Conformity In Fahrenheit 451 Essay Example

Conformity is something that happens for everyone, but when it gets too extreme, it has terrible consequences. Citizens in Fahrenheit 451 are addicted to TV. They consider the people on TV to be their family. The parents don't love each other, they don't love their kids, and they think they're happy when they are actually not. Being raised up this way is not healthy which leads the kids to have serious depression and anger issues which results in others getting hurt. Even the firefighters present the idea that fire is good, that burning is good. Everyone in this type of world is completely brainwashed and has no mind of their own. The author of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, gives us a look of what the future might look like. Reading books like these helps people realize that they don't and can't become that way. If they do, then they will all be unhappy, lifeless, depressed, machines. Watching TV all the time influences people like Mildred and her friends to be cold, un loving creatures that believe the people in the TV are their family. When Montag stays home from work ‘sick’, he asks Mildred to "turn the parlor off?". She responds with “That's my family” (46). Mildred immediately gets aggressive and goes on and on about how she can't because it's her family. That's absolutely insane. What kind of brainwashed, messed up woman is she? Everyone in this book acts like this which is terrible for society. They are like robots that all act the same, and have no heart. They think fake people are their parents, siblings, and kids. The whole world is messed up and there are no real connections. Without those connections, nobody is actually happy. The women in Montag’s society only have kids to “reproduce” and because they believe “the race must go on.” For example, Clara says she pushes them “into the 'parlor' and turns the switch” (92-93). Mrs. Phelps is Mildred's friend who has two kids, for the sole purpose of keeping mankind alive. She doesn't love her kids, she doesn't even like them. It's like an extra chore for her, she refers to them as laundry. That is as cold as it gets. How lifeless does a person have to be to not like their kids and just think of them as a chore that kind of looks like them? Children are not like laundry. Parents don't just shut their kids off and leave them in a room with a TV for HOURS. That would most likely lead to that kid obtaining mental problems like depression, anxiety, or anything else. It’s just too much work for the mothers in Montag’s society to look after their kids. Well, their TV is their family so it makes sense. Mildred and Mrs. Phelps are so careless and brainwashed to the point that they don't even love their families, they love their TV's.  Firefighters believe that what they do is right, and everyone around them spreads the news that burning is good. But in fact, it most definitely is not. When people have a problem, they just decide to “forget them”. Instead of fixing it, the people “burn them all, burn everything”. They even think that, “Fire is bright and fire is clean"(57). When people have a problem, they just burn it. It doesn’t matter if it is a book, clothes, their house, or even other people. They have no hearts whatsoever and just throw away all of their problems. Doing that is an extremely unhealthy way of coping. In the world today, if people started doing that then everything would burn, and everything would die. People have a problem with almost anything. That would not end well and would most likely result in the population dying. Montag feels like it is “a pleasure to burn”. More specifically, he loves “to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” He even “grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame” (1). Montag loves burning things, he feels relief when he does, and he loves the thrill of it. That is a dangerous addiction. He is almost sounding evil. That is what firemen are in this universe. Pure evil. Firemen burn everything and anything the can, and even tell the public that its good and healthy The kids at school kill each other, they don't care about books or information. None of them are curious, and they are all very violent. Clarisse is very different from them which they don’t like. That might have been the reason she is dead. Clarisse is “afraid of children my own age.” This is because “They kill each other.” She says that “Six of my friends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks”(27). Children kill and murder anyone, they don't care who, and they have absolutely no sympathy. They are raised by their parents to conceal everything that bothers them or destroy it. Growing up that way is terrible. Since Clarisse isn't like the other kids, they most likely killed her. She never kills anyone, she likes learning, she has emotions, and she is very curious. That is the complete opposite of every other child. While Montag’s on the run from the police, he sees “A carful of children, all ages,”. He immediately notices that "They would have killed me”. Even for “no reason at all in the world”(122). After Clarisse died, Montag saw a group of children that almost ran him over. He immediately wonders if those are the same kids that killed Clarisse. It's probably not even the kids fault. It's their parents. They taught them no life skills, and now they're mentally messed up. The school children are extremely violent. They only want to watch TV and kill each other. They are raised to be like that, and all try to fit in, so they don't get in trouble or even killed. People in Fahrenheit 451 try so hard to be like everyone else. What they don't realize is that it might be doing more harm than good. Everyone is similar and if there’s someone different, their declared an outcast and can possibly be murdered. Ray Bradbury showcases in Fahrenheit 451 that conformity creates a world full of cold, lifeless, people. If the modern world turns into a society like in the book Fahrenheit 451, humans might not be able to survive.