Two Different Prospects for the Future Ray Bradburys and...

Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451 showed us a world in which people found it acceptable, even preferable, to remain ignorant about the state of their world and face the darker aspects of their own humanity. Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale envisioned a theocratic government named Gilead that induced women into the servitude of military commanders for the purpose of procreation. In both of these bleak contemplations of the future, people are discouraged from and harshly punished for expressing any sort of dissent. Perspectives that do not align with the status quo are discouraged, perhaps even feared, and consequently censored. These authors purpose was perhaps not to foretell a future, but to examine parts of society that necessitated†¦show more content†¦Fire Captain Beatty explains this to protagonist and dissenter-in-the-making Guy Montag as a result of offense caused by books; â€Å"Colored people dont like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people dont feel good about Un cle Toms Cabin. Burn it. Someones written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book. Serenity, Montag. Peace, Montag. Take your fight outside. Better yet, into the incinerator† (Bradbury 57). Books often demonstrated a darker aspect of society. This subversive form of expression was received poorly by the general public, and the government was happy to put regulations in place to keep such challenging pieces of literature out of the peoples’ line of sight. A bid to make people comfortable led to the eradication of a broad spectrum of expression. Bradbury shows us the result of this repression of thought and expression with his citys peoples affection for their interactive â€Å"parlor† television systems over facing difficult emotions, as can be experienced through literature, since Faber tells us that â€Å"books are to remind us what asses and fools we are† (Bradbury 82). Montag tries to get his wife Mildreds friend Mrs. Phelps to face the harsh reality of feeling emotions by reading a depressing poem,