Fahrenheit 451 Personal Freedom Analysis

Personal Freedom vs Intellectual Holocaust In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Montag’s desire for personal freedom constantly conflicts with the ongoing intellectual holocaust. During this era, society discourages the opportunity to think independently because they live under the impression that “not everyone [is] born free and equal, as the constitution says, but made equal” (Bradbury 146) Many technological advancements evolve to occupy everyone and society enforces many rules to ensure that everyone lives equally. However, Montag meets Clarisse, who exposes him to her extroverted lifestyle and encouraged him to question his lifestyle. He soon realizes that he is not happy and the desire for a new life advances him to seek both personal and intellectual freedom. As a result of the desire for uniformity, society removes the majority of the freedom that characters can have. Technology replaces these freedoms while obliterating any record of the past. The excessive use of technology also obliterates the realization of the present. The parlor families create the illusion of a new ‘family’ and a new life which allows the characters to lose all sense of reality and common sense. The characters become focused on the ‘families’ and do not acknowledge the significance of their own lives or the events

He knows he will face a huge challenge while seeking a chance at happiness because he surrounds himself with people who believe that “each man [should be] the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.” While this standardized way of living creates fewer conflicts, Montag recognizes he has simply existed alongside the rest of his brainwashed acquaintances as opposed to actually living. The rest of the population puts up a great fight, but Montag’s only alternative is a mindless void - hardly worth living