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  • Essay / Technology In Fahrenheit 451 - 1958 by Ray Bradbury

    An English poet and satirist, Charles Churchill, once said that "the best things carried to excess are bad." Ray Bradbury, science fiction writer, would agree. His novel, Fahrenheit 451, suggests that over-reliance on technology can lead to destruction in various forms. By observing dystopian society through Montag's eyes, readers can detect the downsides of surplus technology. The audience can fully understand the theme by analyzing different literary elements used by Bradbury and having some basic knowledge of the historical period in which the novel was written. A literary element that helps clarify theme is the element of motif. Throughout the book the audience is reminded of the comparison of the characters from Fahrenheit 451, the audience sees that technology also has an effect on the characters' personalities. Influenced by the evils of technology, Mildred and her companions have the same characteristic traits: impassive, naive and distant. The show the women were watching was brutal because it depicted "three white cartoon clowns [cutting] off each other's limbs, accompanied by immense tides of laughter." Two more minutes and the hall went out of town to see jet cars wildly circling an arena, bumping into each other, backing up and crashing into each other again, but they seemed unaffected as they watched the performance in awe (Bradbury 90). Exposure to the shows soothes the characters' emotions, leaving them numb and unresponsive. This affects them in other aspects of their lives, such as their relationships with their husbands and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, written between the late 1940s and early 1950s in the United States. To begin with, this period occurred after people had witnessed the Manhattan Project and its devastating effects on many countries. It was launched “in 1939, [when] German-born scientist Albert Einstein informed President Roosevelt of the possibility of creating a superbomb. This would produce a powerful explosion by splitting the atom” (Stokesbury). This led to the creation of the atomic bomb. This innovative bomb was then dropped "...on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Three days later, another B-29 dropped a 22-kiloton implosion-type fission bomb on Nagasaki." These bombs largely destroyed both cities” (Kroenig). The effects of the atomic bombs were disastrous; more than 150,000 people were killed instantly by the bomb and many more were killed by radiation and other consequences (Hall). Similarly, the immensity of nuclear weapons is reflected in Bradbury's science fiction novel. In the last scene, the city "finally rose from blobs of broken concrete and sparks of torn metal into a mural hanging like a reverse avalanche, a million colors, a million oddities, a door where a door should be window, one top for one down, one side for the back, then the town turned over and was found dead” (Bradbury 153). Readers have a better interpretation of