Fahrenheit 451: the Crumble of Intellect and Communication

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Fahrenheit 451: The Crumble of Intellect and Communication Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury describes a society that has lost almost all of its personal interactions to technology. The fear of feeling inferior has driven this society to accept the absence of knowledge. Guy Montag, the main character, discovers that the ban on knowledge and the shaming of awareness and critical thinking has collapsed all relationships, morals, and liberty. Bradbury foresees the destruction of individualism and freedom caused by restrictions on intellect, and the lack of communication. This prediction calls for a bleak future that does, in fact, draw parallels with censorship in modern society. Bradbury portrays technology as a destructive force against morals, communication, and relationships. In Fahrenheit 451, the citizens are consumed with technology. They only discuss superficial matters, and sit entranced by the state-controlled televisions and radios (Hamblen 819). Ray Bradbury’s piece evaluates the effect that technology has on people and society. “Bradbury's indictment of what he regarded as the mind-numbing qualities of television may thus be extended more generally to the hypnotic effect of fast-paced visual expression and the carpet bombing of the marketplace with advertising and propaganda.” (Smolla 907). The people are dull drones to society and are bombarded by information that they cannot process. They have no motive or ability to question the ban on literature, the status quo of happiness, or intellectual freedom (Sisario 201). Intelligence is ruined by the fast pace of society. “‘People don’t talk about anything.’ ‘Oh, they must!’ ‘No, not anything. They name a lot of cars or clothes or swimming pools mostly and say how swell! But they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else. And most of the time in the caves they

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