Technology's impact in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Dandelion Wine

Ray Bradbury was one of the most talented American authors in his career. Living until 91, he left readers amazed by his writings, letting his own personal experiences sway the themes of his novels. He experienced events that formulated his strong opinion of technology, which he feared would someday overpower society. His works hint at the dangers of the atomic bomb, its sole purpose being to destroy human life. Many of his works are focused around the theme of technology and its benefits and disadvantages. Two of these novels are Fahrenheit 451 and Dandelion Wine.

The effects of the atomic bomb on society during the 1950s that Fahrenheit 451 and Dandelion Wine were written in led Bradbury to incorporate the theme of technology influenced by the atomic bomb, in and out of World War II, into both of these novels. Formulating a personal opinion of technology and what it could do to the world at a young age influenced the writing of many of Bradbury’s novels. Bradbury is quoted as telling Playboy in 1996, “‘I saw six people die horribly in an accident. I walked home holding on to walls and trees. It took me months to begin to function again. So I don't drive. But whether I drive or not is irrelevant. The automobile is the most dangerous weapon in our society—cars kill more than wars do’” (Conradt). This event happened when Bradbury was 16, so he formulated this opinion about technology from a young age, which only further developed throughout his writing career. He expresses that he fears technology in the hands of the wrong person. “‘I'm not afraid of machines. I don't think the robots are taking over. I think the men who play with toys have taken over. And if we don't take the toys out of their hands, we're fools’” (HuffPost). He was afraid of what negative effects technology would have on the world if placed in the hands of someone that did not know the dangers of it. Finally, Bradbury feared technology in terms of war. He is quoted saying, “‘We must move into the universe. Mankind must save itself. We must escape the danger of war and politics. We must become astronauts and go out into the universe and discover the God in ourselves’” (13 Ray Bradbury Quotes). He held a strong fear of war, and war tactics such as the atomic bomb.

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Without these strong opinions about the negative effect that technology would have on the world in the future, Bradbury would have never written such compelling novels warning us about the dangers of it.To portray a nation-wide fear of technology during the 1950s, Ray Bradbury included negative elements of it into Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury writes about an atomic bomb being dropped, destroying the technology-reliant city that Montag and the others of the city had been trapped in. Once the bomb drops, they march back towards the city to rebuild it better than it was once before. Bradbury’s idea of this is that nature is more important than technology, and it is shown after the city is destroyed and Montag is starting over. Bradbury writes, “And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Fahrenheit 451 158). By including this quote on the last page of the book, Bradbury connects nature to time and healing. He uses the tree to symbolize the months of the year and the time it will take for nature and life to fix the city the way it should be, without the technology. By including the city bombing and Montag aiming to fix it and rid it of the technology it once was controlled by, Bradbury gets the message across to readers that they need to have the same positive outlook and overcome their fear of the atomic bomb. With the fear of the atomic bomb rising, Americans began to fear new technology in general.

Bradbury incorporates this fear of new technology into Fahrenheit 451 with the Mechanical Hound. The Mechanical Hound’s original purpose was to rescue people, but the government programmed it to go after citizens who go against the law. After Montag chooses to live the old way of life, with books, the Hound is sent after him. “After all the running and rushing and sweating it out and half drowning, to come this far, work this hard, and think yourself safe and sigh with relief and come out on the land at last only to find… The Hound!” (Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 137). Montag has been running from this technology, because he is one of the few that realize what a danger it poses to their society. By including these negative aspects of technology in society and how the people of the book react to it, Bradbury represents a nationwide fear of technology in the 1950s.Like in Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury added negative elements of technology into Dandelion Wine. The first example of this is Leo Auffmann, who expresses his disliking for technology to his family. “‘Invent us a happiness machine!’ The men laughed. ‘Don’t… How have we used machines so far, to make people cry? Yes! Every time man and the machine look like they will get on all right- boom! Someone adds a cog, airplanes drop bombs on us, cars run us off cliffs” (Bradbury, Dandelion Wine 33). In a society that is based around growth of technology, Leo is not quick to trust it. He has his suspicions, and he voices them clearly. He shows fear of the new advances, reasoning that they kill people. Bradbury’s intent of adding this in was to show that the people of the 1950s feared new technology and how it may harm them.

Another example in Dandelion Wine is when Miss Fern and Miss Roberta are scared of The Green Machine, a seemingly perfect new electric car. They question its liability when they say to the salesman, “It couldn’t-- that is...It couldn’t electrocute us accidentally?” (Bradbury, Dandelion Wine 92). Because this technology is new and potentially dangerous, the sisters are skeptical about it. This shows how the people of the 1950s felt about new, dangerous technology, especially the atomic bomb. Shortly after in the novel, the sisters accidentally run over a neighbor, while The Green Machine trots on at its 15 mile-per-hour smooth ride. “There was a terrible thud. The Green Machine sailed on in the hot daylight, under the shady chestnut trees, past the ripening apple trees. Looking back only once, the two old ladies’ eyes filled with faded horror” (Bradbury, Dandelion Wine 94). The wording of this quote shows how the technology is dangerous, because it has no conscious, running over a man and the continuing on into the day. After this happens, the two sisters debate getting rid of The Green Machine because of its danger, but settle with just not using it. This shows how Bradbury views the atomic bomb and how people react to it, because while people are scared of it, they recognize the danger of it but do not do anything to stop it. Bradbury connects the characters’ fear of technology with the fear of those living in the 1950s with a fear of the atomic bomb.Bradbury is quoted in saying, “I don’t try to describe the future. I try to prevent it” (Moore). He speaks through his characters in his novels to express his views on technology and the atomic bomb, as well as what it can do to society if it is not prevented. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury expresses one view through Granger:

Have you ever seen the atom bomb mushroom from two hundred miles up? It's a pinprick. It's nothing. With the wilderness all around it. My grandfather ran off the V-2 rocket film a dozen times and then hoped that someday our cities would open up and let the green and the land and the wilderness in more, to remind people that we're allotted a little space on earth and that we survive in that wilderness that can take back what it has given, as easily as blowing its breath on us or sending the sea to tell us we are not so big. When we forget how close the wilderness is in the night, my grandpa said, someday it will come in and get us, for we will have forgotten how terrible and real it can be. (Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 150)

By choosing to have his character say this in the book, Bradbury expresses an extremely important opinion. He is saying that we have forgotten how terrible advancements can be, that technology is causing people to destroy wilderness. He argues that one day destroying the wilderness will come back and cause us a great deal of trouble. By expressing this opinion through his character instead of just saying it in an interview, Bradbury paints a picture in our minds to go along with a real possibility. Another example of this is the Happiness Machine in Dandelion Wine. The Happiness Machine was used to make people happy again, but when it burned, Leo realized that he did not need the machine to be happy. After the fire, Leo says, “‘The last thing you learn in life is you’re the same fool… I’ve done a lot of thinking… You want to see the real Happiness Machine? The one they patented a couple thousand years ago, it still runs, not good all the time… but it runs. It’s been here all along’” (Bradbury, Dandelion Wine 62). Leo realizes that he does not need a machine to be happy, that the greatest happiness is his family. Bradbury is voicing his opinion through his character by showing that technology can tear a family apart, but all you need is your family to be happy. The final example of this is in Fahrenheit 451. Montag walks in to his wife, Mildred, sleeping with little “Seashells” in her ears. The Seashells are a device that goes in her ears while she sleeps, playing ocean sounds directly into her head. “Every night the waves came in and bore her off on their great tides of sound...There had been no night in the last two years that Mildred had not swum that sea” (Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 10). Mildred relied so heavily on technology to do such a simple everyday task for the last two years, and that’s what Bradbury is trying to get through in this quote. Bradbury is criticizing society’s reliance on technology, even for as simple a task as sleeping. By expressing his own personal opinions on technology and how it affects society through the dialogue of his characters, Bradbury creates a stronger argument linking his thoughts to substance.Ray Bradbury’s novels Fahrenheit 451 and Dandelion Wine are both written around the theme of technology and how it affects a society. During the 1950s in which these were written, a national fear of the atomic bomb was spreading throughout America, and Ray Bradbury used these feelings as a motivator for his own characters. With a fear of technology and the atomic bomb in the back of his mind, Ray Bradbury wrote two amazing, intriguing novels.