Fahrenheit 451 and the posture of life, ignorance
When we talk about ignorance, we talk about a posture about life, incomplete, ignorance is the general lack of knowledge, therefore any ignorant person cannot achieve happiness, life is a cluster of knowledge, where as you advance in it, and you know them, you are gradually approaching happiness. When we talk about crime, we usually talk about a large number of people located in the same country who commit illegal acts, many times out of necessity and sometimes for pleasure, but what is aware is that more than eighty percent of these, they have not had an adequate approach to knowledge. Many times these people introduce themselves to this lifestyle, thinking that it will make them happy, but when they are really aware, of the way they have wrapped their years, they realize that they completely repent of not having done anything else withHis life, in order to achieve true happiness, the happiness of criminals is described as fleeting and momentary, and not eternal as obtained through knowledge.
In Fahrenheit 451, we find a position by the very differentiated author with respect to ignorance and knowledge. Ray Bradbury thanks to his work, makes a strong criticism of all those ignorant people, of which many want to continue in that state of ignorance;As we can see in the figure of Mildred;Since Montag teaches her books, she is, at all times she remains outside her, it is as if she didn’t even have a minimum of curiosity. However, thanks to the protagonist of the work, he becomes visible as even being his work to burn books, he has a minimum of curiosity in them, he wants to know them more, he wants to know why there are people who come to give their lives for them, evenknowing the terrible consequences that having a single book can cause (“-You were not there, you did not see it,” he insisted-. There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine to make a woman remain in a house that burns. There must be something. One does not sacrifice for anything ”p. 32)
In this novel, it is intended to achieve happiness through ignorance, it becomes visible as from the same school, all kinds of reasoning are avoided, it is a very mechanical system, where they give you everything done (“it must know thatWe never ask questions, or at least, most do them; they only launch the answers ”Clarisse P.twenty).
In addition to seeing in Mildred a totally ignorant person, we see in it a lack of sensitivity, empathy towards life. On the eleven page, it is described as if it were jellywoman, the way it ingests thirty or forty pills to sleep, that is why we can see how Mildred truly does not feel totally happy or comfortable with life thatIt also leads to it, it is demonstrated as a person who lives for superficial pleasure, that is, thinks that through the material it can reach happiness, but it is not so at all (“it only costs two thousand dollarsShe repeated-. And I think you should once have a certain consideration. If we had the fourth wall … Oh! It would be as if this Salaya was not ours at all, but belonged to all kinds of exotic people ”Mildred P.fifteen)
Throughout the novel, characters like Montag, Clarisse, Faber, or the group of retired teachers who live with the old rails, are the only ones who have the ability to think for themselves, they decide for themselves, they look for a futureDifferent from the rest, they do not want to wilt in a society wrapped in large screens and mechanical actions. Beatty, Mildred, the rest of the Firefighters and the friends of Mildred, are a clear example of that part of society that does not want to decide for itself, prefers to go to the easy, follow some orders without being questioned if it is the morally correctOr if it is what will lead to eternal happiness, they are a clear example of regression, all these show a contempt for knowledge, in fact firefighters not only despise knowledge, but also destroy it.
The perceived ignorance in the novel, is anticipated by the great development of technology, its function in the book is to stun all who use it daily, it even becomes part of the very body (“without turning on the light, Montag imaginedWhat would look like the room. His wife lying on the bed, discovered and cold, as a body exposed on the edge of the grave, his look fixed on the roof by invisible steel threads, immovable. And in their ears the tiny shells, the radios as strongly tight, and an electronic sound, music and words ocean, eating incessantly to the beaches of their awake brain."P. 11) In effect, this use of technology reaches a point, where it becomes visible how technology dehumanizes communication between them. On the one hand, it helps to communicate through the screens with all your family and friends, but on the other hand this makes you see unnecessary having physical contact with them, therefore it moves them more and more from one reality, and introduces them to anothertotally virtual and fictitious. This also produces other collateral damage;As the lack of intimacy, being connected to all times as Mildred does, makes everything that in the past was private, is now public or partially disappears. Mildred at all times had the atrial radio connected, to the point that he had perfectly developed the ability to read the lips, this implies that he does not even have a conversation alone with her husband where the radio is not present. At the end of the novel, we see how Montag after processing all the information, he realizes that Mildred for him is a true unknown, had had a totally superficial relationship, in fact he knew and had more affection for Clarisse in a coupleof days that his wife. ("It’s strange, I don’t miss her, I barely have a feeling," said Montag-. Even if she died, I have noticed a moment ago, I don’t think I felt sad. ”P. 82)
There are two currents to which you can lead to when you receive a lot of information;When the information that is received does not reason, or think, it would be described as information that stuns us, it does not make us evolve, however when we receive a lot of information than what it does is make us think, it makes us more informed, it helpsOur development makes us feel freer. In Clarisse she shows how thanks to the type of information she perceives, she feels lighter, happier, Clarisse seeks knowledge in the simplest things like observing her around and questioning it, making it differentiate from the rest ("I betI know more that you do not know. In the morning, the grass is covered with dew. Suddenly, Montag could not remember if he knew that or not, which irritated him a lot."P.9).
From my point of view, to achieve happiness, you have to imply and achieve your freedom also;And it is achieved through undertaking what one was born for. When that really is done for what you have been born, it is when happiness is truly reached, many times to achieve this, you have to pass over many controversies throughout life, but these are essential to learn and knoweven more of life.
It should be said that in the past, many relatives were ignorant regarding the level of knowledge that they could have, or even many of them could be illiterate because they were not able to obtain an essential education, such as the one that is now given in Primaryand in the e.S.EITHER., However, they were looking for another way to learn, knowledge passed from parents to children, and all people related to each other closer, most people were happier. At present, society has suffered a great advance with respect to the brutal development of technology, the brains are staying flat and oxidized, we no longer think how it used to do in the past, now we mechanize, many of us instead of visitingOur relatives make them a video call, and when it is time to declare a person, it is done, but through a screen, with a totally lacking message of feeling, it is here that the setback of humanity is concretized, an enhancement of empathy,And this is where the true parallelism of the society in which we live and the society of Ray Bradbury’s novel is seen. What if we focus on what we really want and we put aside everything superficial and ephemeral? Of course we would advance more than technology has advanced to this day.
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