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Blueprint and Refined Thesis
I. Introduction
A. Lead: Media technology in Bradbury’s novel is all-pervasive.
B. Refined Thesis: The personal isolation experienced by the characters in Fahrenheit 451 is primarily driven by a reliance on media technologies which devalue traditional forms of social interaction; this effect is mirrored in contemporary society. [“Write my essay for me?” Get help here.]
C. Three Supporting Arguments:
1. Many characters in the novel rely on technology as a mediator for social interaction.
2. These characters adopt these personally isolating social behaviors willingly.
3. The increased reliance in our society on social media technologies is having a similar effect.
II. Body
A. Topic sentence: The televisor walls in Fahrenheit 451, accompanied with the ban on books and by extention intellectualism, create an environment in which people have become isolated from one another and rely instead on the “Family” as a mediator for social interaction.
1. POINT: Guy and Mildred live in isolation from each other despite sharing a marriage and a home due to her addictive relationship with the parlour “Family,” which, in comparison to genuine human interactions is completely devoid of meaning.
PROOF: “Well, wasn’t there a wall beyween him and Mildred, when you came down to it? Literally, not just one wall, but so far, three!…A gibbering pack of tree apes that said nothing, nothing, nothing, and said it loud, loud, loud” (Bradbury, 41).
COMMENT: When people rely on technology to act as a false mediator for social interaction, they forget how to interact with other human beings, fostering social isolation and loneliness.
2. POINT: Relying on the televisor for social interaction turns it into a commodity, which negatively impacts the characters’ ability to form genuine relationships.
PROOF: “Where everything is seen as a commodity, alienation is inevitable” (Altunas, 35).
COMMENT: Altuna’s scholarly analysis implies that excessive reliance on media, in this case the televisor, precludes genuine relationships with other people. . [Need an essay writing service? Find help here.]
3. Concluding Statement: By embracing false relationships with the televisor, Mildred and other characters isolate themselves from society.
B. Topic sentence: The population in the novel willingly accepted these social changes; this is of particular relevance to our society given the proliferation of media technology.
1. POINT: The characters are responsible for their isolated state, having chosen their own path.
PROOF: “There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God” (Bradbury, 58).
COMMENT: Although the government in the novel had banned books and passed laws reinforcing technological dependence, the people were already engaging in these behaviors.
2. POINT: Case studies have proven that television is addictive.
PROOF: “television addiction was a real entity, another source of “food for the senses” that might involve such a preoccupation so as to lead to generalized apathy, neglect of responsibilities, negativism, and fantasy” (Moran, 125).
COMMENT: The nature of addiction leads sufferers to engage in unhealthy isolating behaviors.
3. Concluding Statement: The isolating behaviors Bradbury’s characters willingly engage in are characteristic of those who abuse social media technologies.
C. Topic sentence: The increased reliance in our society on technologies similar to Bradbury’s fictional “televisors” and “seashells” is proving to have a similarly alienating and isolating effect.
1. POINT: Scholar Gabriel Weimann compares modern use of televisions as a source of information to Plato’s allegory of the cave, in which people experience the real world only through the medium of watching shadows on a wall.
PROOF: “The wall in the cave was replaced by the screens of television, movies, and compuers…We may not be chained, but nevertheless these media ‘walls’ are our main source of information about the world out there” (Weimann, viii).
COMMENT: By viewing first-hand experience of the external world through the mediating influence of television, modern society has created for itself a false reality.
2. POINT: The technologically induced isolation of modern times is already having a negative impact on individuals’ ability to function within the context of society as a whole.
PROOF: “Today man’s meaninglessness and powerlessness with regard to himself, society, and culture seem to have reached alarming proportions” (Cauvin, 37).
COMMENT: This alienation from society as a whole of each of its individual members is the result of excessive reliance upon technology as a mediating factor.
3. Concluding Statement: In many ways the isolation of many members of our society strongly resembles that of the characters in Fahrenheit 451.
III. CONCLUSION
A. Restatement of thesis: The members of our society suffer from the same technologically influenced social isolation as those in Bradbury’s novel.
B. Review the key points: Technology in Fahrenheit 451 acts as a social mediator, which precludes the formation of genuine relationships. This sociological phenomenon can also be seen in today’s television and internet dependent culture.
C. Clincher/universality/recommendation/prediction: If nothing is done to change the course that we are on, Bradbury’s dystopian vision may well become a reality.
