Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury - Movie Review Example

This comes to a head at the fire where they must burn the woman alive. She is protecting her most prized possession, her book collection. This action makes Guy wonder if perhaps that might be a key to his happiness. Then, Guy changes, metamorphisizing into a man on an insatiable quest for knowledge in a limited society. I believe I, as are most people am a combination of the two main characters. That seems to be the theme of the book – that we are all becoming Mildreds when we should in reality be working toward being more Guy-like.

I desperately wish that I could claim to be more like Guy, fighting against society and trying to better it. I however, am more like Mildred; I tend to bury myself in technology and create a false world for myself that is a poor substitute for the real one. Milly spends most of her time “watching the wall”, as I also spend a disproportionate amount of time watching my television, the flickering images leading me to believe I am experiencing the world, when in truth I merely watch.

  I don’t believe that I am hiding from reality, as Milly is, but I do believe that I watch the world go by while I should be experiencing it. I also immerse myself in my computer, escaping to that world, where one can be anything that they want to be more than I should. .Milly turns to her seashell radio as I turn to my computer for an escape from the grind of daily life. My friends, who I talk to daily I talk to through my computer. We discuss and share each other’s lives through the glare of a computer screen.. .

Milly turns to her seashell radio as I turn to my computer for an escape from the grind of daily life. My friends, who I talk to daily I talk to through my computer. We discuss and share each other's lives through the glare of a computer screen, when my "real" friends who I can actually see are sitting in the room just down the hall. Just as Milly's friends visited to "watch the wall" with her, and gossip on what's going on, my friends and I are often even when physically in each other's company using some sort of technology for entertainment purposes.

We are watching television, movies, or playing on the internet. We are most definitely not sitting around reading poetry. I believe however that I am unlike Milly in the depth of her immersion into the alternate reality. She goes so far as to attempt suicide as an escape from reality. Also, overwhelmed by the discovery of her husband's book collection, Milly reports him to the authorities and flees. She believes so wholeheartedly in her falsely constructed reality that she sets the train in motion that destroys her home, marriage, and life.

I am not anywhere near that immersed in my "techno-life". I enjoy the ease and comfort that it brings to my life; however I still retain the ability to push the off button. I would not sell out my entire life in order to maintain my fantasy one. After reading this book, I will strive to be more like Guy and less like Milly. Bradbury was able to see the future quite clearly when he wrote this book. He was unable to foretell the coming of computers, but he was able to predict the way that television would take over our lives.

Fahrenheit 451 was written as a warning, as a social commentary as fitting in 1953 as today.