Fahrenheit 451 Mental Isolation Analysis

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Living in Mental Isolation
In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a seemingly unreal world is created, in which books are demonized and everyone believes that being different is a crime. In this story, a society is raised to be unaware of their feelings and emotions, and is taught that it is not normal to think critically. Much different than today’s average world, this futuristic world teaches individuals that being adventurous is wrong. Wanting to learn more and expanding their minds is not as vital as one may think, and asking the question “why” is frowned upon. With the lack of expectation and the ability to expand the mind it overall leads to a world of mental isolation. Being raised in a futuristic society that is detached from
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In the world they live in their emotions on the inside are the same shown on the outside, “Inside, her senses are slack; she does not notice the smell of dead love.” (Mitchell 226) In their society they are raised to believe that they are supposed to marry someone with no sense of caution. When Mrs. Phelps talks about her husband being shipped of to war she blatantly says, “Anyway, Pete and I always said no tears, nothing like that. It’s our third marriage each and we’re independent. Be independent, we always said. He said, if I get killed off, you just go right ahead and don’t cry, but get married again, and don’t think of me” (Bradbury 91). These women are married because they want to be, not because they love their husbands and want to spend their lives with them. Mrs. Phelps is so self- absorbed that she wouldn’t even mind if her husband died and she had to marry someone else. Mildred’s inability to connect with reality causes a strain between her and Montag. She tries to avoid him as much as she can, and only connects with her ‘parlor” family. As Montag becomes more curious about life beyond the reigns of society, Mildred becomes more irritated with him. Many of the relationships in this society are not based on love, but instead are based on money and social status. This leads to many divorces and remarriages. Thus,

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