Fahrenheit 451 Essay
Ray Bradbury creates a unique world filled with corruption and betrayal. In these traits, all humanity was shattered. The government uses technology to control what people think and do. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury shows that when the world is corrupted by technology, it dehumanizes everything through the parlor room, the mechanical hound, and the toaster.
Throughout the story, society has several pieces of technology that dehumanizes them, and the parlor room is an example of one. Mildred is one of the many people that fell victim to the parlor room, and overall caused Montag to question the ways of the life he’s living in. “Will you turn off the parlor?” (48) Montag wishes that Mildred wouldn’t spend so much time in the room since she spends an unhealthy amount of time in there. In the world Bradbury created, technology has taken the place of many objects, but one thing that really stood out was that even animals were being replaced by advancements, such as the hound. It is a machine that can sniff out books and even kill people with a needle if necessary. “The Hound,” (144) was used to represent the horror found in people when they encountered it.
This quote shows that it’s not just a regular dog that people have to be worried about, it’s more than that. Technology has replaced an animal with a lethal weapon that could easily kill anyone, showing how dangerous it can get when machinery is out of control. “The toaster” in the story is made to make life easier, but it doesn’t just toast bread, it does more, which takes away the ability of people being able to do things themselves. The society of the world created in the pages of the book has been reduced to using all sorts of technology, which in the end has dehumanized everything. “Toast popped out of the silver toaster, was seized by a spidery metal hand that drenched it with melted butter.
” (18) This quote shows that every inch of space is corrupted by a piece of machinery that eliminates all of humanity out of everyone and everything. Instead of people buttering their own toast, technology does it for them. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury shows that through the works of technology such as, the parlor room, the mechanical hound, and the toaster, the world would be overruled by machinery and will lose all humanity in itself. The parlor room, the mechanical hound, and the toaster all show dehumanization by taking away all the aspects of people being able to think and act in their own ways. Montag realized this, and decided to act upon himself to try and make a difference in the community he lived in. In the future, technology will advance, but will it be used to help civilization? Or will it be the world’s downfall?
