Beginning with the mysterious opening credits, the eerie sounds throughout the entire movie enhance the feeling that something is not right in this world of Fahrenheit 451. We continuously see how truly dystopian the world is as the plot really develops. The oppressive government of this world has placed a ban on books, of which the Captain of Fahrenheit 451 says makes people “unhappy”. He even says, “The only way to make people happy is to make people equal, therefore, we must burn the books!”
The “firemen” who burn the books, the consumption of colored, unnamed pills dispensed by the government to control citizens emotions, and how citizens like Linda Montag feel like part of The Family broadcasted on their TV, all demonstrate the mind-numbing, media-filled, consumeristic society they live in.
The movie begins with the main character Guy Montag and the rest of the firemen crew finding books in somebody’s house and demonstrating the burning of them for the public to see. Before he meets Clarisse on their version of a subway, Montag sees nothing wrong with the burning. He only starts questioning it once he meets her, someone he describes as “quite like [his wife]”. Clarisse, unlike Linda, asks many questions which starts Guy Montag questioning his already doubtful beliefs, and begins reading books. Despite Montag’s change in ideals, the firemen continue to do their duty. The music when Montag is sneakily reading books is uncomfortable, displaying the fact that he is doing something he shouldn't be. By burning these books, the government attempts to eliminate the imagination of the public and their ability to think for themselves. Few do, in this Fahrenheit 451 world.
Not only does the elimination of books diminish the ability for citizens to think for themselves, but so does the government dispensed pills many people take to control their emotions. In fact, once Linda Montag overdosed on these pills. Apparently it happened quite often, according to the people who basically pumped her stomach. Another man was seen taking a “stimulant pill” to give him courage.
During the scene above, where Linda overdoses, the music is somewhat frightening and uncomfortable which only supports the disturbing theme of the film. Finally, Linda’s addiction to the TV demonstrated how mind numbing the consumeristic society was. She considered the people on the broadcast as her family, and even called them Cousin. When she shut off the TV, she brought a little radio version of it to the bedroom and watched that.
It was blatantly clear that the effects of the pills and the broadcast numbed her mind so much that it seemed as if she couldn’t think for herself at all. The only things that ever really came out of her mouth were things she had been told by the government.
Evidently, the oppressive government was affective in suppressing individual and independent thoughts. By the end of the movie, Montag is found out, but he and Clarisse escape the dystopian society and join the “book people”, who commit books to memory.
Soylent Green takes place in an overcrowded version of New York City in 2022. Unlike Fahrenheit 451, this version of the world is quite similar to our own, and could even be a plausible look into our future. The film shows a future in which this city is essentially decaying and the environment is collapsing. As Solomon Roth, the investigating assistant to Detective Thorn says, “How can anything survive in a climate like this? A heat-wave all year long—a greenhouse effect! Everything is burning up!”
However, like Fahrenheit 451, I believe that what happens in Soylent Green is a result of the past and present consumeristic United States of the film.This is demonstrated by the present Soylent Green business itself, and the present socio-economic difference between the select few elite in the film, and the rest of the citizens of New York City who are struggling to survive in the environment they live in.
The socio-economic difference between the elite and the rest of the citizens of New York City is, what I believe, drives the horror portrayed in this movie. Though the plot revolves around Detective Thorn and Solomon Roth, and their discovery of what Soylent Green actually is, there are many other horrors seen in the film. The biggest horror of them all is finding out that Soylent Green is actually processed human bodies.
The poverty and destruction seen in this film also causes social unrest. Due to the population size, 40,000,000 people in one city, food, which is mainly Soylent Green, is rationed. Even so, the company could only produce so much, thus not having anymore available. We see in the film the riots and how the police, including protagonist Thorn, use “scoopers” to pick these rioters and place them essentially in the garbage.
Like Harry Harrison says in his essay “The Wretched Refuse of Your Teeming Shore”: Overpopulation and Social Breakdown", the situation we see in the film is "horrific". We also see many homeless people left to the forces of nature to fend for themselves.
Furthermore, we see the Soylent Green business profiting from human death, specifically the elderly. In the film, they say they cannot risk losing their profits, and along with that their power. They would instead try to murder those who investigate their business. The governor of New York City ends up telling a hit man to target Detective Thorn, endorsing his murder.
I believe that the entire root of the situation presented in the film, however, as Solomon Roth said in the beginning, is the past consumeristic United States and how it majorly contributed to global warming and environmental destruction. If not for that, Soylent Green would not have been produced, and the business side of it would have never come to be, even with such overpopulation.
The past of the United States in the film being the consumerism that fueled environmental destruction greatly contributed to the Soylent Green business and the socio-economic gap between classes of society. The Soylent Green business and the gap between classes of society furthermore created a horrible dystopian version of the world we live in today.
To summarize “Compare/Contrast: Media Culture, Conformism, and Commodification in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit451”, Booker compares Farenheight 451 to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World as well as other dystopian novels. He adds the time period the novel Fahrenheight 451 came out in, during the Cold War. Booker compares the banning of books in the novel to the Nazi Germany, where the burning of books did actually occur. He continues his essay on the similarities to Brave New World’s consumerism. He analyzes the “crucial role of the media” in “every aspect of American life” as well. The title of his essay really says it all.
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