We May Be Regressing....
Will our society ever really come to a point where we actually pay a price for all of the progress
and discoveries we are making? Three similar stories touch on the basis of censorship, are
person/persons break away from the system, and people doing things that society may frown upon. All
the stories share thoughts about what humans may acquire in the way of technology, also the
consequences that may happen if we are to keep progressing. Some people may feel that people will
not have to pay a price for all of the progression that we are making but some feel that with all of this
progression we will regress in some areas. “ The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury, “Harrison Bergeron” by
Kurt Vonnegut, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury all explore the idea of losing personal
communication, the various meanings of the word “normal” and the explosion of technology in this time
period and times to come.
The idea that people today are actually losing personal communication among each other is
slowly starting to become reality. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury talks a lot about how the
society that they live in, humans do not communicate to each other like they do today. For instance,
children go to school and versus a teacher actually teaching them, they have a screen that a teacher will
turn on for the students. In the mid-way part of the novel Montag shares his feelings, “Nobody listens
any more. I can’t talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me. I can’t talk to my wife because she
listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say.” Fahrenheit 451 Pg. 82. Montag is
saying that no one will talk to him, that he just need a real human to understand his feeling and respond
back to him with advice. This is showing the real lack of personal communication because Montag has
actually gotten to the point of letting out his feelings with not a human but the ‘parlor walls’. Today this
kind of things happens more frequently then in the past. Kids go on to the computer and right
blogs/posts to let out their feelings instead of talking to a person. In “The Pedestrian”, Leonard Means
quotes, “I explained; for air, and to see, and just to walk.l” The Pedestrian. This quote is sharing that
when the man went outside to walk and just to see things, that it was seen as some type of crime, that
he was up to no good. Luckily today we have not gotten that point of insanity but with all of this
technology increasing, the use of actually talking and walking and seeing the world is becoming very
miniscule. One of Bradbury’s predictions came true, ‘Parlor Walls’. Montag quotes, “Will you turn the
parlor off? That’s my family, said Mildred.” Fahrenheit 451 pg. 48. This is showing the loss of personal
communication because Mildred is actually referring the T.V. set to her family! Bradbury predicted that
people will have big T.V’s that cover walls and exercising by using your T.V. All of which came true.
People today are making a big mistake by losing touch of personal communication because I person had
depth and insight versus a machine that cannot even begin to show the feeling and emotion a human
can teach to another.
In all three of these stories the author has written a society where normal seems to be the
complete opposite of what normal appears to be like in our society. Through out all the stories the
audiences grasps another perspective of what normal could be like if our society’s definition of normal
was twisted around. In the story “Harrison Bergeron” is states, “The year was 2081, and everybody was
finally equal. They were only equal every which way.” Harrison Bergeron. Vonnegut, the author of
“Harrison Bergeron”, wrote a story where ‘normal’ to this society meant everyone being equal to one
another; which also meant bringing people down to where the lowest person’s level is. This society is
based on looks and achievement s (sports, singing…etc.). Our society today is not nearly as bad as the
society explained in Vonnegut’s story and this will never happen in our society because our society is
rapped around completion and lust of being better than one another. In the story, “The Pedestrian” the
police officer quotes, “Business or profession?...I guess you’d call me a writer, say Leonard Mead. No
profession, says the Police Officer.” In our society, people look up and notice writers for their whit and
achievements versus this society where people think of writers as not a profession and insist on having a
job such as a police man or a doctor. In all three of these stories, they have different perspective of what
‘normal’ will be like. The only reason ‘normal’ would change our society drastically would be more of an
increase of technology. Soon people will not want to go outside, or go to the store because they can do
everything they need from within the comfort of their own home, on their couch.
The explosion of technology has become really enormous in the last century and many personal
relationships have been lost based on the use of technology. Today, the use of technology has greatly
increased and is taking away personal relationships and other humanly characteristics. ‘The Pedestrian’
quotes, “And you have a viewing screen in your house to see with? No, says Leonard Mead.” The
Pedestrian. The officer asked the man when he got in trouble for walking if he had a viewing screen to
see with (a T.V.) instead of actually going outside and seeing things. The officer didn’t understand why
the man was outside walking to see things when he could really just be inside seeing things from his T.V.
In Fahrenheit 451, Mildred states, “It was not three walls soon to be four walls and the dream
complete.” Fahrenheit 451 pg. 42. This passage is saying that Mildred’s dream would be sitting a room
full of T.V.’s so that there is not actually anything else to focus on other then the T.V’s around you. In
the short-story “Harrison Bergeron” a handicap was used. The people had to put some sort of device in
their ear if they were to smart, this is Vonnegut’s prediction of future would be like. Advancement in
technology that would, with out a doubt, hurt society. In our society, since we are constantly competing
with other countries about new technology that can supposedly help us, we will never have the handycap device to make us not be able to think but we will come to the poking one day where we hurt
ourselves with all of the advancements we are making in the way of technology.
Our society may already be paying the price for progression. When things progress in some
areas, in other areas, things may actually be regressing. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury,
“The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury, and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut all express the loss of
personal communication, the different meaning of what normal appears to be, and the thought that
technology may actually be hurting out society versus helping it.