Fahrenheit451

“Fahrenheit 451” Social Commentary
Tyler Mesa

      In the novel “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, society is constantly criticized. The book is about Guy Montag, a fireman, who is married to a selfish and ignorant woman named Mildred. One day, while walking home from work, Montag meets a girl named Clarisse. Clarisse is described as antisocial, because she loves to think and talk, while social people just stand next to each other without a thought and listen to music. Later in the book Montag reveals that he is harboring a book, which is illegal in the country. When his boss discovers this and confronts him, Montag melts him with a flamethrower and flees the city. Throughout the book, Montag realizes that his current society has no loving relationships, no emotional connections with friends, and too much censorship.
Montag first realizes that he has no relationship with his wife; she cares more about her TV, otherwise known as the family, than her husband. This realization is first noticed when he is trying to find the purpose of books. In the middle of reading one of the books something happened; “A telephone rang and Mildred snatched up the phone… Montag walked to the kitchen and threw the book down.”(74) Mildred had, instead of helping her husband solve his problem, looked for an excuse to talk to her friends. Reading further into the quote, we discover that they were talking about a TV program. Not long after the first incident, when Montag’s fire truck pulls up to his house, Mildred abandons Montag, runs into a waiting taxi and speeds away murmuring “poor family, poor family, oh everything gone, everything everything gone now.”(114) At this point Mildred has totally abandoned Montag, and only regrets that she can’t watch her beloved wall sized television. When Guy talks to his boss, he finds out that Mildred was the one who sent the alarm to the fire house. Mildred abandons Montag in his time of need several times throughout the book, and it is clear...