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What are some examples of technology dehumanizing the society in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury?

One of the most dehumanizing forms of technology in Fahrenheit 451 is the television system. As people have to follow a script, they are cut off from actual human interaction. Mildred, Montag's wife, is consumed by the stories on the wall-to-wall circuit. She begs Montag to install a fourth wall so she can be surrounded by the television personalities she thinks of as her real family (page 20). In addition, Mildred is constantly listening to music in what are described as "thimble radios" (page 12) with her "eyes fixed to the ceiling by invisible threads of steel, immovable" (page 12). When she takes an overdose of sleeping pills, her stomach is pumped out by another dehumanizing form of technology, a machine that is described as as "black cobra" (page 14) with an "Eye" that sees into the soul of the person it is cleaning out.


In addition, the Hound is a form of dehumanizing technology. Rather than representing man's best friend, as real dogs are, it is a nasty mechanical contraption that has "green-blue neon lights...in its...eye bulbs" and a growl that sounds like "electronic sizzle" (page 25). These forms of technology dehumanize people because they make them increasingly disconnected and afraid rather than more connected and human. 

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