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Cheyenne Arviso
Professor Griffith
English 113B Mon/Wed 2pm
2 May 2016
Newly Empowered System
Society can be easily influenced by many things; it just takes one good thing to distract
society enough to curve away from reality. These things can be media, law, censorship, love,
science, and technology. In both novels, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood show a dystopian society. In Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist is named Guy
Montag whos a firefighter who later on rebels against the system; instead of putting out fire he
makes fire by burning books and the house they were kept in. He lives in a society where books
are banned, they have to speed while driving, theyre allowed to run over anything on the road,
and can never have intellectual conversations. Each time Montag converse with Clarisse, his
neighbor, Montag is always questioned about life and why people do certain things. She makes
him think about their society and how they are becoming inhumane with ignorance and robotic
with no emotions or empathy. While in Oryx and Crake, it also has a dystopian system, the
protagonist in this novel is Jimmy who goes by Snowman as an adult; he goes through a roller
coaster of emotions growing up, not knowing how to react any more. The novel shows how
technology and humans have ruined nature by having companies that modify different species
together for their own benefit, not thinking about the damage it can do in the long run. His
childhood friend Glenn, known as Crake eventually went to different schools where Jimmy was
not as educated and privileged as Crake. Crake invented a new species that would replace
humans, playing as God; he called them Crakers and changed the roles of society. When
Snowman grows up he eventually becomes the only human left after people started dying from a

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disease that scattered. Crake left Snowman in charge of taking care of the Crakers. In both
novels, science and technology have surmount and have changed both settings negatively,
impacting its citizens by saturating them with unfair laws, technology, and altering nature.

Technology has a negative impact on society, even though it can be beneficial with
helping advance societies knowledge but it also corrupts people, giving the system the power to
give unfair laws to society: from having no empathy, emotion, lacking communication,
becoming isolated and unaware of their surroundings. In Fahrenheit 451, society has changed in
a negative way from these unfair laws. Their government is set up where there is no emotion,
critical thinking, or curiosity; they do this to make it easier on controlling society. Sometimes it
can be chaotic with people having different views, opinions or being more sensitive than others.
So, to eliminate the problems, the people with authority alternated society, taking away
humanity. In Fahrenheit 451, Clarisse says, I sometimes think drivers dont know what grass is,
or flowers, because they never see them slowly, (Bradbury 6). Drivers cant see nature in detail
when driving because people arent allowed to slow down only speed up; the purpose in this to
so people wont have emotions or affection towards nature, or its sunsets and sunrise. This is to
eliminate interactions with peoples emotions. If people do get curious or act different from
others they become judged, Oh, its just my mother and father and uncle sitting around, talking.
Its like being a pedestrian, only rarer. My uncle was arrested another time for being a pedestrian.
Oh, were most peculiar, (Bradbury 7). Clarisses uncle got in trouble with the law by being a
pedestrian, something that is so innocent in todays world. People get in trouble for doing things
people would think are normal in todays world, the reason people arent allowed just to walk
around anywhere because it gets them curious and things, and think which the government

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doesnt want; instead they want to take away humanity with unfair laws. In Oryx and Crake, it
shows Crake making unfair laws for the Crakers, alternative for humans. In chapter 7 Crake and
Snowman discuss about, Crake points out that much suffering is caused by the misalignment of
hormones and pheromones. Love and lust are often unrequited. Crake suggests creating a system
that makes mating a reciprocal cycle. Jimmy points out that Crakes plan essentially makes
individuals robots, simply following their biological mandates, (Atwood). Crake wants to make
unfair laws, by making the Crakers have no emotion, because that will cause problems. Even if
emotions do cause problems, its a part of being human, people learn to live with it and accept it.
Technology is advancing and used so much to distract people from the real world and the
issues happening around the world in a negative way. People are more into social media, reading
about the Kardashians which distracts them from all the deaths and war the government has
created. The people with power dont want people to interact, bond, share emotions, have
curiosity, or care; which are why people are allowed to run over animals and people on the road,
they are walking everywhere with seashells for headphones in their ears that communicate with
people and can listen to the radio. Theres a pattern, everything people are doing in Fahrenheit
451 is to distract people and have noise so loud so they can be in their own bubble rather than
looking around to see the chaos happening around them. To keep a better eye on peoples actions,
there is a robot that suspects any rule breaking or sensing people being odd, The Mechanical
Hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating,
softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the firehouse, (Bradbury 22). The firemen in
this novel have the power, they have a robotic dog who finds anyone hiding books, or who are
breaking the law; if they do break the law the hound then kills them. Its like a spy for the
firemen, to know who to look after that keeps a tighter watch on peoples actions. The purpose is

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also to scare people, knowing someone is watching wants people to act their best, but it is also
taking away peoples privacy. Montag questions his happiness and what is happening around
him, Wasnt there an old joke about the wife who talked so much on the telephone that her
desperate husband ran out to the nearest store and telephoned her to ask what was for diner?
Well, then, why didnt he buy himself an audio-Seashell broadcasting station and talk to his wife
late at night, murmur, whisper, shout, scream, yell. But what would he whisper, what would he
yell? What could he say, (Bradbury 39). Everyone in the novel has an ear piece thats like a
radio and phone people can communicate through, wearing and using it all day no matter where
they go, and Montag is playing with the fact that he never communicates with his wife like a
normal marriage. Instead Montag needs technology in order for his wife to hear him. People are
so wrapped up in technology that they no longer know what it means to feel, The operator stood
smoking cigarette curling around their noses and into their eyes without making them blink or
squint. Thats fifty bucks, (Bradburry 13). Montag was getting angry how the operators didnt
care whether or not his wife, Mildred would die or not. Technology has ruined the nature of
humanity by making people emotionless; without emotions, or empathy; society begins to lose
their humanity and no longer knows right from wrong.
Science and Technology has altered nature negatively on how humans should function.
The firemen use technology as a way to ignore humanity and forget to bond with others and
knowing how to express emotions. The technology in Fahrenhelt 451 novel takes away the
nature of humans, life; the purpose for this is to make life easier with fewer worries about other
peoples opinions. In Oryx and Crake, science and technology are both corrupted in a negative
way for society. On chapter 4, Hammer, I found out when Snowman was little, when called
Jimmy, he talks about how the cops treated him as a young boy, the Corps guys who grilled

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JimmyHis father was rattled, you could tell; he was scared. His wife had broken every rule in
the book, she mustve had a whole other life and hed had no idea (Atwood 36). This quote ties
in with the way society is ran. This is similar to Fahrenheit 451 because people in power have
and want a tighter watch on everyone to see what their actions are. Their rules are very sensitive
compared to todays laws, for example how is Jimmys mom breaking a rule by lying. She went
against the system, she didnt like the thought of being caged in an excluded area they called
gated community, and she knew it was more serious than just protection because there would
be guards by the gates to check peoples stuff exiting the gates. This is odd because usually
people are afraid of what people bring in rather than bring out, which is why Jimmys mom was
tired of it and ran away. The novel goes on to say, Hed been unhappy too, of course. It went
without saying, his unhappiness. Hed put a lot of energy into it, (Atwood 42). In both novels
both main characters are unhappy; the reason for this is because of society and the way it
functions. In Jimmy/Snowmans, life he is lost, he can never turn to someone for compassion or
understanding of what he is going through since his mom was heartless, his dad cared more
about his career, his friend Glenn known as Crake cared only about his project, the Crakers. After
the human race died, Snowman was definitely alone with no one to understand him, since the
Crakers didnt understand human emotions. Technology has made a negative impact on society
through Crakes invention. Him playing as God, since after making the Crakers he chooses to
pick and choose how they should act and live; for example, Crake is taking out religion and
emotion, because he believes that it is unnecessary and only causes problems. He is right that it
causes problems but without it, people wouldnt have humanity, instead it would be like
Fahrenheit 451 when everyone is heartless on their technology only caring about entertainment.
In Oryx and crake, Crake changes humanity by choosing what characteristics the Crakers should

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have, talking away religion, (Atwood, chapter 7). This is another thing that changes nature,
being human means to having feelings, empathy, to feel, to be curious, to having different
thinking and opinions from others. Crake is trying to play God by picking how the Crakers
should act and be.
Ultimately, both novels show science and technology being corrupted by influencing their
society negatively. Science and technology do have an influence on humanity. Technology can
be seen as aid humanity towards a better future; however, they build and evolve humanity in a
positive way but can also be used negatively to brain wash people to be attached to technology,
which separates people from communicating with each other. Overall, is it better for people to be
attached with technology? If it helps speed up communication and peoples learning process,
how much damage could it do? How would todays society be if we continued to be attached to
technology, would we soon become emotionless?

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Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake: A Novel. New York: Nan A. Talese, 2003. Print.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.