Montag struggles with the external conflict over whether or not to be control by technology and be a rebel, demonstrating the deadening power of technology to replace human interaction in Montag’s society and ours As Fahrenheit 451 opens, Montag hints he lacks communication with Mildred, a foolish victim swayed by society who is Montag’s wifei Montag came back to a cold, noiseless “home sweet home” every day from his bland life of being a firefighter and burning books society defines as “illegal“t Montag portrays his frail wife, “And in her ears the little seashells, the timble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming on the shore of her unsleeping mind.
The room was indeed empty” Mildred’s empty life sways away with the waves of the ocean every night. Even as Mildred is supposedly resting, she surrounds herself with noise. She needs to surround herself with noise She is beyond redemption Technological device Mildred uses sparks a conflict with Montag, as the seashell interferes with Montag‘s personal relationship due to lack of communication Mildred is more connected to what she listens to than to her husband, showing the ability of technology to be deadly in human interaction. Unlike everybody, Montag senses pitifulness watching his wife and shows rebellion by not relaying on technology, Sea shells are also ironic, as in the societies today and Montag’s, both the seashells and earbuds are meant to convey peacefulness. Another technological device that creates conflict with Montag is the television, otherwise as the parlour.
The parlour is the wall which blocks Montag from interfacing with Mildred Montag also grows strong resistance towards technology controlling him when told by Mildred, “That‘s my family“. A simple request to turn the parlour off shows how the television characters she spends her day with are seen as family, not a breathing human being, her husband A fourth-wall televisions are important in the novel, because they provide “social status” to the citizens of their city. Mildred shows more and more obsession with television to avoid confronting her life, as she can hide her emotions and feelings to the point she successfully convinces herself she is happy. Montag questions the growing conflict he has against technology. The ongoing conflict of influence in Mildred‘s life due to the deadly technology makes Montag harder to connect his wife, Techonology tries to limit Montag from understanding the greatest feeling in life from valuable communication: happiness.
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The signs of dehumanization in Guy Montag‘s society taken over by technology did not impact Montag, in the beginning, The root of Montag’s change occurs when Clarisse McClellan enters his life, Clarisse, an outcast with a free spirit mind indirectly introduces Montag to the potential beauty of society without technology Even after Clarisse passes away from a car accident, Montag once again reminds himself how much an impact she made in his life when Granger explains a lesson taught to him by his grandfather, “The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the technology, the lawn cutter might not as well have been there at all; the gardener will be there for a life time”.
Comparison between a real gardener and a lawn cutter indirectly connects to role of Clarisse and Mildred, Clarisse is the gardener who plants the seeds physically and mentally and represents how she left her mark without the attribution of technology. Unlike Clarisse, Mildred represents the lawn cutter due to her trapped mindset into using deadly technology and does nothing to interact her job as a wife to draw Montag’s life into the right path Technology once again shows the dangerous power by trying to stop Montag from being a dynamic character. The seeds will later grow to help Montag be a rebel to what society believes is rightfully.
A piece of technology, the mechanical hound are created to track rebels such as Montag by their olfactory systems Montag is fascinated by the dead beasts, but a living beast programmed by technology, “Because all we put into it is hunting and finding and killing. What a shame if that’s all it can ever know”(25), The mechanical hound only knows its abilities to be evil, unlike a normal dog. Significant in that it shows the destructive nature that technology has evolved into in Montag’s society, The hound is one of many references Lhat the author uses to reinforce the theme of a destructive technology utilized by the government to control its people.
