Our world is being slowly taken over by the realm of technology; a theme which many authors and producers have portrayed in movies and novels. Some of which include Fahrenheit 451 and WALL-E. Fahrenheit 451 is a utopian and dystopian fiction novel written by Ray Bradbury. This satirical novel depicts certain aspects of the human condition and the way society is heading in terms of our relationship with technology. In a time where people have lost any kind of memory and feelings for one another, the protagonist, Montag has a question about the meaning of life that he is desperate to answer. WALL-E is a computer animated science fiction film produced by Pixar. Similar to Fahrenheit 451, a robot, in this case, goes on a mission to discover what life used to be like before it went to waste and before everyone was absorbed in technology. In both WALL-E and Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist goes on a heroic journey to rediscover the meaning of life by recognizing how superiors manipulate them, how they are controlled by technology and then influence a change to rebuild society.
Corporate manipulation plays an enormous role in the control and power the government can have over the people and how they think. In Fahrenheit 451, everyone is a consumer starting from a young age. People were encouraged to believe in and do what the government decided was right. If someone did not conform to society, like Clarisse, they would be “sent away”, or killed. The firemen are a perfect example of how people can be manipulated. They burn books but they have no idea why. If they are told by a more respected person, it must be true and followed through with. When Montag was being searched for, they lost him and so they came across a random man, “’There’s Montag! The search is done!’ The innocent man stood bewildered” (Bradbury 142). This can really relate to how Donald Trump won the US election with barely any legitimate facts. He just carried on saying things that he thought would benefit his campaign, which it did. The fact that most of Americas votes went to someone saying false facts shows how easily people can be manipulated by just believing others without question. In WALL-E, Buy and Large (BNL) took similar steps to influencing the people on the Axiom and gaining the power to peoples’ thoughts. The CEO of BNL is the “President” which indicates the power companies have over the people and their lives when in reality he should just be a ‘behind the scenes’ kind of guy rather than directing peoples’ lives. One example of this in our society is the Sinclair Broadcasting Group who controls most of America’s news stations. As the video above demonstrates (see blog), this corporation has many spokespeople who have once worked for Trump and they share very biased information to defend him. Each station was given a script to read on the news about biased information which is ironic because they are being told what to say on each and every US broadcasting station. The fat people in WALL-E are easily persuaded by anything that shows up on the big screens, which are much like the parlor walls in 451. The ship they are traveling on is like one big advertisement and doesn’t leave time for people to do anything but have routinely fun. The kids were being taught the alphabet in a way that every letter was a start to one object relative to what BNL wants them to know. This shows how they are being brainwashed and influenced to be a consumer at such a young age rather than a citizen. They don’t even talk about life outside of the ship because they don’t even know there is something “out there”.
The government, a corporation, or a high power group of people always take power to influence the way people think through technology to have control over them. Along the plots of 451 and WALL-E, the broadcasting corporations gained control of society by telling people what to think, through TV or their seashells, instead of letting people think for themselves. The totalitarian corporations saw that people, left with their own thoughts and ideals, would be out of control and therefor needed to direct (or more like control) their thoughts. In 451, they believe that if everyone is equal and the same, nobody will go against society, therefore the people are controlled as long as they are ‘happy’. And if there are no minorities, then nobody will be unpleased. Fear is a huge factor that is implemented into society if anyone has even the intent of doing something wrong. These people who don’t conform to society are called “misfits” and then they are sent ‘away’ such as Clarisse and her family, and the women who was burned in her house. People live fast-paced lives to separate them from thought. For example, they have minimum speed limits instead of a maximum and they do lots of school sports which don’t require much thought but keeps them active. David Brooks explained in his article ‘Time to Do Everything Except Think’ that, “if you are consumed by the same information loop circulating around everyone else, you don’t have anything to stimulate you into thinking differently” which is demonstrated in WALL-E. This loop of information is like the TV screens on their pods or the big advertisements on the Axiom. Even when the news suggested trying the new blue suit, everyone got excited and did it right away. Nobody even took a minute to remember that that was just suggested a couple of days before most likely. If they are always so busy with entertainment, then they really never have time to question themselves and self-reflect. One Ghanaian proverb once said, “To fish, the water is invisible” and to humans the water is like technology. Today, people are so immersed in technology that they are unaware of current events happening around us. On the advanced ship, there are many robots who do all the jobs for them so they stay bored and have more time to do nothing. Everything is already programmed for them so all they have to do is sit there and focus on what is right in front of them rather than looking around and noticing reality. Even the captain leading the ship just went along with the routine and never though why. As soon as WALL-E came on board, lots of changes started to occur such as the people actually looking around and being amazed about literally everything. The captain is given the book to rebuild society and he doesn’t even know what it is which relates to the lack of knowledge in Fahrenheit 451 in terms of not being able to have books. In today’s society, technology is on the rise and slowly people are becoming more emerged in it. People suffer anxiety when they have to leave their phone and put it down which demonstrates they’re addiction and attraction to having them in their lives. Along with these addictions, people are also insistent on instant gratification and are always willing to spend money. When an individual does want reform they will be labelled as crazy just because of their want to go against the norm.
In 451 and WALL-E, society undergoes some problems from the consequences of technology. After Montag and WALL-E notice what those problems are, they start the change to help rebuild society starting with little changes at first. Montag went on a unique heroic journey after the moment he met Clarisse when he started to question society. When Montag started to read books he realized that they still hold knowledge and peoples thoughts from maybe back when society wasn’t so controlled by technology. The efforts Montag needs to take to rebuild society have to be smart and he cannot encourage the same mistakes in the past to happen again. Granger compared the fire to a phoenix because he noticed that that was exactly what they were doing; creating a fire and hopping right back into it. Granger told Montag that they are, “going to build a mirror-factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them” (Bradbury 157). This is a promise of a better future and how they are going to go into deep reflection of themselves and society. The tree of life in the end of the story was symbolic of hope and optimism of a new era which was also portrayed in the credits of WALL-E. WALL-E’s journey was quite similar to Montag’s in the way how he inspired change to their technology based reality. WALL-E started his journey when he started to find a whole bunch of items that humanity left behind including a love film. These items were similar to the books Montag found which made them both question the meaning of life. Unlike 451, in WALL-E the people were receptive to learning and starting over again ever since the moment they looked away from the TV right in front of them. In the end, they went back to their trash filled Earth and started to rebuild life. Our current society is very similar to this novel and film except today is more at the redemption stage rather than rebuilding. People need to self-reflect on issues more, think independently without influence from media, and to be a citizen first and a consumer second.
Similar to today’s society, WALL-E and Fahrenheit 451 demonstrate many aspects of our lives such as corporate manipulation and the influence technology has over our lives. Then, once people recognize these problems, they can help rebuild or make things right in society. Both WALL-E and Montag undergo a heroic journey starting with something simple like reading books or finding items left behind from humans which encourage them to look for what life was once like and make sure society doesn’t make the same mistakes again.
Sources:
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Simon & Schuster, 2013.
Pixar Animations, Walt Disney Pictures. WALL-E, 2008.
Mokalla, Matteen and Jensen, Taige. “Sinclair: Worse Than One Viral Video”, NYTimes, 2018.
Brooks, David. “Time to Do Everything Except Think”, 2001.
