Fahrenheit 451 Society

In the book Fahrenheit 451, Montag’s society, attempting to be utopian, bans the use of books, and owning books. If someone is caught with them, their house and the books in them are burned to ashes. For some, this may seem like a good idea, but it causes many problems. People begin to turn all their attention to technology as they no longer have a source of entertainment. They’re so focused on their TV show or radio station that they begin to not care for others to the point that even death means nothing to them. People are glued to their technology and only their technology. Everything else just fades away. This imaginary society raises the question if ours is like theirs, if we are similar to them. However, our society is far more different than similar as we have different morals, values, and higher social expectations than that in Montag’s

To illustrate, as mentioned earlier, Clarisse was killed by getting run over by a car. That person didn’t even stop to help her and they didn’t get punished for it. Later in the book, Montag almost gets run over and he realized that the driver was speeding and wasn’t going to stop for anyone. He would kill anyone who was in his path. “They would have killed me, thought Montag, swaying, the air still torn and stirring about him in dust, touching his bruised cheek. For no reason at all in the world they would have killed me.” pg.122 This quote is a representation of how Montag’s society has people that will randomly run into someone, kill them and think that it is ok. They do it like it’s a funny game they love to play. They won’t get punished, the person who was killed doesn’t matter to them, or the government for that matter. A teenage girl was killed this way, Montag himself was almost killed this way and yet nobody gets punished. In our society, the driver would’ve been in court and could’ve gone to