Examples Of Hedonism In Fahrenheit 451

The Persistent Propagation of Pernicious Propaganda Everyone is happy. Why shouldn’t they be? There is enough to eat, enough walls with family in them to keep everyone occupied, enough sports for others, and cars speeding to a hundred miles an hour for those who are adventurous. If someone is tired, there is always a fistful of pills that can guarantee a good night’s sleep. And most important of all there are no books to hurt anyone’s feeling or to poison anyone’s mind with conflicting thoughts. These are the hallmarks of the society in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, where the primary purpose of life is hedonism, an uninhibited
As captain Beatty says, “A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man” (Bradbury 28)? The government’s omnipotence is well- established among the law enforcement too, as another quote from Beatty suggests “Any man's insane who thinks he can fool the Government and us” (16). The government does not even refrain from killing an innocent bystander in place of Montag when the highly-publicized manhunt for the treasonous fugitive fails. Besides these, there is the burning of people and their houses along with their books to generate fear in the people and to deter anyone who has the slightest intent of defying the