Comparison and Contrast: Fahrenheit 451

The novels Fahrenheit 451, The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury, and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut have a variety of similiarities and differences in their portrayals of futuristic societies. One way how Fahrenheit 451 is similar to The Pedestrian is that the main characters in both stories go through the feeling of loneliness and isolation in the society without anybody by your side. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag felt very lonely and isolated because he was unable to pursue a profession and a lifestyle he took pride in because he never received support from his wife. It wasn’t just Montag either, the society spent too much of its time inside isolated, and if you were somebody who refuses to uphold to the scheme of a “perfect” society like Montag, then you too, were alone in the society of Fahrenheit 451.

In The Pedestrian, the main character (Leonard Maze) had nobody to accompany him or make feel more than what he did in that moment of time. He was always unhappy of continuously staying inside the darkness, so he went outside for a walk by himself every evening in order to make himself feel better. Fahrenheit 451 is also similar to “Harrison Bergeron” because both societies have technology set up in a form that people utilize that is not very healthy and well for them. In “Harrison Bergeron,” the government created devices that limited people from thinking what they didn’t want them to think and made them forget anything important they were thinking about so that everybody was on the same thinking level. This prevented people from becoming better than one another because they couldn’t think deeper and beyond others. In Fahrenheit 451, the television was used as a weapon of mass destruction against the people.

The television which is also known as the parlor, makes it so that it reduces the human mind into a mush, with the regularity very similar to oatmeal. This piece of technology was bent towards keeping every individual’s mind distracted and away from intellctual activites by playing meaningless shows that continues to go on which keeps people from getting smart enough to think about why things are the way they are right now. The society has been totally consumed into nothing but the televisions and media, that they have disregarded their appreciation of nature and dosen’t bother to go out and explore the world beyond the stupid things their television and media provides for them all the time. All citizens in both societies have become established to spend all of their time indoors. The authors of Fahrenheit 451, The Pedestrian, and “Harrison Bergeron” find a point and exaggerate it in order for the audience to be able to see the outcome of these socities if a change isn’t made.

On the contrary, a multitude of differences can also be found throughout the novels of Fahrenheit 451, The Pedestrian, and “Harrison Bergeron.” A way how Fahrenheit 451 and “Harrison Bergeron” differ is that in “Harrison Bergeron,” the government has a desire for everybody to be exactly the same in all aspects which includes. No one should be smarter than one another, and no one is supposed to look better than anyone(if so, they had to wear masks to hide it). The government in Fahrenheit 451 also wishes for everyone to be the same in all aspects. However, they do not purposely try to make them ugly or control their thinking so that they don’t think of something that they don’t want them to.

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