Fahrenheit 451 and the Future | Teen Ink

Fahrenheit 451 and the Future

September 25, 2012
By Triscuits BRONZE, Vinton, Virginia
Triscuits BRONZE, Vinton, Virginia
3 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
"She may be tragically beautiful, but I'm beautifully tragic"


In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury shows how the modern way of living will eventually alter life on earth completely.

In the present, everyone is always moving and do not stop to look and enjoy things. Cars are always advertised based on their speed, because that is the only thing people want; everyone always wants the fastest phone or computer, all for the sole reason of being faster than anyone else. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury portrays our hunger for speed through the way people in his futuristic society behave on the highway. “If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! He’d say, that’s grass! A pink blur? That’s a rose garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days. Isn’t that funny?” (Bradbury, 6). Although at the moment it may seem ridiculous to get sent to jail for driving forty miles per hour, if we continue to let the desire for speed to keep driving us it may not seem all that ridiculous in the future.

We are accepting it as completely “normal” to sit in front of the television and not interact with other humans for hours on end. Television producers are always making shows out of something, and you can find a show about pretty much anything. Reality shows- which, ironically, are anything but reality- are extremely popular at the moment. In fact, it may as well one day turn into something like Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games. “It’s really fun. It’ll be even more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed. How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a fourth wall-TV put in? It’s only two thousand dollars.” (18). Parents don’t pay attention to what their kids watch anymore; they just sit them in front of the television as if it were a babysitter, so they can get work done. Kids are beginning to think that they should just watch television when they are bored, and that isn’t the case. This is one of the reasons they say America is the fattest country, and we need to change the way our kids look at television. It should be considered a treat, rather than something they are allowed to take advantage of.

As a society, we are becoming more and more antisocial. People are always on their phones, texting or emailing friends and family. We do not really see people face to face anymore, or in real life; there is always a screen between them, and in some cases hundreds of thousands of miles. For example, teenagers spend most of their time on Facebook talking to friends, but they don’t hang out after school. You could probably even talk to your family members, who are in the same house, without ever leaving your room. “The psychiatrist wants to know why I go out and hike around in the forests and watch the birds and collect butterflies. I’ll show you my collection one day” (20). Like Montag, a lot of people only leave the house when it is absolutely necessary; there are even websites to deliver groceries, so, if you wanted, you would not have to go out and interact with other people. Fifty or sixty years ago, people would visit neighbors and talk in the afternoons, and that’s how it ought to be instead of going online to IM.

Fahrenheit 451 is trying to show us how the way we live now will affect us in the future. If we keep depending on technology and do not question things, it will be easier for other people, like the government, to control us. Our society is slowly becoming less and less intelligent because we depend so much on technology. Children are being taught to use iPads and computers in elementary school, and they are also taught math using a calculator. If we keep being so dependent on technology, the human brain will eventually be useless to us. Our generation has to change, or we may suffer the consequences.


The author's comments:
This is an analysis essay I wrote for my english class explaining how Fahrenheit 451 may become truth in the future.

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This article has 72 comments.


on Jul. 28 2022 at 11:54 pm
Joseph123213 GOLD, Beijing, Other
12 articles 0 photos 4 comments
Great work.

JeezyC said...
on Oct. 31 2016 at 9:26 pm
JeezyC,
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment
Great work. I believe you reflect correctly on what Fahrenheit 451 is trying to tell us. It is certain that our society is getting antisocial than ever been, we should beware of that and start changing ourselves. Glad to read your essay.

Alexdz said...
on Oct. 31 2016 at 9:23 pm
Alexdz,
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment
well done, you've got good writing skills i pretty much agree with your own opinion about the technologies recent days, these technology are double sided by the way fahrenheit 451 si a nice book

Jessica Li said...
on Oct. 31 2016 at 9:22 pm
Your essay is very well-written, I love it. I'm pretty agree with your stand, Fahrenheit 451 is a story that may eventually come true. I think it's true that people will gradually lose their ability to think when they spend most of the time on technology.

OscarZ said...
on Oct. 31 2016 at 9:21 pm
OscarZ,
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment
I partly agree with your statement. I think if people can use their technology WISELY, our life will be much more better than Fahrenheit 451.

JohnAn said...
on Oct. 31 2016 at 9:21 pm
Hey I like how you structured your essay! But I think you can kinda shorten your conclusion of your essay, which to make your topic sentence become one short sentence. That will be better than a long paragraphe of summary. Overall this is great! Love the book Fahrenheit 451!

Janet Ji said...
on Oct. 31 2016 at 9:20 pm
In my English class, we are reading Fahrenheit 451, and I am really agree with your essay. As for the statement "If we keep being so dependent on technology, the human brain will eventually be useless to us. Our generation has to change, or we may suffer the consequences.", it is the actually situation that we need to realize. Technology is great, but when we rely on it, then the situation will be in great dangerous. I am wondering that did you notice that Fahrenheit 451 is similar with other Dystopia novel such as Hunger Game. It is really interesting, and good job!

Brian said...
on Oct. 31 2016 at 9:19 pm
I think your essay is pretty good, I do agree all your point, but some of the facts is not really clear. For example, how can you prove more children is using ipad and computers, please spell out your evidence.

Sass said...
on Oct. 31 2016 at 9:19 pm
Your opinion is really rational, this is what we truly need to take seriously.

Xxxxavir said...
on Oct. 31 2016 at 9:19 pm
You write a pretty good statement, but I still think we should make more and more technology to makes our life easier. Then we can do more things that we want to do in finite time.

Jeezy C said...
on Oct. 31 2016 at 9:18 pm
This is pretty good, i believe you reflected correctly on what Fahrenheit 451 is trying to tell us. Good work. Some points you mentioned are solid and crucial, indeed, people are getting more antisocial than ever, we should beware of that and start changing from ourselves. Glad to read your essay.

Dylan said...
on Apr. 13 2015 at 10:23 am
What I don't like is that the word 'antisocial' is automatically thought as a negative word in our heads. Being dependent on technology is bad, but not wanting to to be social and extroverted is completely okay.

on Dec. 27 2014 at 12:06 pm
Richcoca PLATINUM, Canoga Park, California
44 articles 5 photos 71 comments

Favorite Quote:
Make as many as mistakes as you want, just don't make the same mistake.

So do I. I like the book better than the movie though.

IMSteel BRONZE said...
on Mar. 11 2014 at 4:07 pm
IMSteel BRONZE, Wallhala, South Carolina
2 articles 0 photos 128 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Learn from Yesterday, live for Today, hope for Tomorrow" - Albert Einstein

"Brevity is the Soul of Wit" - The Which

Being social on a screen, and being social in real life are two completely different things.

on Jan. 8 2014 at 12:11 pm
annaandelsa BRONZE, Denver, Colorado
1 article 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
"Love is putting someone else's needs before yours"-Olaf the Snowman/love expert

I love the book Fahrenheit 451

Isaiah S. said...
on Nov. 8 2013 at 12:40 pm
Fahrenheit 451 is one of my favorite science fiction stories!  I like your article, and agree with it.  If I may expount upon the book a bit more: Bradbury is not only writing of what society could become, but of how the government could use that 'desire for speed,' to control us, as the firechief says to Montag.  Great article!

Mari said...
on Sep. 11 2013 at 4:12 pm
I agree with the article above, especially on the part of becoming more anti-social. I'm used to be so used to talking to people online that it was irregular for me to talk to people face to face for awhile until I started talking to people more face to face.

Katie said...
on Sep. 11 2013 at 4:09 pm
I think it's ironic that the author said we are becoming more and more antisocial by texting, skyping, and face booking people. But that is exactly opposite, that's why it's called social media. Plus technology can help us become smarter, because I have a tutor that teaches me through Skype.

AliCatGator said...
on Sep. 11 2013 at 4:09 pm
I think that this artical is very important to our society today. Our school just got our new iPads and everyone probably has a phone. It is a big topic in teens and I personally love technology, but I am guilty of over using my phone and being anti social.

SAB said...
on Sep. 11 2013 at 4:08 pm
I agree with this author in all aspects. Society is becoming anti social and lazy. In the education system the use of technology seems great because it makes learning easier, which is not the point of going to school, school should be hard.