“Every utopia -let’s just stick with the literary ones- faces the same problem: what do you do with the people who don’t fit in?”- Margaret Atwood. Ray Bradbury was an author in 1950, and wrote a popular book called Fahrenheit 451 which displays a utopia gone bad. This dystopian society has a very severe ban on all books, and looks down on intelligence. In the book, Firemen start fires instead of putting them out, and to them, that’s the way it’s always been. History has been switched around to the point that “Benjamin Franklin was the first fireman” as said in page. The story features a fireman named Guy Montag who recognizes the true evil and oppression the Government forces on the citizens. F451’s society and our society share many similarities;
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“With school turning out more runners, jumpers… and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers and imaginative creators, the word “intellectual’ of course, became the swear word it deserved to be’ (Bradbury 55). School now is not mainly about learning math, science, English and the arts, it’s about making the kids athletic. The founders of this society wanted everyone to be equal and happy, so they had to dumb everything down so no one felt threatened by others’ superiority. “surely you remember the boy in your own school class who was exceptionally bright… wasn’t it this bright boy who you selected for beatings and torture… We must all be alike… Each man an image of every other… for there are no mountains to make them cower…”(Bradbury 55-56). In our society, we act the same way, until we are taught the true value and importance of knowledge. For some, the lesson is learnt young, for others it is when they are old and poor and wished that they had studied when they were young and able. “If yu actually succeed in creating a utopia, you’ve created a world without conflict, in which everything is perfect, and if there is no conflict, there are no stories worth telling, or reading.’-Veronica Roth. So upon closer examination of what makes up each of these societies, it seems that they are not that different. Though F451 takes matters to the extreme, deep down, some could say that our society is falling down the same path as the fictional, dystopian society Montag lives in. In this thrilling book written in the 1950s, the author shows an extreme version of the future for him, and the present for us. “Perhaps the greatest utopia would be if we could all realize that no utopia is possible; no place to run, no place to hide, just take care of business here and now.”-Jack
“With school turning out more runners, jumpers… and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers and imaginative creators, the word “intellectual’ of course, became the swear word it deserved to be’ (Bradbury 55). School now is not mainly about learning math, science, English and the arts, it’s about making the kids athletic. The founders of this society wanted everyone to be equal and happy, so they had to dumb everything down so no one felt threatened by others’ superiority. “surely you remember the boy in your own school class who was exceptionally bright… wasn’t it this bright boy who you selected for beatings and torture… We must all be alike… Each man an image of every other… for there are no mountains to make them cower…”(Bradbury 55-56). In our society, we act the same way, until we are taught the true value and importance of knowledge. For some, the lesson is learnt young, for others it is when they are old and poor and wished that they had studied when they were young and able. “If yu actually succeed in creating a utopia, you’ve created a world without conflict, in which everything is perfect, and if there is no conflict, there are no stories worth telling, or reading.’-Veronica Roth. So upon closer examination of what makes up each of these societies, it seems that they are not that different. Though F451 takes matters to the extreme, deep down, some could say that our society is falling down the same path as the fictional, dystopian society Montag lives in. In this thrilling book written in the 1950s, the author shows an extreme version of the future for him, and the present for us. “Perhaps the greatest utopia would be if we could all realize that no utopia is possible; no place to run, no place to hide, just take care of business here and now.”-Jack