The Dangers of Endless Entertainment: A Reflection on Fahrenheit 451 and Our Society

It can be said that writers of dystopian novels are trying to make a point or criticize some aspect of society.

Write a formal, 5 paragraph argumentative essay in which you convince an audience to support your claim about a debatable topic of your novel’s dystopian society (and thus, our society).

Use your research, textual evidence from your novel, and/or observations to support your argument.

Fahrenheit 451 is regarded by many as one of the best depictions of a dystopian society. While this can be debated, Bradbury has no doubt crafted a beautifully gloomy and harsh depiction of a future in which Fahrenheit 451 bases its story around. The reason? Because this society, no matter how bleak it sounds, is a surprisingly real possibility of how our real-life society could end up on the path it is taking now.

In the society of Fahrenheit 451, they have firemen who start fires instead of preventing them. Books are viewed as a dangerous possession and therefore burned by the firemen. People live meaningless lives where entertainment is abundant, and death is viewed as just a side effect of this entertainment. TVs are a necessity in every household and are essential for everyday life. One could not live without it. Many may actively seek the death of others or even themselves through cruel activities such as car-crashing parks and driving cars more than 100 miles per hour. But perhaps the most dangerous part of this society is the mindset of the citizens themselves. The endless pursuit of entertainment wastes people away mentally and prevents them from recognizing and dealing with problems. However, the banning of books was the greater problem.

The most dangerous part of the society in Fahrenheit 451 is the endless pursuit of entertainment because it wastes people away mentally. For example, in the novel, Mildred is presented as the wife of the main character, Guy Montag. At the start of the book, readers are first introduced to her as someone who spends all day watching television and interacting with her so-called “family.” She overdoses on sleeping pills to kill herself, but Montag manages to save her (Bradbury, 11–12). This scene is significant because it exemplifies how constant entertainment doesn’t necessarily improve mental health. Throughout the rest of the book, Mildred’s mental health remains unchanged despite the amount of television she watches. This is a very common situation for the people in this society, not only in the book but also in real life. No matter how much entertainment one consumes, it can only provide joy in the moment but won’t last. The more entertainment is consumed, the more one becomes dependent on it, similar to the effects of drugs. As soon as it is taken away, however, the person will start to feel and behave negatively. That’s why people who use social media frequently are more likely to be in worse mental condition than those who don’t. In conclusion, the most dangerous part of the society in Fahrenheit 451 is the endless pursuit of entertainment because it wastes people away mentally.

Another dangerous aspect of the society in Fahrenheit 451 is that the endless pursuit of entertainment prevents people from recognizing and dealing with problems. For example, there is a part in Fahrenheit 451 where Montag begins to question the society, so Beatty makes a monologue explaining to him how the society works: “If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. . . . Any man who can take a TV wall apart and put it back together again, and most men can, nowadays, is happier than any man who tries to rule, measure, and equate the universe” (Bradbury, 58). The big idea of this monologue is the notion that “ignorance is bliss.” A man can’t worry about something if the problem is never presented to him at all. The society in Fahrenheit 451 models itself around this ideal through constant entertainment. Entertainment keeps people happy.

To sum up what Faber is saying in this dialogue: “The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are” (Bradbury, 82). Even when books weren’t banned, people took them for granted, viewing them as nothing but several pieces of bound and tattooed tree bark. Books were made to impart knowledge and humble a man, but mankind was too “good” for that. Humanity wanted more; they wanted to jump off the highest cliff and do the flashiest flips and dives before plunging into the rocks below and crumbling. Society never wanted books in the first place; it wanted nothing but solid entertainment, to be happy. So banning books was just a tactic to achieve this so-called “happiness.” In conclusion, the banning of books is not the most dangerous part of this novel’s society; rather, the pursuit of entertainment makes Fahrenheit 451’s society the dystopian place it is.

To summarize, the deprivation of mental health and the danger of not being able to recognize problems at hand all show why the pursuit of entertainment is the most dangerous part of society in Fahrenheit 451. The citizens in Fahrenheit 451 live like wasps. In the pursuit of sweet nectar, they unknowingly get caught in a trap with the promise of their desires, only to perish with no way out. The wasps are too intoxicated with the nectar to realize they are trapped in the first place. Except in this society, it is the citizens themselves who built the trap. Under the false promise of happy entertainment, people lie in their beds, eyes glued to the television, their mental health slowly rotting away, yet they claim they are “happy,” happy with their lives overtaken and entirely controlled by technology. There’s also the false notion that they live in a perfect society with no worries whatsoever. Citizens live their lives carefree without a single thought about the war happening right outside their city walls, and when the true danger shows right in front of their doorstep, there is nothing they can do to stop it, and they all die.

All of this exists, not because of the banning of books, but the primal pursuit of entertainment humanity always harbored. Even though this book might be only fiction, our real-life society is not far from becoming the dystopian world Fahrenheit 451 takes place in. Where the novel’s society has television walls and “families,” real-life society has Tik-Tok and YouTube. Where the novel’s society has people wasting away from television, real-life society has a high depression rate among adolescents who frequently use social media. All of these chilling similarities show that it isn’t so far-fetched to assume that our real-life society could turn out like Fahrenheit 451’s in the distant future. So maybe it’s time to get up from the beds, put down the smartphones, and frolic outside with friends or maybe even read a book or two.

Minh Nguyen, Skyview Middle School