As the technology seen in our society becomes stronger, our ability to be without technology has become weaker. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the character known as Mildred is an illustration of this. Mildred is seen as someone who is addicted to the technology that she is presented with. Because of this addiction to screens and other devices, she has become both absent minded and clueless. With this in mind, I believe that our society will become populated with little Mildreds. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Mildred is never seen without a device. This reflects our society because many individuals are attached to their devices as well. For instance, many teens are addicted to screens. Because of this addiction to screens, many live with
Fahrenheit 451 is a book written by Ray Bradbury. The main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman, but instead of starting fires, he puts them out. Montag’s wife, Mildred, expresses shallowness and mediocrity. She is completely immersed in technology and spends all of her time watching her “family” on television. She is addicted to sleeping pills and even overdosed on them in the beginning of the novel.
In Fahrenheit 451, books are a controversial issue where they burn any home containing books, but even though all that, Clarisse and Mildred still have different views on books. This can is seen when Clarisse first meets Montag, and she ask Montag if he “ever reads any of the books [he] burns?’” (8). Showing how Clarisse is curious about books and what reading them is like. Mildred, however, is opposite because she could careless about books.
In Fahrenheit 451 Mildred, who represents the masses, is a perfect example of overuse, and abuse of mass media and technology. She is constantly surrounded by t.v’s, the parlor, ignoring anything and everything that went on around her, and she can be compared to Katherine 1984 who in some ways was the same. Katherine in 1984 was also a representation of the masses, and she was constantly fed by the party through telescreens, which like the parlor in Fahrenheit 451 were everywhere and always on; the only difference is that the telescreens also had cameras to watch the people and to keep them
Television screens are plastered everywhere, thoughts are discouraged, and nobody grows, or broadens their horizons from this strong and impulsive addiction. Suffering in silence, people have become negatively impacted by the misuse of tech, making them numb, bleak, and dysfunctional, taking away from the real things in life. Every day people are hurting, bottling their emotions deep down inside of them, whether they realize it or not. This theme is common throughout Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Marionettes, Inc., subtly shown through the character's dialogue and emotions. Technology can be a friend, but in this case, has been used as a malicious mace to swing against the vulnerable people of society.
Although people do not necessarily engage in those types of actives as described in Fahrenheit 451 in the present day, the rise of “smartphones” and “tablets” are doing the same thing. They allow anyone to access information from anywhere, and when you have an unlimited source of information at your fingertips, why would you
Society is slave to technology. As technology continues to advance we decrease our appreciation for the simple things in life. However, there are a few people left who enjoy the smaller things in life and choose to turn away from the “normal” of society. In Fahrenheit 451 we see these characteristics through both Clarisse McClellan and Mildred Montag.
Throughout history, society has bared witness to the effects the use of technology has imposed on humanity and individual lives. These effects have changed the directory of how one lives. There have been advantageous contributions made by technology, but there have also been unfavorable contributions that have come out of the advancements of technology. These effects are evident in the novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury. In Bradbury’s society of Fahrenheit 451, the overuse of technology possesses the most severe effects such as a lack of deep, personal connections with others, and an over-reliance on devices to fill the needs of society.
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.
Technology usage rates in today’s world are immense, Pew Research Center says that about 85% of American adults use technology on a daily basis. In Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, the rate of usage is significantly higher. The novel’s futuristic society has outlawed all books, forcing citizens such as Mildred and her friends to turn to technology for knowledge instead. As a result, a majority of the civilization possesses such a low mental capacity that there is rarely a reaction to the constant threat of nuclear war, or any event leading to the development of the society. Bradbury uses Mildred and her friends’ poor mental capacity to demonstrate both how reliance on technology damages one’s ability to think for oneself, and
Literary Analysis Essay In “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, technology affects many aspects of the characters and how they interact with each other. Because of the effects of technology, Mildred is greatly disconnected from reality and shows lots of emotional desensitization. Mildred is drawn towards certain technology, such as her big screen tv-walls that act as some sort of virtual reality.
Mildred Montag, a character in the novel, symbolizes the consequences of living in a society consumed by technology and media. Mildred’s unhealthy obsession with her three televisions and seashell ear-thimbles has driven her to learn how to read lips, making communication with others nearly impossible. Guy Montag remarks that she “had both ears plugged with electronic bees that were humming the hour away”(pg, 17) showing how her addiction to technology and distractions has led her to become isolated and disconnected from the outside world. In the novel, this addiction to distractions is used by the government to suppress knowledge and independent thinking, leading to an intellectually and socially disowned society. Fahrenheit 451 serves as a powerful warning against the dangers of excessive reliance on technology and media, emphasizing the need for human connection and critical thinking to maintain a healthy and independent
Mildred is mesmerized while listening to programs such as this, and Bradbury uses this to present how much of a repercussion addiction can have. Unfortunately, society hasn’t learned from Bradbury’s warning. 70 years after the publication of this novel, we are all addicted to our phones, laptops, iPods, and other devices, and just like Montag and Mildred, we find ourselves increasingly separated from one
In Fahrenheit 451, Mildred’s “deep” connection to the parlor and her refusal to turn it off affects her relationship with Montag because she spends more time communicating with technology than with her husband. During one of the few conversations between Montag and Mildred, Montag asks “‘Will you turn the parlor off?,’” to which Mildred responds, “‘That’s my family…’ ‘I’ll turn it down.’” (Bradbury 46). Mildred’s acknowledgment of the parlor as her family proves how technology has taken a more personal role in her life.
(Bradbury 46). She relies on it for entertainment and she acts as though she can not live without it she even thinks of it as family. In today's society, this is also a reality making Bradbury’s perception of the future true. Many people in today’s society are addicted to technology just like Mildred and it negatively affects their lives in a lot of different ways.
While Mildred’s characterization is an exaggeration, with today’s technologies she has become more relevant, relatable, and tragic. It is remarkable how much prescience Bradbury demonstrated in writing Fahrenheit 451. The Seashells Mildred uses resemble modern day earphones, and how she tunes out the world in favour of “an electronic ocean of sound” (19) predicted how people today would do the same while listening to music or podcasts on their mobile devices. Her TV walls are much like the numerous digital screens that permeate all parts of our lives and hold our attention. Or, the TV parlour and the scripted parts Mildred plays in the shows can be seen as an early concept for virtual reality video games.