Fahrenheit 451 - Literary Device
"He took Montag quickly into the bedroom and lifted a picture frame aside, revealing a television screen the size of a postal card. "I always wanted something very small, something I could talk to, something I could blot out with the palm of my hand, if necessary, nothing that could shout me down, nothing monstrous big." (Bradbury132)How and why has the author portrayed the negative effects of technology on humanity within the text?
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteI feel that as I was reading this book I was introduced to the world that Montag and the other characters live in. Ray Bradbury has explained this world as highly technologically advanced with some examples including TV screens that can take up entire parlor rooms in their houses, and through other advances that are mentioned throughout the book such as radios, cars, medical advances and other inventions. I believe the author’s main purpose was to get the reader to believe that technology dominates society. This is why books were not allowed because they wanted their society focused on technology, and new inventions. Montag’s opinion is that the world he lives in is very structured and censored with no freedom at all but he was finally able to have a simple life with very little technological tools in his life when he escaped and lived with Granger and the other professors. I believe that the author was showing the negative influence of technology that Montag faced and the destructive potential that it has on a society and on the world. I also believe that the author portrayed negative effects of technology because, Montag’s life was based on destroying the things that were not related to technology in any way, through those books people were able to be separated from the world and the technology that can take someone’s lifestyle away from them.
The author has portrayed the negative effects of technology on humanity through many ways throughout the book, but the most impactful is through his literary elements and devices. At the beginning of the book the author right away shows through personification how dastardly the machines and technology they used were, “With the brass nozzle in his 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” (Bradbury 1). Directly at the beginning of the book the author gives incite on a person wielding this technology to invoke fear and destruction, but only describing how evil the instruments he was using making them have the lasting impact on the reader. Another quote that relates to how the author portrayed technology to have negative effects on humanity is “There was a hiss like a great mouthful of spittle banging a red, hot stove, a bubbling and frothing as if salt had been poured over a monstrous black snail to cause a terrible liquefaction and a boiling over yellow foam” (Bradbury 113). The author goes to great detail describing how Montag killed Beatty with one of the monstrous flamethrowers the firemen carry around, this in turn sends the message the author is trying toe relay that technology within the wrong hands can cause major destruction and warm to humanity that can be avoided and is not needed.
ReplyDeleteHello Olivia and Bryan,
ReplyDeleteI understand where you’re coming from and I agree with what you guys deduced. Since we’re all on the same page, allow me to elaborate. With all three of us, we all drew the use of literary devices within the text that inspired us to feel fear and destruction. As Bryan stated the use of this piece "With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world…"(Bradury3). The author described the use of a modern device in such an ominous manner. Technology can lead to mass destruction, yet I feel that the author wanted another message to come across. I believe that technology is a great power and we as humanity can utilize it to our benefit but if it ever blinds us of our individuality and independence; technology can become a weapon of destruction. Bradbury used alliteration several times within the book one being "Denham's Dentifrice"(Bradury78). This use was, in my opinion, to represent how technology within the text has begun to govern how people live and almost brainwash them in a sense. The people lack individuality drawn from understanding and knowledge they could acquire through reading and learning. At the end of the book I began to understand that the author wanted the reader to realize we have so much power in what we choose to accomplish in our life. Guy Montag understood that he lacked something within his life and he stepped outside the confines of society and took action under his own accord.