Individualism In Farenheit 451 Essay, Research Paper

All great things that have been created by mankind have evolved from individuals who dare to think outside of the box. There are the regretful ideas from which we learn from and of course the great ideas in which humanity has developed. For us to grow and change, mankind needs a diversity of ideas and thoughts. Without individualism, how can we evolve?

Individualism creates uniqueness, different thoughts that some people think are strange and just wrong. All these ideas contribute to filling man with more knowledge and wisdom. We have learned the best ways to do tasks, about the earth and universe, almost everything we know, all from individuality. Take Hitler and his idea of the persecution of the ?inferior race? for example. That was plainly a corrupt idea, but humanity grew stronger from this experience. We learned from that by being able to recognize evil early on and stop it, and it showed many that we are all equal no matter what race.

The theme that I picked from the book Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury is individualism. The way this corresponds with Fahrenheit 451 is that the people and the schools destroyed intellectualism, and uniqueness, because these qualities create different ideas. As Henry Ford said,? All Fords are exactly alike, but no two men are just alike. Every new life is a new thing under the sun; there has never been anything just like it before, never will be again. A young man ought to get that idea about himself; he should look for the single spark of individuality that makes him different from other folks, and develop that for all he is worth. Society and schools may try to iron it out of him; their tendency is to put it all in the same mold, but I say don’t let that spark be lost; it is your only real claim to importance.?

The people in the book destroyed anything that had two sides to it, and imagination that other people just couldn?t believe. Throughout history, this has occurred for thousands of years, and especially when the bible and religions came around. This all led to controversy which made life and society unhappy and restless. Anything that had racism, they burned it. If a book had all woman in it, the males would feel envious, jealous and resentful, and so that too got burned. Bit by bit, people banned books and movies that contained any ideas in them. They destroyed individualism, because it created unhappiness.

This science fiction book so closely resembles reality. Many books are censored in schools, because people do not like their ideas. Chain bookstores like Barnes and Nobles has a big say in which books make it and which ones don?t. Also publishers decides the fate of authors books. If they don?t think the book will sell, they don?t publish it. Religion fits nicely in here also. In Afghanistan the government leaders ordered the execution of people that believed in Christianity and for expressing their thoughts and beliefs to the public. A few years ago in California, there were protests against the cutting of the Redwood trees. The government and police oppressed their opinions. The police arrested protestors and as punishment, put mace in their eyelids with cotton swabs. There is case after case in history and the present, that peoples thoughts, and beliefs are oppressed and individuality being demolished.

It did not happen that easily though, it all started with technology, mass production and mass media. With mass production, almost every family has at least one TV in real life and the parlor TVs in the book. This created people to think, and speak their voice. Eventually everyone was arguing about something. Like Beatty, the captain fireman said, don?t provide the people with two sides to a story, give them one, or better yet, none. With mass media and mass production of TVs, it eventually shapes your mind into what they want you to think. I see this happening in real life, TV news and movies shape people?s thoughts. Though they don?t realize it after watching TV all their life. For my personal statement, I think that individuality is essential in the evolution of mankind, but it could also lead to controversy and unhappiness. People should look at every idea as an opportunity to improve. Individualism and voicing our thoughts makes us think about things, not to just do as we?re told without wondering why. I think Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 is trying to make a point that all the censorship and oppression of ideas that has already gone on to destroy individuality could lead up to what happens in his book.