Compare and Contrast Essay: Fahrenheit 451 vs. The Pedestrian

”Do you ever read the books you burn?” asked Clarisse in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradberry.  In Bradberry's texts he outlines the people not observing life and society not paying attention to what surrounds them. In The Pedestrian Mr. Leonard Mead is surrounded by a bunch of people who only stay inside and watch television while he is out every night experiencing the fresh air curious to why things are this way. In Fahrenheit 451 there is censorship stopping people from reading books and the vast majority of the people do not realize or seek to realize that they can do more. In these 2 texts by Ray Bradberry he uses strategies of Conflict, Dialogue, and Characterization to reveal the universal truth instead of advancing as a society, most people would rather stay stagnate and ridicule the outliers.

Bradberry’s use of dialogue between prominent characters helps prove that most people do not want to change and treat the people who are different in an unfair way.Consider that Montag is coming to a realization that he is living through a time where he and others are accustomed to not being very observant with the help of a friend named Faber. “So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life.The comfortable people only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless. We are living in a time where flowers are trying to live off flowers instead of good rain and black loam.” Here, Faber is referring to the people who aren’t changing and doing what society tells them to do instead of striving to do better and learning from things like books. The author also uses Leonard Meads unorthodox practices of seeing the outdoors while he is doing nothing wrong he is going against what society believes. 

Cop: “"The back door of the police car sprang wide."Get in." 

Leonard Mead:  "Wait a minute, I haven't done anything!"

Cop: "Get in." 

Leonard Mead: "I protest!"”

Here, the dialogue from the cop and Leonard Mead go to show the unfairness an outsider faces like Leonard Mead as he gets arrested and sent to a Physiactric center for regressive tendencies soon after for the sole reason of being different.

The characterization of characters in these texts is used to show the stagnant population and neglect of outsiders. A lonely Leonard Mead is on his nightly walk while mocking everyone inside on their couch watching tv. "Hello, in there," he whispered to every house on every side as he moved. "What's up tonight on Channel 4, Channel 7, Channel 9? Where are the cowboys rushing, and do I see the United States Cavalry over the next hill to the rescue?" Here the author characterizes Leonard Mead as a sarcastic outsider who feels alone so he talks to himself and speaks to the houses and pokes fun at the couch potatoes not doing anything to find meaning within life. Also as an outsider he is neglected and nobody interacts with him. Furthermore, Consider the absent-minded nature of Mildreds life when Montag is explaining how Mildred overdosed on sleeping Pills “Maybe you took two pills and forgot and took two more and forgot again and took two more and took two more, and were so dopey you kept right on until you had thirty or forty of them in you.” “What would I want to do a silly thing like that for?”Here, Mildred is characterized as forgetful and unaware and she symbolizes the vast majority of the population in the way she doesn't even know why she would do such a thing like take 30-40 sleep pills. While she denies taking that much pill she also isn't learning anything from overdosing and not making change within her life.

The author uses the contrasts of Foil Characters to communicate that one very small part of society is in favor of learning and evolving and one very big part of society are ok with settling for a life they really aren't happy in. Consider Clarisse’s interest in learning and Mildred’s interest in making bad choices with Montag’s Quote “How Odd. How Strange. And my wife thirty and yet you seem so much older at times.”This contrast of engaging in life with Clarisse and engaging in activities where the thought isn’t always used for example watching tv, overdosing shows how a person who wants to learn will evolve when others will not. Also, Consider how Leonard Mead contrasts with nearly the whole population as he observes the weather outside everyone else is inside watching tv when the Narrator says “Sometimes he would walk for hours and miles and return only at midnight to his house. And on his way, he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows.” Mr. Mead would rather experience life and nature, society does not. This conveys that society is ok with quiet days and tv as explained with the faint glimmers of light in the windows and the outsiders will learn and observe.

Now you could learn through the writings of Ray Bradberry that the universal Truth, instead of advancing as a society, most people would rather stagnate and ridicule the outliers is conveyed by using writing techniques such as Dialogue, Characterization, and Foil Characters. Whether it's the use of dialogue showing unchanging people treating different people unfairly, characterization showing how the act toward each other and the use of Foils to highlight the difference between different parts of society, you can take away how it is more exciting to advance and learn unlike the people who decide to take the easy way out.