Nowadays, technology has been a crucial part of everyday life. It has consumed people’s lives and we hardly have any time for each other. Relationships have been affected by this, and this has become evident in the past decade. With the rapid, constant advancement of technology, this has sped up the process and has made reversing the results much more difficult. Whether it be a new Netflix show that has just premiered, an Instagram notification for a new post, or a text that you have received from Snapchat, these notifications make people very content and take quality time away.
On the other hand, books require more focus, more creativity, and develop individuality. They can open up new doors in your mind, and develop skills someone probably thought they never had. Especially if someone feels as if they are alone, reading can act as a gateway to a new world, and make that person feel as if they are speaking to another human. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, technology is shown to fracture interpersonal relationships, and books are demonstrated as a solution to an individual’s problems.
Although the use of technology is an integral part of our society, similar to how it is depicted in the society of F451, our current use of technology has yet to replace individual thought and human connection on the same level as in F451; however, the rate at which it has consumed the lives of individuals and weakened human interaction between loved ones and friends over the last several decades is concerning. In this novel, the main characters that present these results are Montag and Mildred. To begin with, Montag and Mildred already had a fractured relationship. For example, Guy says “Wasn’t there a old joke about the wife who talked so much on telephone and her desperate husband ran to the nearest store to ask her what’s for dinner”. This was a joke that Montag derived from Mildred being on the phone so much.
However, this was soon not a joke, and quickly turned into a serious recurring problem. Progressively, Montag becomes more and more unable to converse with his own wife, mainly because whatever she does is hindered by technology. Early on, you can already see that their relationship has seen better days. From the point where we are first introduced to Mildred, to when she runs away, Guy is always trying to repair their broken relationship. Examined here, Guy comes home from work and decided to start a normal conversation with his wife. “‘What was on?’ ‘Programs.’ ‘What programs?’ ‘Some of the best ever.’ ‘Who?’ ‘Oh you know the bunch.’ ‘Yes, the bunch, the bunch, the bunch”. His attempt is to no avail. She ignores the more important things in life, like her husband, and knowing that spouses love each other dearly, this shouldn’t be an issue for the two.
However, technology has different plans, and leads Mildred to pay no attention to her husband, and to stay engrossed in the TV show. This leads to the sad end of their relationship, and Guy going on with the rest of his life.
Books are great tools for developing one’s individual character by allowing them to escape into a fictional reality, and books often offer solutions to real-world problems. In the novel, Montag is introduced as a fireman, who enjoys his job, and thinks just like everybody else. He thinks that books are a nuisance and do not belong in his society. This all changes when one day, he meets his next-door neighbor, Clarisse. After this event, Montags personality changes more and more throughout the novel.
For example, Guy says, “Maybe the books can get us half out the cave. They just might stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes.” Another quote by Montag says, It’s not just the woman that died, Last night I thought about all the kerosene I’ve used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I’d never even thought that thought before. It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life, and then I came along in two minutes and boom! it’s all over.’ Montag realizes the importance of books, and what they can do to help society. He realized that they mean no harm, but instead can guide some people out of troubled times, or can make their imagination go wild.
Such is shown in this quote by Granger, “‘Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic that any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that, shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.’” The everyday citizens in this book did not understand as to why people adored books, and would risk getting arrested for them. To be fair, they were brainwashed and put into a dead, lackluster society.
However, for the people that managed to stay sane and be their own person, they were surrounded by a dystopian, tyrannical society and were offered no escape. The only way they could was to read books, as it opened their minds, placed them into a whole other world inside their heads, and they felt, as if for the first time, that they had another person that was there to talk to them, and not be in fear of being reprimanded.
Books and technology can both help broaden an individual’s perspective on the world by allowing them to connect with others in meaningful ways; however, technology hinders individual thought by feeding mundane information at a rapid pace, whereas books propose ideas that the individual can think about and interpret for themselves. In the novel, technology acted as a secondary antagonist, and books were a secondary protagonist. Technology did help in some ways, even though it fed people false information and other bad things, it was integrated into society where it can be sped up, work efficiently, and become a beneficial part of society.
Books, on the other hand, worked quite similarly, but in different ways, and it targeted a different audience. It was only for people who thought differently than the rest and had a mind of their own. Similar to books, it also gave news, but much more slowly, and a different kind of news. The difference between technology and books is that technology gave information at different rates, different information, and to a different audience, although much like books, it still acted as a crutch for people, and was something that many people depended on. Books gave news, but in many different forms and ways to people. They were also crucial to many people’s lives but on a different scale.
Technology has progressively improved throughout the century. Because of this, people have become much more attached than they once were. Technology has had positive and negative effects on the quality of life countless times, specifically each time it improves. People have been so caught up in it that we barely have time for real life. Books, are similar in the fact that they can stir your attention towards them and consume you. However, they contrast in a way that they require more focus, increase creativity, offer an escape to reality, and develop skills that the person thought they would never had. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, technology is portrayed as a limitation on one’s life and thoughts, whereas books serve to encourage individual thought and broaden one’s perspective on reality and offer comfort in times of distress.
