Emotional Desensitization In Fahrenheit 451

Cody Horton
Lethridge
English 2 honors
02 March 2023
Fahrenheit 451
Mildred is a good example to define the themes of emotional desensitization and technology. Throughout the book Bradberry describes a woman that is very sheltered, socially awkward and very attached to technology. She uses technology as a form of coping with the repetition of her life. Mildred’s obsession with her parlor is her outlet along with her obsessive with her drug use. Bradberry uses comparison and emphasis to show the rhetorical claims of emotional desensitization and the overuse of technology.
In the very start of the book it talks about Mildred having a mental problem that causes her to forget what she does. In the beginning of the book, Montag walks into the bedroom

He gets her to the hospital in time and she is fine. When Montag wakes up the morning after Mildred attempts suicide, he observes her making breakfast in the kitchen. This description shows Mildred wearing the Seashell ear-thimbles so frequently that she is used to reading Montag’s lips instead of actually listening to him. Her simple nod to Montag’s question, "Mildred watched the toast delivered to her plate. She had both ears plugged with electronic bees that were humming the hour away. She looked up suddenly, saw him and nodded. “Are you all right?” he asked. She was an expert at lip reading from ten years of apprenticeship at Seashell ear-thimbles. She nodded again." (Bradbury) This goes to the next issue at hand: Technology. The obsessive use of it makes the piece of issue much larger than just a little thing in need of fixing. Mildred is attached to technology so severely that she lets the ear thimbles originally just used for sleeping stay in her ears all. Day. Long. She doesn't have a perception of time and goes on with her day the same day he went about the last.Her obsession with technology is evident in many ways. One of the many is that

“Will you turn the parlor off?” he asked. “That’s my family.” (Bradbury) Mildred has left the world she lives in and is a ghost walking through the whole storyline. She's miserable. She feels no love. She has no hope. And she's extremley depressed and suicidal. Bradbury shows that by comparing Montag, and mildred. Montag is interested in reading and finding out what exactly the government is trying to hide. This mindset is very easy to find in contrast to Mildre, who is a normal law-abiding citizen. Montag shows some interest in reading and discovery. Montag shows sad emotion just like mildred but the difference is he can clean up and be ok. "He felt his smile slide away, melt, fold over and down on itself like a tallow skin, like the stuff of a fantastic candle burning too long and now collapsing and now blown out. Darkness. 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." (Bradbury) Emphasis on how Montag feels certain ways