20 October 2011
A utopian society is a society that is known as an imaginary society because it has always failed and in the past it was also introduced by a book called Utopia by Sir Thomas More . First of all, a utopia is known as a perfect society , ideal place or state that is socially perfect, and is also politically perfect. The most popular attempt at a utopian society was known as Brook Farm, but it quickly fell over a year due to diseases and many other problems. To make a utopian society work, there must be peace and citizens or people of the society need to fully trust the government. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the characters, tone, and types of conflict support the fact that they are attempting to be a utopian society.
In Fahrenheit 451, the society resembles a utopia with the type of characters that are introduced to the readers. Mildred turned her husband, Guy Montag, for reading books and keeping them in their house “Mildred you didnt put in the alarm!”(Bradbury 114). Mildred is like a servant to the government doing what the government commands the people to do such as not read, listen to seashells and watch so much television that they call it family. Mildred is always “happy” and is the definition of a human to the government. Mildreds friends also show that they are in a utopian society “Hell be back next week. The army said so.” (Bradbury 94). The women clearly show how obedient they are to the government to listen and believe such nonsense as a two week war. They support the utopian society by completely trusting the government. Not only do characters show proof of a utopian society, tones in the story resemble it too.
Fahrenheit 451 has a gloomy tone in some parts of the story because it has turned into a dystopia which means it has failed at being successful at being a utopia. The tones in some quotes in the story shows how gloomy it is in the society “Someone else just jumped off the cap of the pill box.”(Bradbury 16). The helpers that came to his house were not even doctors due to the demand in helpers to save people from suicide. This shows how depressed people really are because they lack something and they do not know what it is, so they choose the option of suicide. Bradbury also includes some quotes to make the reader feel tense and really want to know what is going to happen “The heat of the racing headlights burnt his cheeks it seemed and jittered his eyelids and flushed the sour sweat out all over his body.” (Bradbury 127). The car almost running Montag over makes an intense moment for the reader as they keep reading on. It also gives off a gloomy tone because of a near death of a person from a random group of teenagers recklessly driving. Many conflicts happen in this story to prove the fact that Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopia or a utopian fail.
The characters create conflicts that stir emotion and make the reader want to read on. To try to be perfect, the government burns books that people are offended by to equalize both sides of the people “Someones written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs The cigarette people are weeping Burn the book.” (Bradbury 59). If a utopia is not perfect to the people then it will turn into a failure so the government allows people to burn the books and things that they see are offensive to them. By showing how they want to be perfect it shows how they are living in a utopia. A perfect world for some is to continuously watch television without interruptions “We now take you to the Sky Room of the Hotel Lux??¦” (Bradbury 149). People want to continuously watch television without interruptions so the people in charge of the programs make sure that the programs are continuously playing. If the people start getting bored of watching the television they will end up thinking and doing other activities the government does not want to happen. The government in Fahrenheit 451 clearly succeeded to some extent at controlling most of the population to make sure they stay in power and no rebellions occur.
Bradbury made the tones, characters, and types of conflict reflect the theme to the readers that Fahrenheit 451 is a failed utopian society or a dystopia. The Fahrenheit 451 society resembles a dystopia where people are very happy, but deep down are depressed. If people that find things that are offensive to them then they could complain and the firemen could burn them to please the people. Bradbury also warns the readers about the dangers and the conditions of a dystopia so the future could not repeat the patterns.TF
