Technology in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Book Analysis)

As technology progresses we can see how people start consuming more and more of it daily. People seem to start having problems focusing and communicating with other people as a result of abusing technology. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury presents a world in which technology has advanced so much that humans seem to grow dumber and never ask questions. In this world Brabury presents our main character Montag who is a firefighter but instead of stopping fires he starts them. His job is mainly to burn books in order to keep people dumb and indifferent. As the novel starts progressing we can see that the theme being introduced by Ray Bradbury is that society should be careful and thoughtful about how it uses technology as too much focus on entertainment and distraction can be harmful, to a point where it destroys thoughts and relationships. In order to show this Bradbury uses imagery and characterization.

Bradbury uses imagery to compare Montag wife Mildred to a dead corpse. As Montag wife Mildred is in bed listening to music she seems cold and indifferent.In paragraph 80 as Montag is entering their room it states "His wife stretched on the bed, uncovered and cold, like a body displayed on the lid of a tomb, her eyes fixed to the ceiling by invisible threads of steel, immovable. And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in" This quote demonstrates how uninterested Mildred is with her “little seashells” which is figurative language for headphones. She is so interested to such a degree where she seems dead, that even Montag compares her to a “body displayed in a tomb”

As we continue with the novel we can see that Bradbury shows direct interpretation and a bit of imagery to show how technology has become such a big part of humanity that people are addicted to it. In the novel parlour’s are mentioned which are giant Tv’s that are as big as walls. Many people including Montag have their living room walls replaced with those giant Tv’s called parlours. As Montag was lying down a little conversation with his wife Mildred occurred in which she said "Will you turn the parlour off?" he asked. "That's my family." (paragraphs 408/409) Not only does this quote demonstrate how technology has become so addictive that people considered technology family but it also shows how the addiction of technology destroys relationships as Montag’s wife Mildred prefers to spend time with the parlour than with her husband.

Technology is such a powerful and useful tool that one would assume it has little to no disadvantages, but in Fahrenheit 451 we have seen how the abuse of such creates a monstrous world in which technology is valued higher than communication with other people. At the pace we are on, the world presented by Brabury isn't that distant, people are forgetting how to communicate and spend more time on their phones,computers or Tv than reading or socializing. It isn't so late to stop this plague before we become emotionless and uninterested just like in Fahrenheit 451.