Alienation in 'Fahrenheit 451', Literary Analysis Essay Sample

Ray Bradbury, the author of the novel 'Fahrenheit 451", creates alienation in through the main characters such as Clarisse McClellan, Guy Montag and Mildred his wife. The theme of alienation is established throughout his text and as the plot advances it is the main cause of the characters downfall. Art is said to imitate the daily life of the people and Fahrenheit 451 imitates how humans are and what they can be in future in a sadistic way. In the novel, people sit on the subways and ride on busses and they drown the outside world with their television and headphones sets. Humans avoid physical contact with each other by walking on the side paths to reach their destination without any disturbances. The author says that the society makes its own life intertwining between accidental and rendezvous occurrence. People keeps themselves busy with instruments such as phones and televisions sets to alienate themselves from the daily life.Alienation is portrayed through Guy Montag, the main character through his negative emotions towards the ways of the society. Guy Montag. He realizes that the society has this is displayed "everything [they] need to be happy, but [they] aren't happy" and that "something's missing" from life in his community. (Bradbury, 78). His life is full of anxiousness and misery. Fahrenheit 451 portrays a future in which common people associate themselves to entrustment to a far degree than the current generation. It also show how the society would be lonely if people continue to surround themselves with these instruments to avoid social interaction. The speaker depicts the theme of alienation between people in the society by using dialogue and interior monologue by Montag making the reader to reflect on ways through which he or she has caused alienation from others.

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When the starts Monatag is having an interior monologue and later a dialogue with Mildred, his wife that depicts that there is alienation between them.. On this day monatag is off duty and while walking in his compound he meets with Clarisse McClellan, his new neighbor and he is forced to have a conversation with him. At the end of the meeting Clarisse asks him if he is truly happy in is life. Montag gets into the house and talks to himself stating "'happy! Of all the nonsense. He stopped laughing .....Of course I'm happy. What does she think? I'm not? He asked the quiet rooms." (Bradbury, 10). In this quote Montag reflects the conversation he shared with his new neighbor and does not understand why she asked him such an absurd question. He feel the conversation was absurd because he is trying to convince himself that he is happy in life while he is not. When he continues with his monologue, he admits that he is not truly happy with his life. When he entered the house he continue talking to himself and asking the quite rooms question about his happiness while he could have talked with his beloved wife. He decides to address himself since his wife is too busy a parlor and the seashell. She uses the seashells to listen to the parlor and therefore she could not hear what her husband was saying sine she plugs them in her ears. She has alienated herself from the society and pays more attention to her instrument than her husband.

Daniel Miller and his co-authors carried out a research to determine how social media and technology in general had affected social interaction between individuals in the society. They found that technology has a negative effect on face-to-face interaction as everyone is busy checking on his/ her smartphone for updates (Miller, 66). This causes alienation in the society because people rarely interact physically because they have everything they need to be happy over the internet. It makes people to feel lonely when they need to talk to a friend or a family member about a sensitive issue. Montag tries to talk to his wife but she could not hear her because had plugged seashell into her eyes. She could only read his lips as she has now become an expert of lip reading after ten years of listening to parlor. Bradbury says that "Mildred had both ears plugged with electronic bees that were humming the hour away.........'You all right? He asked. She was an expert at lip reading from ten years of apprenticeship at Seashell ear thimbles." (Bradbury, 18). The quote shows that Mildred is addicted to parlor because she only reads the lips of her husbands to know what he is saying. She has made it difficult for them to have a conversation and this causes alienation between them. She find the parlor very interesting than talking to her beloved husband and this could probably explain the reason why Montag chooses to speak to himself because he realized that Mildred cares for her favorites shows.

According to Ibe Chiwuba and Anthony Mark, communication is an important tool in marriage since it solves all conflicts. If a couple fails to use this communication their boundaries becomes loner every time. Psychological state makes people to communicate differently in different situations. A person who is not happy or not in a good mood may take less or talk negative words that may upset the recipient. The same person in good mood will perceive situations positively. He/she is likely to talk more and make more jokes when in a good mood. The two situations make people to speak differently. An angry person may use abusive language during an argument because anger makes an individual to say things that they do not mean. It also affects the way brain process information and therefore may make people to overreact and get irritated by normal words. For instance, angry individuals have a problem of processing logical statements hence rejects explanations and solution given by others. This shows that an individual's speaks differently depending on whether they are angry or not. It is important to withdraw from the dialogue if one feel that the argument has upset him/her. A person who wants to win in an argument will talk more and loudly in a conversation he has interest in than in that he/she is not. During the conversation he/she will put personal problems and needs above everything else. Moreover, this may lead him/her to filter the information others are trying to convey. In most cases this is brought by competition, mistrust and jealousy. A selfish person has a closed mind and therefore he limits his ability to accept others opinions and suggestions (Chiwuba and Mark 49). One may also develop a closed mind when he feels that the information being conveyed is insignificant. For instance, a manager in a big company does not like it when his juniors win in an argument and he tries to filter information given by the subordinates. The manager is also selfish and afraid that if his juniors perform well will be promoted and occupies his position. He will therefore refrain to give them important information that would help them work efficiently. At the end of day, the juniors will not complete their work in time to earn promotion. Another example, a chauvinist individual does not agree with the proposals of a female coworker in a meeting and this affects the communication flow in the meeting. It becomes hard to argue with such a close minded person and give significant information. Likewise, when an individual is close minded, he will have fixed sentiments on many things which the individual believes decisively. The individual will understand any given information in a negative way (Chiwuba and Mark 51).

According to Laurence Scott internet draws us apart because everyone depends on online communication where there is no physical contact. Therefore, the physical world and the real environment are under threat. Families do not meet to discuss the sensitive matter, but rather they do it online through Facebook group and Skype (Scott, 33). The Internet is tearing people apart day by day. People no longer communicate through face to face which is the best method of communication. The Internet has undervalued face to face communication, and therefore the feelings of people are not revealed during communication. Due to lack of personal contact, families, and friends are pulled apart. Young generation have no socio skills to initiate communication because they do all their communication through the net. The young generation is the most affected because they are always checking their phones every time Williams, p. 30). Even though you find them together, they do not have a smooth communication since all of them are on their phones and tablets checking what are on Facebook and Twitter. Montag and Mildred marriage lacks this tool and address his alienation when he remembers how he got engaged to her. He is unhappy with their marriage and cannot remember the reason why they disconnected. As he lies on his bed, he looks at Mildred who is also awake but none of them says a word. Their lack of communication is ruining their marriage but they do not have an idea of how they can solve it. Their love no longer exists and Montag cannot even remember how he met her. This means that he does not love her because no man that cares about his wife can suddenly forget how he met him. He hope to clear up this matter quickly and decided to ask his wife because he was certain that she would definitely remember the place they met. He asks her "'when did we meet? And where?' When did we meet for what?' she asked. 'I mean originally' He knew she must be frowning in the dark.....'why, it was' she stopped. 'I don't know' she said. (Bradbury, 43). This quotation shows that the couple does not have face-to-face communication to remind each other where they met and other important things they could have forgotten. Montag felt very guilty for not remembering the place they met since it is the place that their relationship begun. He is cold to hear that even his wife forgot the place.

Montag and Mildred had never had a common goal when they got married and this later caused their marriage to fail. They only met and decided to live together without a common objective. Montag thinks of their relationship during the night and again instead of discussing it with Mildred he chooses to talk to himself and the author says "well, wasn't there a wall between him and Mildred, when you come down to it? Literally, not just one wall, but so far, three! And expensive, too! And the family that lived in those walls, the gibbering pack of tree apes that said nothing, nothing, nothing, and sait it loud, loud, loud (Bradbury, 44).