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Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

Decent Essays

“People need quality information, the leisure to digest it, and the freedom to act on what has been learned.”(Bradbury 85) When these aspects are removed from a society, human beings lose every right to freedom and individualism. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 and the short story Harrison Bergeron, this proves to be more than true. These pieces of literature each display similar values of society, technological advancements, rebellious acts, and a human desire for fulfillment of equality.
The values of society seen in each story are relatively indistinguishable. A primary example is conformity which has been demonstrated in each throughout. “We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought.” (Bradbury 59) In the novel Fahrenheit 451, certain residents of each town are firemen. Their duties include enforcing conformity by burning all forms of intellectual material in an effort to prevent conflicting theory and thought. As seen in Harrison Bergeron, most citizens do not have the capability of anything aside from conformity due to the lack of freedom and expression enforced by the government. Another exemplary aspect of the two societies is manufactured happiness. “We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing.” (Bradbury 82) Clarisse questioned Montag on this subject and he was not even sure of his own emotions. Harrison’s mother and father are not able to possess emotions on any

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