Fahrenheit 451 - Question 5

How does this novel reflect the history, behaviors and social issues of the time period and setting?

This is an excellent question to go on a rant about how author's used to be psychic. I mean, seriously, how did they know? Authors like Huxley, Orwell and Bradbury all wrote books about futuristic worlds, and they always closely resemble the societies that we live in. Think about it. Orwell's 1984 told of a society where "Big Brother was watching." There are networks of security cameras and people who can hack web cams, which is just another form of someone always watching. I promise, I'm not crazy, and I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but this is real people! And in Huxley's story Brave New World, social classes were predetermined before birth. Think about the social classes in today's society. Very rarely do people change classes much, and their children, for the most part, follow in their steps (Okay, so the movie The Pursuit of Happyness is an exception, but its just a generalization).

In the story, the people did not question what they were told by the "government." Today, people do stupid stuff they see on the Internet without asking if its even safe. You could search on Google "how to treat a cut" and you might get a result that says "make sure to soak your cut in salty alcohol," and there would be people who would try it. People just assume that everything that is on t.v. or the Internet is completely, %100 right, just like the people in the book did. Well, and this might be a wake up call for you, but that really is not even close to accurate. The people in the book were taught not to question things and just go with whatever they are told. To an extent, our government does that to us today. Is every governmental decision televised so we can watch? No. Do we know everything that goes on behind the scenes? No. We are just told what to do and how to do it and they tell us it'll all be alright. Well guys, maybe it won't be alright.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.