The Technology Thats Destroying The Society English Literature Essay

As many of us know god made humans and then humans made technology. Yet, today’s society has become a source of addiction and demands are increasing more and more every day. Not only has, technology made everybody’s life easier but also, it has taking over the whole world. This obsession with technology is also depicted in Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451 that is set in the dystopian world of future technology. The book has a protagonist named Montag, a fireman whose job it is to promote conformity of people’s thought by burning books because in this society, firemen burn books rather than protecting people by putting out fire. So basically government of this society is trying to make everyone more like zombies by destroying the knowledge that people have. In this novel, Bradbury warns readers about the dangers of technology and the way it has made people into passive (receivers) rather than active participates in their lives society uses to replace individuality with conformity and causes them to lose their individuality.

Interestingly enough, the people of the society were like slaves of the government and also people had a blind faith in government. Government was trying to take over the society by taking away people’s knowledge and their history which was easily done by burning books through the firemen, who were once known for their heroic and courageous acts, but in this society firemen have been used by the government as puppets and prepared them to do cowardly things like burning books so that government officials can remain in their high position jobs, and there would be no one smart enough to take their positions. Firemen crew are helping destroying history by saying that the books are nonsense and not useful. Beatty, firemen’s leader, was saying “We as a society just can’t have all these books which contain so many controversial thoughts and ideas in them….it would make people think.  Then they would be uncomfortable and unhappy in their lives with the way things are” (article 4 page 2). Fireman Beatty was explaining how he thinks about the people of society will feel about books to Montag and convincing Montag that burning books would make everyone’s life more contented. Firemen’s were aware, when Fire alarm goes on which happens after any one from the society complains about someone else with a book or secretly reading a book with the name and address of the person who has books. Then the worst part for firemen was finding the books at a particular house. “Within a light, a television set, a radiator, a drinking table with ashtray, books are found, each location and the sequence resonant with meaning” (article 2 pg 7). Most people use to hid it the very extraordinary places, like places that are not easily noticeably but somehow firemen manage to find every book possible hidden there.

Many things were changed after the day when Montag and his firemen were trying to burn one lady’s house that had a secret library in her house so they can get rid of all the books easily but the woman denied and she placed herself on fire with the books because she was deeply in love with the books that she had. “You can’t ever have my books, she said. You know the law, Beatty said… Montag placed his hand on the woman’s elbow you can come with us. No she replied… She opened the fingers of one hand slightly and in the palm of the hand was a single kitchen match” (39). This woman knew that whatever the firemen were going to do with that books was wrong and she knew that government is trying to play some games with the people of the society but she couldn’t do anything about it so she decides to burn herself with the books. From these event people of these dystopian society were trying to get more sense about how government is making them more inarticulate but before it was too late government with another smart idea, which is creating a mechanical hound, also known as mechanical dog whose job is to detect hidden books and it also injects one type of fluid in your body which erases all the knowledge from your brain about any books that you have ever read. “The mechanical hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the firehouse” (24). So this technology was created by government to scared people. As more people got aware of the mechanical hound the more frighten the people started to get so very less people were secretly reading books.

Unfortunately the scariest part arrived when the fireman Montag got caught up with the mechanical hound. Montag is the character who first started to realize that government was trying to trick people by burning books and destroying knowledge. First Montag thought that government was doing the right thing but after a while he starts to question himself about how his hands were doing everything. “Montag had done nothing. His hands had done it all, his hand, with a brain of its own, with a conscience and a curiosity in each trembling finger, had turned thief” (37). Montag was stealing books but actually it was his hands what were making him do everything like burning books with the flame thrower and stealing books from people’ houses. Montag started to acquire all the clues about why people weren’t allowed to read books, but before Montag had figured out everything, the government officials created a mechanical dog which is also known as mechanical hound in the society. Mechanical hound detected Montag reading books. The mechanical dog is a destructive, manmade monster that is similar to a hound unlike the firehouse dogs which are use to rescue people, but instead the mechanical hound can insert fluid through a needle in the victim’s body which can either kill the victim or paralyze the victim. “Finding, holding its victim, inserting the needle and going back to its kennel to die as if a switch had been turned” (25). This quote tells how the mechanical hound uses its technique to insert the needle in victim’s body.

Eventually, Mechanical hound became a more powerful defensive source of government which not only protected government from society but also the hound started to make people worry about themselves and more scare to read books secretly. Montag himself was scared by that piece of technology when he saw it for the first time. “No, no, boy, said Montag, his heart pounding. He saw the silver needle extend upon the air an inch pull back, extend, pull back. The growl simmered in the beat and it looked at him” (26). Montag got afraid by looking at this mechanical hound and decided not to read books secretly because Montag knew that this hound will know everything that he does. Government was successful for the invention of the mechanical hound because not simply people started to worry about the mechanical hound but the hound also scared the fireman like Montag. Most people’s routine for everyday was getting changed because many people stopped reading books so mostly everyone was getting more reliant on technologies like television and radios.

Mildred, who is Montag’s wife, is too much dependent on technologies. Every day she used to watch television shows and then listen to seashells. She has three flat screen televisions on three different walls in her room. Most of the time she is listening to multi things like listening to seashells while watching television. “Mildred immerses herself in the media provided for her to consume whenever she is not at the television. She plugs in her earphones, always soating up the artificial stimulus and messages someone else feeds to her” (article 3 page 2). Mildred has no personality and most of the time she’s busy watching parlor on television. Parlor is a show in which Mildred thinks she’s playing a role of a character because the gist of the show is based on everyday women’s life. These proves how technology is making the people of the society little too bizarre.

So Mildred was trapped in the addiction of technology, many times she had problems going to sleep which unfortunately led to taking sleeping pill and her condition was getting worst day by day so she became dependent more on pills to get a good night sleep. She started taking more and more pills and finally the day came when she over dosed too many pills and couldn’t wake up next morning. Montag realized that “the small crystal bottle of sleeping tablets which earlier today had been filled with thirty capsules and which now lay uncapped and empty in the light of the tiny flare” (12). She was unconscious on her bed and luckily Montag calls the doctor on time. The doctor uses the method called stomach pumping with their machine that they brought to remove pills from her stomach by giving pressure to her stomach. “Doctors had two machines, really. One of them slid down into your stomach like a black cobra down an echoing well looking for all the old water and the old time gathered there” (14). Doctors were successful at taking out all the pills and Mildred was perfectly normal but like usual Mildred forgets everything after she wakes up the next morning and she forgets most of the things that she did the day before. Mildred barely remembers everything from her past and Montag always tries to ask her questions about how they met and as usually she replies I don’t remember anything. “What has been excited from Linda Montag is the past, memory, consecutiveness, a coherent self Montag cannot get her to recall when they first met, but then she cannot even remember that the night before she had overdosed on pills” (article 2 page 4). Montag gets upset because his own wife cannot remember when they met and what happen, but after a while he gets used to it. So this tells how technology addiction can direct to too many problems.

As the unstoppable addiction for technology is increasing people are becoming zombie like. Normal people in these society are not trying to socialize more but they are more busy doing something related to technology and more importantly technology has became the center source of their daily life. Technology is like their source of food which they are so much dependent on. Eventually the society will be full with zombies. “Oskar Werner’s Montag never entirely sheds his fireman’s stiffness and is cruel to his wife and her friends, whom he calls a bunch of zombies.” (article 3 page 2) As Montag was referring to his wife and his wife’s friends as zombies because they are trying to over achieve technology sources by over using the technology and then becoming reliant on something new every day like Montag’s wife started with television then she moved on to seashells then she wanted to do that together then she got addicted to pills and this is how people in this kind of society became when government officials don’t want to give up their jobs. Government officials were negatively using their powers against their own people.

In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury is trying to aware the readers about the hazards of technology which is making people to lose their individuality and as their dependent increases on technology people are called more like zombies rather than humans. Government of this society used different tactics to replace people’s individuality to conformity. Montag journey of fireman clues him about the corrupt government officials but before he knows it with proof government releases their pet called mechanical hound. Mechanical hound puts a fright in every one’s head about its power. Government in this novel was successful for making the society full of zombies and made them more dependent on technology. Technology in the current world is making people sluggish and unintelligent.