns, this is not the case. The happiness that supposedly comes from burning books is just a mask to cover the emptiness that the people in the society don’t realize they have. Clarisse shows Montag that the emotions he feels aren’t all true and there is no way for Montag to go back or ignore what he now knows. Later in the story, Montag goes to Faber’s house to talk to him about books and what he starts to realize about the society he is living in. Montag tells Faber about how he sees society as dead, with no thought or emotion; just the thoughts they are forced to think. “We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books

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