Sad and broken, the emotions many of the people in this dystopian society experience, is due to an unhealthy amount of technology that distracts from the real world. These people are deprived of the social skills they need, they are incredibly lonely because they have no human compassion. All they have is a three sided TV in which they can interact with. The domino effect in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag goes on an awakening journey to try to change society’s view on books. This action turned into a series of events that help bolster Montag’s claim about books. In the story, a fireman named Guy Montag goes into work everyday to burn literature which is banned in the society. Montag then rebels against society’s orders and gets in trouble with the law in order to bring books back into the world. Bradbury argues that, simplicity is futile and leads to false happiness, whereas complexity is brimming with knowledge, ideas, and it allows an accurate understanding of the world.
Simplicity is one of the reasons people in society live unfulfilled and unhappy lives without realizing it. The comparison of complexity and simplicity is demonstrated throughout the novel, originating with the juxtaposition of Montag, a lost individual in the society, and Clarisse, an educated and aware person. Clarrisse asks Montag, “‘Do you ever read any of the books you burn?’ He laughed. ‘That’s against the law!’” Clarisse and Montag are polar opposites, Clarisse has a curious mind, she asks questions to feed her brain with knowledge. Montag avoids topics like asking questions because he is so distracted by his job of burning books. Montag feels pleasure when he burns books because that is how the government raised him, he cares more about the simplicity of doing his job to make people proud then what he is burning. Clarrisse shocks Montag with her question of “‘Are you happy?’” Clarisse is the symbol for change and growth, she gets Montag wondering about the society by contemplating on her unusual question and “risky” behavior. People in the society are unhappy because they are constantly disconnecting themselves from the people and objects around them. Some may argue that simplicity is an efficient way to work the world, problem free. Reality is, the world will never end it’s problems. Living life the simple way and constantly distracting yourself tricks your brain into believing in false emotions and inaccurate occurrences. This leaves all the people in the society clueless and robotic.
Technology is what’s causing people to be distracted because of the simplicity of it; you don’t have to interpret ideas when you are entertained. Montag and Mildred have a broken relationship, as if they are strangers to each other. They don’t know anything about each other because Mildred has her “family” on the TV. Montag is starting to realize how absorbed Mildred is in her technology and notices how clueless she truly is. Montag expresses,“He felt he was one of the creatures electronically inserted between the slots of the phono-colored walls, speaking, but the speech not piercing the crystal barrier.” Montag wishes he could have a connection with Mildred but she is completely disinterested. Mildred is so preoccupied in the fake world the three-sided TV has created, that she has no humanity left to her. Mildred thinks she is happy and content with her “family” but it is clear she mentally unhealthy. Mildred says,“You get it up around ninety-five and you feel wonderful...You hit rabbits, sometimes you hit dogs. Go take the beetle.” This is one of Mildred’s favorite activities, when she gets upset she doesn’t talk to people about it, instead she drives her car at high speeds killing any animal in the way. Mildred needs some sort of help though she believes there is nothing wrong because she cannot think for herself. Some might argue that the simplicity of technology is a positive thing and some complexities should be abolished. Technology is a service for people, it should not revolve around their entire life. This is what’s creating this robotic haze among the people in the society.
Simplicity leads to fake content; complexity is a way to analyse situations and improve them. At the end of the novel Montag gets away from the government only to find himself with some individuals that memorize books to carry their legacy. These individuals took the simplicity of books being banned and morphed it into the complex idea of memorizing books. Granger states,“We read the books and burnt them, afraid they’d be found.” Montag has been unhappy his entire life; when he finds the group of rebellious individuals he can finally think for himself for the first time. Montag understands that what the government has been doing is distracting them from feeling emotions and thinking about situations.Montag explains,“I think of her hands but I don’t see them doing anything at all. They just hang there at her sides or they lie there on her lap or there’s a cigarette in them, but that’s all.” Mildred has never done anything with her life, when a bomb falls on the city Montag thinks about Mildred; he thinks about her hands and how she would never be doing anything. The bomb going off was an epiphany for Montag that Mildred is not happy whatsoever. Some may say that just because life is simple doesn’t mean that it causes fake emotions. Watching TV already gives you emotions that don’t affect you or your life, only the false reality on the TV, so technology and the simplicity of it, causes false emotions and content.
The sadness that the society has brought made Montag understand that life cannot be all fake, you need people, emotions, thinking, and so on. This novel is very relevant in today’s society, now that we have iPhones which is exactly like the three-sided TV but smaller. Bradbury’s point was true and that same gloomy haze among the people in the novel could very much happen to us today. Simplicity leads to false happiness and dead ends, whereas complexity opens new doors and allows a much deeper understanding of the world.