Thursday, July 21, 2011

Fahrenheit 451- Question 5

I was thinking about the social issues the author wrote about in the setting, namely, that there were not any. In the world the author created, people did not think enough to cause problems or create issues with each other. However, they think little enough to create plenty of behavioral issues. For instance, no one values anyone else’s life, and many do not value their own. Besides not valuing them, they often wish to end them.

Clarisse says she is afraid of her classmates because they kill each other, and the rest of them do not seem to mind (Bradbury 30). When people are not thinking about things and noticing things, I do not think they are really alive, if you understand me. Without thought, what makes them different from cows or cats? They do not really live, so it would be difficult to value their lives. One of Millie’s friends says she would not cry if her husband was killed (Bradbury 95). She must not really care about him or value him at all or at least the amount of him that there is. The people that pump out Millie’s stomach and blood do not care that she is a person, they just refer to her attempted suicide as a “problem” (Bradbury 15).

Another behavioral epidemic of the author’s society is suicide and attempts at suicide. Millie attempts suicide at the beginning of the book (Bradbury 13). A husband of one of Millie’s friends jumps off of a roof (Bradbury 94). When people do not think, as I said before, it is like a musician not playing music. They do not do well. Something inside starts dying. Humans were made to think, were built for it. Take that away and something horrible is missing, something people do not want to live without, and they do not even think enough to realize that what they are missing is thought. It is really sad when you think about it.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1996. Print.

No comments:

Post a Comment