Importance Of Family Roles In Ray Bradbury's Happylife Home

Could you possibly imagine living in a society where families are disconnected and almost completely apathetic towards each other? How about a society where people exclusively interact with others via the internet? What about a world where books are burned instead of read? Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, is a book about a fireman named Guy Montag. Montag is a fireman, but these firemen don’t extinguish fires, they ignite them.

In our world, people are starting to become less and less happy because people are starting to give up on the idea of making a real connection with someone. But what happens if people fully give up on trying to make connections with people? At the beginning of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag is a fireman that thinks that everyone in this society including him is happy, but after he meets Clarrise, Mildred tries to kill herself, and he realizes he doesn't love his wife, he realizes that people in this society aren’t happy and that true happiness comes from having a real connection with someone and not just a fake one. After Montag meets his new neighbor Clarrise he starts to rethink the happiness he thought he had before he met her.

People sacrifice the ones they love sometimes for interest or tradition. Most children grow up loving and cherishing their parents. However Wendy and Peter in The Veldt, turn against the people they say they love for their own interests. Mr. and Mrs. Hadley scream in the nursery. Realiz[ing] why those other screams sounded so familiar (Bradbury 10).

In the short story “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”, Bradbury uses the house to represent society and its downfall. Ray uses, “This was the one house left standing” to show the readers that there is only one chance to mold our society before it is destroyed. The house is the only one left which represents the only chance there is to fix the harmful ways society is run before it is too late. Bradbury also uses “At ten o’clock the house began to die” to show that the downfall of society has begun.

With the parents lack of power comes a lack of respect the children have for their parents. As George and Lydia are looking at the lions the authors says "the lions stood looking at George and Lydia Hadley with terrible yellow-green eyes" (Bradbury 3). Ray Bradbury makes note of the lion's eyes to show the power that they can carry and the struggle for power throughout the story. The lack of discipline that the parent’s show their kids cause them to lose their power and authority that parents possess. Since this power isn’t shown by George and Lydia their kids feel as if they have more power than their parents which leads to the downfall of the parents in the end.

This can be best demonstrated through the characters of Mrs Phelps and Mrs Bowles, a pair of Mildred’s friends who “jabber about people and their own children and themselves…and their husbands” in a callous manner. Mrs Phelps even mentions that she is so “independent” that if her third husband was to be killed in war it was agreed that she “…[would] not cry, but get married again and not think of [him]”. Likewise, Mrs Bowles speaks of her “ruinous” children as burdens, stating they were only born for “the world [to] reproduce”, and until then they are “[heaved] into the parlour”. ” These monsters”, as they are described are used to emphasise the lack of unity that can result from abuse of technology. This disconnect is further highlighted when it is noted that “the three women fidgeted and looked nervously at the empty mud-coloured walls” as soon as Montag unplugged the parlour, indicating that although the trio are friends, they do not know how to communicate with one another.

In today’s society, people achieve happiness through interaction with others, but in Ray Bradbury’s dystopian Novel, Fahrenheit 451, his characters believe that they need technology to enjoy their lives. People’s main priority is to be happy and have a successful life. They don’t want to have to worry about anything and just enjoy themselves. “‘You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, what do we want in this country, above all?

Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Veldt” teaches readers that too much technology can have a bad effect on people. In the story, the Hadley family lives in a Happylife Home which has machines that do pretty much everything for them. The machines make their meals, brush their teeth and tie their shoelaces. There is even a nursery for the children that creates any world they could imagine. In the end of the story, the nursery and the family take a turn for the worse.

While family structure has changed dramatically since the 1950’s, what current changes are we seeing; and how is it affecting the roles to which we play in a compromising world. In the 1950’s families consisted of a head of household (the Father), the house wife (or mother); and their offspring (the children). The father’s duty was to bring home the bacon, while making end meets for his family, while the wife stayed home and cared for the children, the elderly; and took on the household duties. These families usually lived in the suburbs, where they raised their children; while teaching them the proper ways of life. During this time in history, young women were expected to find a mate through persuasion, then get hitched; and eventually produce an offspring.

During the 1950s both marriage and birthrates were booming. Woman were getting married at such a young age, which led them into giving birth and starting families at a much younger age than the average woman today. Since a woman’s first priority was considered to be her family, many of them never got the education they wanted or reached their specific career goals. A job barely even crossed their mind and some could not even fathom the idea. They were seen as having such a “full plate” dealing with the household chores and family, that no one thought they could have any time to spare doing anything else.

There’s no typical family as nuclear families as in the past and not everyone lives in a multigenerational household. Same-sex families are also on the rise as sexual ambiguity is undergoing its own wave of acceptance in all political, social, and economic spheres. With the absence of the parents’ presence in the home due to an inability effectively balance work and home life, children could develop an emotional void/absence. Good communicative dialogue between children and their parents where the adults describe their work situation as it relates to the home to create resilient children, could possibly benefit the household.

Although they lead different lifestyles, Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley both deal differently with death in Before the Birth of One of Her Children and To a Gentleman… the latter in a way that is more optimistic than the former. Many similarities are present throughout the writings of the two poets when it comes to the way they speak of death and how to cope with it. Both poets acknowledge their christian beliefs in saying that God holds all power when it comes to death and we, humans, are powerless in that domain. When talking about the fragile subject of death, Bradstreet says, “No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet,/ But with death’s parting blow is sure to meet./ The sentence past is most irrevocable,/

In some works of literature, childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding the author portrays that children are not completely innocent. Golding’s representation of childhood and adolescence also shows us the attitudes children have towards participating in work. In Lord of the Flies Golding portrays that children are not completely innocent.

In the 1950s, parenting methods were very different. Mothers were the primary caregivers while the fathers were considered to be the “breadwinners”. Because mothers were the primary caregivers, they often had more of an influence on the children. In this story, the mother’s advice to her daughter was focused on how to cook, clean, and fulfill other household chores. The advice was more than likely based off of how she was raised and what she had to do herself while being a stay at home mother.

After a long disquiet day of school, eager to plop into bed and enjoy watching a new episode of your favorite TV show. Finally being at ease from all the drama and gossip that lures around the school hallways. Forgetting about the entirety of your assignments for a couple of hours in order to be wrapped in a ball of comfort maintained in a secure environment. Although that bubble suddenly bursts once your ‘loving’ family disrupts that peaceful fantasy. Yells peeping from your headphones, attempting to drown out the noise from your intemperate parents.