Utopia in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Essay Example)

Attempted utopic societies eventually dig themselves deeper into the ditch of becoming a dystopia, creating problems for everyone involved. In Fahrenheit 451, the government manipulates the people of society into believing its lies. During this time the Cold War was going on which deeply impacted this society into becoming even more dystopic. Ray Bradbury clearly executes each dystopian characteristic in this book throughout all the characters. Due to the government’s use of propaganda and restrictions, the characters were developing conflicting relationships between one another, trying to escape from reality, and were dehumanized in the process of attempting a utopia.

Both escape and restrictions have made the characters less and less important to the society, due to the fact they were not allowed to have outside knowledge, which causes them to make poor choices. Escape works is way through all the character in different ways. It becomes aware that Mildred has overdosed when Montag sees, “The small crystal bottle of sleeping tablets… now lay uncapped and empty” (Bradbury 11). Since Mildred has nothing going for her in life, she tries to escape reality any way she can, leading her to eventually become worthless to Montag. The restriction of material items and knowledge detriment the character’s wellbeing. Books are what the society revolves around, without even knowing it. As Montag is leaving the woman’s house they went to burn, he “plunged the book back under his arm… held it close, as if he were blind” (Bradbury 35). The number of restrictions the government is enforcing is teaching the characters to become slyer and leading them farther into a dystopic society. Restrictions lead to the character’s moral downfall, which eventually breaks them, and leads to them trying to escape.

Surveillance and propaganda wiped the society of outside knowledge and made conflicting relationships between the characters. Beatty uses surveillance every chance he is able, making him and Montag enemies.  It becomes known that he watches Montag and Clarisse’s relationship when he says, “We’ve a record on her family. We’ve watched them, carefully” (Bradbury 57). Beatty has put all eyes on Montag, leading their relationship to go downhill. The hostility towards one another really sprouts from the private information Beatty has on Montag, but Beatty only has this because he has been spying on him. Towards the end of the book when the chase is being televised, Granger says, “They didn’t show the man’s face in focus… Even your best friends couldn’t tell it was you” (Bradbury 143). The government lies to the people constantly, making the citizens of the society its puppet. Nobody had any way of saying that the innocent man killed was not Montag. Due to the amount of propaganda the government has used, the people of the society are unable to distinguish that what Montag was doing was not actually wrong. This leads to the people hating him without a real reason why. 

As the government attempted a Utopia, the characters become dehumanized without even realizing it. Beatty believes everyone should be happy, as he says, “I want to be happy people say, well, aren’t they? Don’t we keep them moving and give them fun?” (Bradbury 56). Even Beatty is a victim of being manipulated by the government to create a Utopia. He believes that if you’re provided with just enough and nothing more, you should be fulfilled. As Beatty attempts to create a Utopia, he is spreading the trait dehumanization, without realizing he himself has been dehumanized by not knowing anything except for what the government tells him. Dehumanization is prevalent all throughout the technology in this book, especially the television. While Montag is running, the seashell radio announces to the city, “Everyone in every house… open a front or rear door… the fugitive cannot escape if everyone in the next minute looks from his house” (Bradbury 132). The use of the television throughout this novel leads a straight path for the character’s downfall. Since this is the only way they can intake outside information, it becomes so appealing to them that they cannot realize how it is affecting them. No Utopia can be created, let alone without dehumanizing the people in the process.

As the government restricts the people of the society, escape becomes more evident through each character, dehumanization preys at the character in the attempt to create a utopia, and the relationships develop tension. Utopias and dystopias are often mistaken for each other since utopias are impossible. In the attempt of creating a utopia, none of the characters realize what they are getting themselves into, until it is too late. 

Works Cited

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1951.