Nothingness Mirrors 451

Let me start off by saying that Fahrenheit 451 was one of the most complex books I have ever read. Just to think that the people in this book lived in a world where books were outlawed and the firefighters were the ones that enforced this law, and that everyone was fine with this and just treated it as a “whatever” sort of thing was beyond words to me. And to think how the minds of the women in this book were being robbed and meshed into nothingness got me thinking of how people act today. I remember reading an online article once on IPods, the article didn’t just focus on IPods it was a sort of article on all media, but the IPod was its main focus. Either way, the article was about how we disconnect ourselves from reality by the electronics we carry around. For example, when we walk around campus, or down the street, or even drive with the headphones in our ears we disconnect ourselves from what is going on in the world and become less social to people around us and aware of situations around us. In a way that’s what was happening here. In the beginning Guy comes home to find his wife in bed with the seashells in her ears. Their relationship is so disconnected from each other that Guy doesn’t even realize that his wife has tried to commit suicide until after he knocks over the empty bottle of pills. Even afterwards the next morning instead of discussing the issue or trying to get help for his wife the issue is dropped and Mildred does back to her “family.” In this world books are outlawed and the “family” is what gains the attention? She devotes her days to the television and her nights to her seashells. Like we devote our days to the computer and our nights to texting and IPods to unwind, and maybe that’s exactly what the motivation was behind outlawing literature. I mean if books are out of the way in a sense our brains get shut off, I mean they would still work for common sense sort of things, but without something challenge it’s all mush, our common sense turns into what “they” tell us is common sense. And without the connection of others, there is no one going against this madness of the loss of literature. No breaking out of the norm and no nothing. Basically this book shows us and is a social commentary on how if we allow the literature out of our lives, if allow the realness, real thoughts, real emotions, real everything, we have nothing.