Fahrenheit 451

In the science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury predicts a futuristic society, much like our society today. Although it was written in 1953, Bradbury seems to foresee many traits present in our modern world today.

We live in a fast paced, technological world today. We are consumed with technology and want everything faster and better; faster Internet, faster phones, faster ways to work, so that we have more time for leisure. However, most people do not choose to read for fun anymore; most books are made into movies and people find that seeing the movie is faster and more entertaining than sitting down and reading the book. Captain Beatty says in his society, "Books cut shorter. Condensations. Digests,Tabloids. Everything boils down to the gag, the snap ending." page 52 "Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column., winding up at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume." page 52 Today, people are glued to the TV, computers, cell phones or playing video games. If you look around at a restaurant next time you are dining out, you will see at least one person at every table using their cell phone. TV is even used as a babysitter these days for busy parents. Children end up learning the alphabet by playing video games rather than reading a book and this type of learning takes away imagination and independent thinking, just as Captain Beatty explains, "With schools turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual', of course, became a swear word it deserved to be." page 55

Censorship is common practice today for TV networks. All movies are edited to make sure no one is offended. TV and radio shows are also edited and only approved content is allowed during certain times of the day. TV shows are geared to what we like and what we don't like. This is similar to the way Beatty describes censorship in his society. He says, "Don't step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants ... " page 54 "Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did." page 55 The introduction of reality TV has also made us feel like the TV characters are really our family members or friends just as Mildred felt when she