Skip to main content

Many critics and readers claim Fahrenheit 451's cultural relevancy has only increased as time has passed. Do you agree or disagree? Support your...

I would agree that Fahrenheit 451's cultural relevancy has increased since its publication in 1953. Aspects of Bradbury's dystopian society are eerily familiar in modern America. Mildred's addiction to sleeping pills is relevant to America's prescription drug abuse problem that affects millions of citizens on a daily basis. Also, the dystopian society's obsession with television and violent entertainment mirror our modern society's fascination with HD TVs and sports. In today's society, corporations use religious holidays to advertise to the ever-increasing consumer culture to the point that everything sacred about the holiday is forgotten. In a discussion with Montag, Faber comments that he wonders if God would recognize His own Son.


Bradbury's portrayal of how the dystopian society is constantly at war also mimics modern America. With our ongoing War on Terror, it seems like our country will always be involved in some sort of conflict around the globe. Bradbury's critique of how the populace elects officials based on their looks instead of their policies is also relevant to American society. Politics in America have essentially turned into a popularity contest where the most entertaining or attractive politician gets the most votes.


In my opinion, the most relevant and significant criticism that Bradbury expresses throughout his novel is the individual's lack of motivation to read. With technology growing exponentially, Americans are able to view videos and play virtual games at the touch of a button. Similar to the novel, literature has gradually been replaced by television and the internet.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...