Theme Of Conformity In Fahrenheit 451
Conform to Non Conformity
“It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” In Ray Bradbury’s thrilling novel, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is a fireman but firemen are different in this dystopia. He finds himself spending day after day burning houses and books to keep society conformed to the new laws. After meeting an eccentric girl named Clarisse McClellan she elucidates his myopic view on life. He becomes curious about books and then finds himself in a world of trouble. Montag figures out the theme of this novel, that being yourself is better than conforming.
The two historical allusions found in this novel support the theme. The fireman's rule book says that firemen were, “... …show more content…
Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind.” Beatty is stating that even though the constitution says everyone is free and equal society doesn't let people be free to read books because they believe it makes everyone unequal. “With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators,” Beatty says intellectual became the despised word it deserved to be. When this is said it shows that society is making schools teach everyone to be the same and for no one to become an intelligent person. However being yourself is better than being what other people want you to …show more content…
"Books aren't people. You read and I look around, but there isn't anybody!" is what Mildred says when she discovers Montag has been hiding books and they read them. She doesn’t understand the true meaning behind books and expects things to be pictured for her. This conformity and brainwashing she experiences in the dystopia has caused her to lose her imagination and ability to think for herself. "Montag, take my word for it, I've had to read a few in my time, to know what I was about, and the books say nothing! Nothing you can teach or believe. They're about non-existent people, figments of imagination, if they're fiction. And if they're non-fiction, it's worse, one professor calling another an idiot, one philosopher screaming down another's gullet. All of them running about, putting out the stars and extinguishing the sun. You come away lost." Mildred thinks books are nonexistent because the people in them are imaginary and the nonfiction books are just people being unhappy with each other because she has been brainwashed by society and doesn’t fully understand books. She only believes that people are real if they are standing right in front of her like Montag and her “family”. Montag fell in love with the Millie she was once but due to the brainwashing she is no longer that Millie and she is unrecognizable because of this.
Individuality is better than conformity and that is represented in so many ways in
“It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.” In Ray Bradbury’s thrilling novel, Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is a fireman but firemen are different in this dystopia. He finds himself spending day after day burning houses and books to keep society conformed to the new laws. After meeting an eccentric girl named Clarisse McClellan she elucidates his myopic view on life. He becomes curious about books and then finds himself in a world of trouble. Montag figures out the theme of this novel, that being yourself is better than conforming.
The two historical allusions found in this novel support the theme. The fireman's rule book says that firemen were, “... …show more content…
Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind.” Beatty is stating that even though the constitution says everyone is free and equal society doesn't let people be free to read books because they believe it makes everyone unequal. “With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators,” Beatty says intellectual became the despised word it deserved to be. When this is said it shows that society is making schools teach everyone to be the same and for no one to become an intelligent person. However being yourself is better than being what other people want you to …show more content…
"Books aren't people. You read and I look around, but there isn't anybody!" is what Mildred says when she discovers Montag has been hiding books and they read them. She doesn’t understand the true meaning behind books and expects things to be pictured for her. This conformity and brainwashing she experiences in the dystopia has caused her to lose her imagination and ability to think for herself. "Montag, take my word for it, I've had to read a few in my time, to know what I was about, and the books say nothing! Nothing you can teach or believe. They're about non-existent people, figments of imagination, if they're fiction. And if they're non-fiction, it's worse, one professor calling another an idiot, one philosopher screaming down another's gullet. All of them running about, putting out the stars and extinguishing the sun. You come away lost." Mildred thinks books are nonexistent because the people in them are imaginary and the nonfiction books are just people being unhappy with each other because she has been brainwashed by society and doesn’t fully understand books. She only believes that people are real if they are standing right in front of her like Montag and her “family”. Montag fell in love with the Millie she was once but due to the brainwashing she is no longer that Millie and she is unrecognizable because of this.
Individuality is better than conformity and that is represented in so many ways in