In our day and age, books, ideas, and creativity, are widely acclaimed throughout the world and make up everyday life. Imagine living in a world where all those things are feared and the only time they are brought up is when they are destroyed. Individualism sure means the world to us, but it certainly did not mean much to most of the characters in Fahrenheit 451. Within the text, books represent danger, and the ideal life in society revolves around the use of technology as a form of entertainment. Characters are flat and cannot see what they are missing in life by getting rid of everything they think is bad. Ray Bradbury uses an idea of skewed “happiness” in society to create a dystopian world that outlines the effects of human society conforming to sameness to establish, “the ideal life.” In the text, people chose to censor the world because they believed that was the way to “happiness.” Furthermore, Mildred was used as a symbol of the people in society to show how mindless the world can be in order to achieve the perceived idea of “happiness.” On top of that, the notion of totalitarianism was used to show how easily people can be molded into doing things to create a “happier” outcome.
