Amazing Essays

Dystopia Genre Study Paper

This essay was written by Barry Benson.

Fahrenheit 451 and The Murderer are similar dystopian works of fiction by Ray Bradbury. They are similar because they both show examples of dehumanization and the domination of technology and media. The protagonists’ society is apathetic. They do not have sympathy or strong concern toward others.

    Dehumanization is to deprive of human qualities, personality, or spirit. In Fahrenheit, the majority of citizens are dehumanized. A good representation of their society is Mildred, Montag’s wife. Her main concern in life is getting a fourth wall screen in the parlor, not her husband or friends. An example of this from the text is “She sits in her parlour watching the three walls, which are flat-faced television screens; only her misery is the absence of a four wall-screen” (Betjeman 223). Montag’s society’s only feeds off of their “family” on the screens, not their real life family. They do not care about people as much as technology. In the quote “There she was, oblivious to man and dog, to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries, sleepwalking, helped up and down curbs by a husband who might as well not have been there.” (Bradbury 189), the woman Bradbury describes could be a representation of any person in Montag’s society. Children-wise, they are not much better. Mrs. Phelps, Mildred’s friend, said “I plunk the the kids in school nine days out of ten. I put up with them when they come home three days a month; it’s not hard at all. You heave them into the parlor and turn the switch” (Bradbury 92). Mrs. Phelps explanation as to how she takes care of, or deals with, her children is similar to putting clothes in a washing machine, it does not need much care or effort to be done and fine.

In The Murderer, dehumanization is shown when Brock is describing silence. “Silence. A whole hour of it. I just sat in my car, smiling, feeling that flannel with my ears. I felt drunk with Freedom!” (3) The F in freedom is capitalized because Bradbury wanted to put freedom as one physical tangible thing to emphasize how real and permanent it felt to Brock. He treasures this silence so much he describes it as getting drunk. The phychitrist said “Felt better temporarily, eh?” (2) referring to Brock’s need to destroy technology and the feeling he gets when he destroys it. Brock never liked technology. With telephones he said “It frightened me as a child... the telephone's such a convenient thing; it just sits there and demands you call someone who doesn't want to be called. Friends were always calling, calling, calling me. Hell, I hadn't any time of my own” (2).

    The domination of media and technology are big parts in both texts. In Fahrenheit 451, one can see that Montag gets distracted by media. “‘Denham’s Dentifrice.’ Shut up, thought Montag. Consider the lilies of the field.” and “Denham’s. Spelled: D-E-N-’” are good examples of how advertisements are shoved in their faces, making it difficult to focus on anything but that. The media is overbearing and distracting here. The domination of technology makes Montag’s life harder with the police’s plan to catch him running away by having everyone open their doors at the same time, looking for a moving person. The message to do that is sent out so quickly and easily through everyone’s seashells. The police say “Police suggest entire population in the Elm Terrace area do as follows: everyone in every house in every look from the windows. The fugitive cannot escape if everyone in the next minute looks from his house. Ready!”

In The Murderer, domination of technology is a bit more present than media. It is there in their cars “You can’t leave your car without checking in: ‘have stopped to visit gas-station men’s room.’ ‘okay Brock, step on it?” and buses “There sat all the tired commuters with their wrist radios, talking to their wives, now I’m at forty-third, here I am at forty-fourth, now I’m turning at sixty-first.” Brock needed to get away from all of it.

In both of Bradbury’s works, the main protagonist is trapped in a world with dehumanized people and the constant presence of media and technology are taking over their lives. In The Murderer, Brock has been consumed in his hatred of technology so much that he destroys it. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag just wants to be able to know a world without it. Also, both worlds have the protagonist surrounded by hollow people going through the motions society has put upon them. For Brock it is his psychiatrist and for Montag it is his boss and wife. Bradbury may have created two different worlds, but the main messages remain the same.