dystopia reflective essay

After reading Fahrenheit 451 I realized many things about our culture that I've never realized before. I understood that our culture was technology obsessed, but after reading this book it made me think of how much we really do rely on technology. Without computers, cell phones, iPods, radios, or CD players I wouldn't know what to do. I rely on my cell phone for everything. The warnings the author is trying to make are that we should stop relying on technology because in the near future it will take over. I also think that if people keep depending on technology our government will change. I think that they will turn our society into something completely different. They'll change the way we think about things, and make us all have the same thought. I think that if our society keeps going the way it is, in 10 years everything will change. I think that reading books will be frowned upon. I also think that no one will be able to think for themselves.

In the book Montag and his wife, Mildred, think they're happy people. Montag is a firefighter, and Mildred is a housewife. Until Montag meets a girl named Clarisse, he thinks that his job's great. He loves being a firefighter and burning all the books. Montag is hypocritical though. In the beginning of the book it says that Montag looks at his heater and he feels nervous. At first I didn't understand, but after reading it again I realized. Montag was hiding books that no one knew about, not even Mildred. The whole time he was a firefighter he was hiding books all along. After talking to Clarisse, he knew he wasn't happy, but he played it off as he was. He didn't understand why he wasn't happy and why everyone else was, so he pretended to be. After Montag met Clarisse, he knew it was okay to be different. She told him things that he would have never known. She reminded him that before all the technology takeover, and before the government gained total control, it was okay to learn. She taught him it was okay to read, and it was okay not to be the same as someone. After that first talk with Clarisse, his whole mindset changed and he knew he had to do something to make it right.

Mildred was a very unhappy person also. She believed that she was happy, but I knew from the beginning it was pretend. The reason I know Mildred was unhappy was because in the very beginning of the book she had overdosed, and the next morning she was listening to her speakers like nothing was wrong. She didn't even remember she had overdosed. When Montag tried to tell her, she didn't listen well. Mildred didn't even take her speakers out of her ears. Another reason I knew that Mildred was unhappy and stubborn was because when Montag first asked her to read a book, she was upset and she didn't want to. Montag tried to persuade her into reading it, and finally she said yes, but it took a lot of persuading. She never really seemed in a good mood besides when she was in the 'parlor'. Mildred thought she was happy because all day she'd sit in her 'parlor' and talk to the 'family'. Everyone had a 'parlor' and it was tv's where you would sit around and talk. It's almost the same as 'iChat' on iMacs. This was a way of preoccupying the people because if they were bored they wouldn't know what to do. Also, if they were bored they were more likely to sneak around and read books. This is what the government did not want. They didn't want anyone to be smarter than anyone else so they banned books. They didn't want anyone to be different than each other.

The author did a great job warning me about this technology takeover because I don't want our world to end up like this. I don't want everyone I know turning into technology zombies. I don't want my children not knowing everything I knew. I also don't want them not to be able to read. Even though I don't read very much, I think it's important. I know I should start reading more often than I do, but I don't. I hope my kids have the same opportunities that I have.