Fahrenheit 451
...policies of his society. He does
so by gradually beginning to question certain aspect of society which most
simply accept as fact. Montag's job as a fireman serves as a setting to
show how many people passively accept the absurdity of their society.
Instead of rushing to put out fires, as firemen today do, Montag rushes to
start fires, burning the books and homes of people reported to have books.
This was considered by most people to be a respectable profession. But on
different occasions Montag took a book out of burning homes and would from
time to time read them. From this, he begins to to question the values of
his society.
Montag's marriage also serves a setting to contrast passive
acceptance versus questioning of society's values. His marriage is not the
happy kind that couples today experience but more like a coexistence. He
and his wife live together and he supports her, though he apparently
neither loves her a great deal or expects her to love him.
This relationship and living arrangement, with its lack of love, is
Bradbury's way of showing what life could be like if people not only stop
communicating but stop thinking and choosing, thus losing
control over
their lives. Montag and his wife continue to live together though people
in that situation today would not hesitate to terminate such a
relationship. Montag's wife apparently accepts this relationship because
it is normal for the society in which she lives. (Wolfheim)
Like Brave New World_characters escaping from reality through the use
of soma, Montag's wife, and many other characters, escape through watching
a sophisticated form of television. This television system covers three of
the walls of the Montag's TV room (they can't afford to buy the screen to
cover the fourth wall), has a control unit that allows the watchers to
interact...
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