An Analysis on Information Technologies: Fahrenheit 451

The idea of a controlling society set in the future is not a foreign concept to the realms of science-fiction. Technology is often utilized in these stories to control the populace under one vision of a perfect world. In George Orwell’s acclaimed novel 1984, the government of Oceania used “telescreens” that displayed propaganda and censored news in addition to their role as cameras which relayed information back to the Ministry of Love. This constant surveillance provided assurance that the citizens put the needs of the state before themselves. In Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the police precinct of Los Angeles utilized retinal scanning machines to determine the sincerity of the person’s thoughts during routine lie detector tests. These measures perpetuated that the dream of only socially accepted, pure humans holding high statuses. Even in Oshii Mamoru’s Jin-Roh, the National Security Division utilized high-tech heavily armed and armored Capital Police to annihilate non-conformists. The aid of technology assisted all of these fictitious societies in their pursuit of utopia. Ray Bradbury chose for Fahrenheit 451 to have a futuristic and technologically advanced setting to speak in outrage against the possible corruption of technology due to totalitarian abuse.

Perhaps science fiction writers speak of one of the greatest fears humans possess, the masking of the truth. The ideology of the control society, deviant thought hinders progression towards a flawless civilization, supports the growth of information concealing technologies to eradicate such “dangerous thought”. The flamethrower, the instrument of terror wielded by the firemen, played the role of such a thought-concealing apparatus. Truly a device with dreaded applications, the flamethrower makes it initially appearance with:

With the brass nozzle in [Montag’s] fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon

the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor

playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history.

(3)

As Bradbury writes, in one transient moment, years of recorded chronicles can go up in flames. This single sentence embodies the principle of how the rich heritage that humanity took eras to forge can end in a foul moment because of the wicked applications of technology.

In a fictional environment where this deviant practice is viewed commonplace, the citizens of adopt a similar mentality. As the fireman Captain Beatty states, “[Fire’s] real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences. A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it” (115). The quintessential citizen, someone with the same thought process as Beatty, plays the role of the ideal control society follower. Seduced by the lure of technology’s seemingly painless solution to all problems, an ideal citizen of such a society supports the view of destroying problems rather than coping with them. With technology becoming such a mainstay in their society, the populace adopted the mentality of replacing what is broken rather than repairing or adjusting accordingly.

Besides acting as a panacea for their problems and concealing the truth, technology’s use as a tool of propaganda is unsurpassed. The infamous occurrence that transpires on the subway shows the suggestibility of people makes them easy targets for manipulation. As the advertisement for “Denham’s Dentrifice” resounds throughout the cramped cabin, the reader is confronted with the horrifying experience of how the torrent of words was recreated on the passengers’ lips (78-80).