Because Fahrenheit 451 is written as a futuristic novel you would naturally think that you would not be able to see any types of relationships in society that reflected on the time that it was written. That is not true though, you can tell that it was written in the fifties. Everything in the novel is exaggerated of course but you can tell that Ray Bradbury pulled inspiration from things that he was seeing in his own life.
In the fifties everyone wanted to very hip. This is not the same type of hip we think of today. They were not trying to see who wore the best plaid shirt to school that day or who had the brand new skinny jeans from their favorite hipster store. Everyone was trying to be the same. Many families dreamed of having that perfect home with the white picket fence and the two children who would grow up to be the brightest children in their class. In a warped sense Bradbury was comparing the two worlds and it all kind of made sense. In the novel everyone wanted the brand new screens and if you did not have one you were almost below the people who did have them. Being weird and different was not something was praised in the fifties or in Fahrenheit 451. Being unique is something so special and I feel bad that people did not start to realize this until many years later. At one point Clarisse said she is afraid to go to school because the other students scare her. That has been an issue since schools were invented until now and probably in the futuristic time period of this novel. Overall I can see what Ray Bradbury was trying to portray in Fahrenheit 451. He did a good job expressing the times then and what he thought the future would look like.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Del Rey Books, 1991. Print.
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