Bladerunner/Fahrenheit 451 Essay, Research Paper

The films “Bladerunner” and “Fahrenheit 451” are similar in the way they show emotions in their depictions of distopias. The emotions shown are not normal to us, but are controlled by the government. The inhabitants of these worlds are being persuaded that emotions are bad, unhealthy. However, some do break free from the system. The cases in these movies are not of really living at all, but just of going through the motions of life.

The movie “Bladerunner” was about androids that were made to not have feelings and not to live longer than 4 years. Rachel is a good example of they tried to control emotions. As one of the new model replicants, Rachel was implanted with memories and could recall emotions. What she did not realize was that her memories were really the memories of her maker’s niece. She did not even know she was an android until Decker did the test on her. She was very upset when she realized that he was right, because she did not know what feelings were real and what feelings belonged to someone else. She worked with the man that created androids, the owner of the Tyrell Corporation, which makes her more upset that she did not know. This is when she exclaims to Decker, “I am not in the business, I AM the business.” Although she though she was living a normal human life, Rachel was going through the motions of everything humans do, but she did not have real feelings or even her own memories. Therefore, she was not even being her own self.

Another aspect of the movie “Bladerunner” is of those that broke away from the system. The “Nexus 6” were androids that developed emotions and escaped from slavery, because they wanted to live longer. Roy and Priss are good examples of androids showing that they have emotions. They were manipulative, passionate for what they wanted, and even had loving sides. Roy was the leader of the “Nexus 6” and Priss was his girlfriend. Priss acted like a helpless girl to get J.F. Sebastian to let her into his house, into which she later let Roy. They made J.F. show them to the owner of the Tyrell Corporation’s house, so they could fight to get an extension on their lives. When they realized that they were not going to get a longer life, Roy killed Tyrell out of anger. Roy and Priss also had a love for each other. When Roy saw Priss lying dead on the ground, he was filled with sadness. He looked so hurt and gave her one last kiss to show that his love for her would not die. Also, even though Decker had killed Priss, Roy was compassionate enough to save Decker’s life and not let him fall off the top of the building. This proves that some androids were able to break out of the system and have their own emotions.

In “Fahrenheit 451” no one really thought for themselves at all, besides the few who went against the law and read books. The government convinced people that feelings were bad by keeping them happy on pills, watching TV all day long, and banning books. They banned books because books bring up feelings and emotions that make you think about “unpleasant” things. When Montag read a section of a love scene in a book to Linda’s friends, they got upset and left. They said that books were horrible things, and one woman even cried hysterically because she couldn’t remember the last time she felt the feelings that she had from that reading. Linda was a prime example of controlled emotions. She spent all day watching TV and thought that it was her family, and she thought that she was the only person being talked to by them. She also always took pills to “make her feel better.” When she overdosed on pills, Montag called the doctor and was asked if his wife took pills, to which he replied, “Of course.” It was as if he was saying, “Yes, because who doesn’t take pills?” Montag was the only one worried about Linda. The paramedics were very calm, even when they found her in a coma-like state. Montag was told that they see nearly 50 cases a day exactly like hers. Linda even chose to turn her husband in for reading so she could please “the family”. The government controlled her emotions so much that she did not even have real love left for her husband. She would rather be in the whole, that support the individual she was supposed to love forever. Living on pills to be happy and having the TV think for me does not sound like a good life to me.

Montag was the one that broke out of the system in “Fahrenheit 451”. In the beginning of the movie, he was one of the mindless firemen that went around burning books and arresting people who read. However, when he started reading he realized all of the emotions that he had been missing out on and how emotionally-numbed the rest of the world was. He wanted his wife to understand, so he read to her and her friends. She had been brainwashed not to want anything to do with books, and that just made her more upset. He did not want to be a fireman anymore, but he wanted to read all the time, just to learn and feel more. However, he could not do that where he lived. Montag had to run away and live with the people like him, the few others that broke away from the system.

When the world tries to control the inhabitants’ emotions, it is bad, because then the people are not really living their own lives. The people depicted in these movies did not know the meaning of life. They only knew how to act the way the were supposed to, except for the few cases that managed to escape the system. Having memories implanted in you and taking pills to be happy both seem to cheat a person from their life equally. I think that Roy and Priss and Montag were happy to be able to escape the system and have their own emotions, even if they had to lose their “normal” lives. Personally, I believe that a life where your emotions are controlled would be boring and not worth living.

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