Theme Of Individuality In Fahrenheit 451

Webster’s Dictionary defines individuality as “the quality that makes one person or thing different from all others”, and conformity as “behavior that is the same as the behavior of most other people in a society”. John F. Kennedy says, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” Oftentimes, much like in Kennedy’s case, individualism is praised over conformity, labeling the former good or courageous and the latter bad or lazy, because individuality fuels change, whereas conformity prompts a societal stasis. However, it needs to be taken into account that humans are, in Aristotle’s words, social animals and thus, in societies as complex and intricate as ours, stasis suggests stability, which is not necessarily bad.
There are two sides to every medallion, and this particular medallion has captured the attention of countless thinkers. Among these thinkers were Aldous Huxley and Ray Bradbury. One of the most important themes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 share is the conflict between conformity and individuality. In both

Beatty has also been where Montag is now, has read a good number of books—and thoroughly too, judging by how effortlessly and effectively he recites literature during his final quarrel with Montag—and at the end, he has chosen to conform. However, unlike Mustapha Mond, he has come out of it hostile and unforgiving. He is narrow-minded and fanatical in his actions and he is a conformist to the degree that he becomes violent so as not to let anyone get past the lines drawn by the norms. This ultimately leads to his demise, which also happens in a significant way: Beatty wants to be killed by Montag. This is another way Ray Bradbury underlines how truly unhappy conforming people are. Beatty is arguably the single most important character in showing Bradbury’s take on conformity and how much he disapproves of