Conformity in Fahrenheit 451
Literary Connections
Book: The Hunger Games
Poem: Locked in Conformity (hyperlink)
Book: Into the Wild
Text Support
"Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don't step on the toes of the dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that!... Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did." (Pg. 55)
“But remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority." (Pg. 104)
"We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind." (Pg. 55)
Quotables
"The opposite of bravery is not cowardice but conformity." - Robert Anthony
"The supreme lesson of any education should be to think for yourself and to be yourself; absent this attainment, education creates dangerous, stupefying conformity." - Brian H. McGill
"I find the earth to be a place of misery in which I am surrounded by the conformity that kills society.
" - Matt LeBlanc
Entertainment Connections
Movie: Surrogates
Song: As I Lay Dying - Parallels (hyperlink)
Art: Conformity by Ash Sivils
Scientific and Health Connections
Psychology: The Asch Experiment (hyperlink)
The Milgram Obedience Experiment (hyperlink)
Historical Connections
The 1950's Culture of Conformity (hyperlink)
Political Connections
No Child Left Behind
Personal Connections
Going to parties and consuming alcohol as a minor throughout Jr. High and High School, because it was what everyone else was doing during the weekends.
Engaging in Sexual activities at a very young age, because of peer pressure at school, and the presence of media making it seem like such a normal thing to do.
Wearing certain brands and styles of clothing, because it was what everyone else was wearing.