(AGG) Fahrenheit 451 has a message that was once very clearly explained by John Lennon: “If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there 'd be peace” ("Quotes about"). (BS-1) The main character in Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag, lives in a very material-desiring society. (BS-2) The citizens living in his society end up less compassionate due to this materialism. (BS-3) Those who aren’t materialistic, however, are not lacking in the trait of compassion. (TS) A major message in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is that materialism is the root of a lack of compassion in society. (MIP-1) Montag’s society is very materialistic. (SIP-A) Throughout the novel, one example of this is Montag’s wife, Mildred, who only cares about her material …show more content…
(MIP-2) This materialism causes a lack of human compassion. (SIP-A) When Montag is clearly distressed and looks toward Mildred to confide in, she doesn’t show any compassion towards him. (STEWE-1) Montag stays home sick one day. After smelling kerosene, Montag vomits on the carpet, and-very obviously looking for comfort-talks about his experience the previous night. "Mildred came in, humming. She was surprised. 'Why 'd you do that? ' He looked with dismay at the floor. 'We burned an old woman with her books. ' 'It 's a good thing the rug 's washable '" (Bradbury 47). The only thing that Mildred is worried about is her object, the rug, not her husband or his health. She is only concerned that her piece of furniture was damaged, not about the mental state of her own family. Mildred’s lust for objects distracts her from the things that should really matter. (STEWE-2) The day before this incident, Montag also asked Mildred whether she could remember where their relationship had started. Mildred responds with: " 'Funny, how funny, not to remember where or when you met your husband or wife... It doesn 't matter '" (Bradbury 40). Mildred does not think of her relationship as being anything worth remembering; She doesn’t care about it. The only thing she cares about is how this relationship brings her more material objects. (SIP-B) Mildred’s friends also show this lack of compassion, through how they treat their children as well as each other. (STEWE-1) When …show more content…
(MIP-3) One can regain that compassion by dissociating themselves from this materialism. (SIP-A) An example of this are the characters Faber and Granger, who are not materialistic, as they often criticise the materialism of others. (STEWE-1) When Montag meets the travelers, Granger explains the things which his grandfather told him, many years ago. “‘See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories’” (Bradbury 150). Granger’s grandfather told Granger this piece of wisdom, along with others, that Granger admits shaped him into the man he is in the present. “Granger turned to Montag. ‘Grandfather’s been dead for all these years, but if you lifted my skull, by God, in the convolutions of my brain you’d find the big ridges of his thumbprint. He touched me’” (Bradbury 150). In following his grandfather’s guidance, Granger did not become as acquisitive as the rest of his society; rather he opposed this
Nothing Is Ever As It Seems Looks can be deceiving, weather they are the cover of a book or the appearance of men and women . In some cases society and the world around us can be misleading. Between Clarisse’s outgoing personality and Mildred’s fear of change Guy Montag is set up to make a choice to go against a society that is largely misguided. Clarisse and Mildred are important to Montag’s life because Clarisse is incredibly interactive towards Guy and open his eyes to see the wrong, his wife, on the other hand, begs montag to keep things the way they are. Clarisse had her strange ways to interpret how society has formed over the years to lessen any confusing matters; although it was often that her strange ways in the category of being antisocial.
Ray Bradbury’s novel ‘Fahrenheit 451’ warns of the dangers of technology and blind obedience through the character of Mildred Montag amongst others. Although Mildred is a minor character throughout the text, her image as the poster girl of the dystopian vision of the future Bradbury had created highlights that in a society where technology is all-powerful and all-consuming, true happiness is seldom found. Bradbury depicts characters who have an awareness of life outside of technology to be genuinely happier and more sincere, whereas those who have conformed to mores of society are consequently dissatisfied with life. Ultimately, it is Montag’s realisation that there is more to life than shallow conversations and parlour walls, and the happiness
Society becomes more advanced everyday, but no one knows what an advanced society is like. Fahrenheit 451 is a book taking place in 2026. Books are banned at this time and a fireman 's job is to destroy them. Guy Montag, a fireman, burns books every day for the government . One day, Montag meets Clarisse, who is a wise girl who loves books.
The past quote, Mildred takes the money that Montag earns for granted she doesn’t care how much he is earning. Mildred is greedy in buying items for herself. (STEWE-2) When Mildred is with her earphones, she will never take them off. Even when she sleeps, she will not take them off.
The society that Montag lives in is corrupted by technology, it impacts their cognitive and mental state. Mildred, his wife, is ignorant about situations and supresses reality she overdoses on sleeping pills, and does not come to realize it. Everyday she watches television and pretends she is in a play, refuses to spent time with Montag she rather watch tv and all she talks about is having another tv set up in their home. She refuses to have a baby because they bore her, and calls the tv her family. Mildred claims she is proud of her life although she’s lonely in her empty house when Montag is at work, she’s surrounded by her own thoughts.
Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, presents a society in which humans suffer from depression, fear, and loss of empathy which are the result of censorship of free thought and knowledge. Humans suffer from loss of empathy due to their lack of human interaction. People live in fear of the government as the dystopian society deprives the people of knowledge. Depression is evidenced by suicidal tendencies caused by hollow lives. Bradbury uses the loss of empathy in order to demonstrate the effects that censorship of free thought and knowledge have upon the individual and society.
Mildred, the wife of Guy Montag, accurately portrays one of society’s brainwashed citizens who is controlled by technology so much to the point where she’s emotionally and physically drifted away from her own husband. From whenever Montag tries speaking to her or asking her for assistance, she can never seem to be disconnected from her so-called, “parlors” that symbolizes a modern day TV. She’s constantly referring to the people on her parlors as, “her family”(49), which is quite strange considering that Montag is the only family she has, yet she shows no feelings or contempt for him. Even Montag realizes their distant relationship which is why he, “wouldn’t cry if she died”(44). This implies how a normal person in their society is modernized
After Mildred woke up from overdosing on pills she responds to Montag in her usual incomplete sentences such as “Didn't sleep well. Feel terrible. God, I'm hungry. I can't figure it,” (pg 16). If Mildred was better at talking and thought more on her own she would not have answered like this.
Montag is concerned and calls for help. Help arrives and takes care of Mildred. When the help is about to leave, Montag asks “First, why don’t you tell me if she’ll be all right?” (Bradbury 13). In Fahrenheit 451, when Montag realizes that Clarisse has disappeared, a dis-ease begins to develop within him.
“Gray animals peering from electric caves, faces with gray colorless eyes, gray tongues and gray thoughts looking out through the numb flesh of the face” (Bradbury 132). The people in Fahrenheit 451 are exactly as the protagonist, Montag, describes them: gray, animal, dehumanized and lifeless. Ray Bradbury has built a society in which people spend their days mindlessly watching television. Violence, bullying and murder are common, especially coming from school children, who spend their school days watching even more television. Montag is a fireman who burns books and slowly comes to understand the dehumanized and meaningless state that his society is in.
Montag starts arguing with Mildred about how she is acting. She is depressed and does not even know it. Mildred thinks that the voices in the walls are her family. Montag tries to get her to see what is really happening in society. She is so unaware of her actions that Montag has top tell her, “maybe you took two pills and forgot and took to more, and forgot again and took two more, and were so dopey you kept right on until you had thirty or forty of them in you” (Bradbury 17).
After Mildred had been distracted, and accidentally overdosed on sleeping pills, he keeps realizing more things; like that he does not know where him and Mildred met. Consequently, after learning this he wants people to express their feelings deep down inside. Additionally, Faber influences Montag’s actions and choices. At the very end of the book Faber gives Montag advice, “You’d better head for the river if you can, follow along it, and if you can hit the old railroad lines going out into the country, follow them. Even though practically everything’s air-borne these days and most of the tracks are abandoned, the rails are still there, rusting.
She is the first person who challenges Montag and gets him to truly think. She triggers Montag’s questioning of life, what he is doing, and his relationship with his wife Mildred. Upon their first encounter Clarisse begins asking Montag questions, questions about a time when firefighters put out flames not started them, a time when life was a bit slower. She asks, “Are you happy?” once Clarisse is home Montag responds, “Of course I’m happy.
(10) The 'she ' the quote refers to is Montag 's wife, Mildred, and she is
Ray Bradbury 's novel Fahrenheit 451 delineates a society where books and quality information are censored while useless media is consumed daily by the citizens. Through the use of the character Mildred as a foil to contrast the distinct coming of age journey of the protagonist Guy Montag, Bradbury highlights the dangers of ignorance in a totalitarian society as well as the importance of critical thinking. From the beginning of the story, the author automatically epitomizes Mildred as a direct embodiment of the rest of the society: she overdoses, consumes a vast amount of mindless television, and is oblivious to the despotic and manipulative government. Bradbury utilizes Mildred as a symbol of ignorance to emphasize how a population will be devoid of the ability to think critically while living in a totalitarian society. Before Montag meets Clarisse, he is