The document discusses how political conformity, materialism, and ignorance can lead to self-destruction in both Fahrenheit 451 and the real world. It analyzes how in Fahrenheit 451, political conformity allows the public to accept a meaningless dystopia and materialism causes people like Mildred to obsess over possessions. Ignorance keeps the public from recognizing true happiness. In reality, the Holocaust showed how people could be manipulated, the Milgram experiment tested obedience to authority, and America's use of atomic bombs in WWII demonstrated the dangers of ignorance.

1. It is in Man’s
Nature to be
S e l f - D e s t r u c t i v e

2. Self-Destructive
“A course of action that is disastrously damaging
to oneself or one's own interests.”

3. Self-Destructive
Ways of Man
Political Conformity leads to the destruction of
man because it constricts the right of free thinking
and ideas.
Materialism leads to false happiness, and will
ultimately lead to the depression and the downfall
of innovation.
Ignorance allows childish or corrupt thoughts to
thrive which then could lead to our actions.

4. Political Conformity
in Fahrenheit 451
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the public
is willing to accept a meaningless and lack-lustre
dystopia.
Although the lifestyles that are being presented to the
public offer little to no emotional value and will
eventually be diagnosed to be the root of their depression
the public seemingly drones on towards their own
destruction with little or no objection, almost as they
have been “brain washed” by the government.

5. Political Conformity
In the Real World
During the Holocaust unthinkable things were
done to the jewish race, by the German people.
These people were a learned race yet they were
capable of being manipulated by the Nazi
government into such a vile, and ignorant mindset.
“The Millgram Experiment” was held to test
people upon how far they could be pushed and
controlled by an authority before rebelling and
ending the experiment.

6. Millgram’s
Experiment

7. Millgram’s
Experiment

8. Materialism
in Fahrenheit 451
In the novel Guy’s wife Mildred is obsessed with
objects such as televisions which seem to scale an
entire wall, she even becomes so entranced by the
shows on the television that she begins to call the
family on the show her own family in an attempt to
satisfy her deep depression/ mental health and
block out the seemingly crumbling civilization
around her.

9. Materialism
in the real world
Materialism has caused man to obsess over its
possessions in an attempt to fill an emotional
hole in which only true happiness can fill.
As technology progresses man loses sight of
its true virtues such as integrity,compassion
and understanding.

10. Ignorance
in Fahrenheit 451
Through the burning of books and the
ostracization of ideas the public is kept ignorant.
Ignorance leads man to do many questionable
things, throughout the story we view a community
that is truly ignorant in which they can not even
recognize what happiness truly is.

11. Ignorance
in Fahrenheit 451
Through the burning of books and the
ostracization of ideas the public is kept ignorant.
Ignorance leads man to do many questionable
things, throughout the story we view a community
that is truly ignorant in which they can not even
recognize what happiness truly is.

12. Ignorance
in the real world
Upon America’s involvement in WWII they had
developed the atomic bomb.
This bomb was and still is conceived as the turning
point in warfare due to the mass destruction of
these weapons.
Unsure of just how destructive these devices were
America ignorantly decided to use these weapons
to their advantage and forced a nation built upon
its moral integrity to its knees killing thousands of
innocent human beings in the flash of an eye.

13. Horrors of Hiroshima

14. Critique
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury exemplifies that is in
man’s nature to be self-destructive. In this novel it begins
very slowly with peculiar wording but becomes action
packed by the ending. In the end man must once again
burst forward from the ashes which leaves the reader in a
state of enigma. The novel was short-lived and I believe
could’ve been more in depth. But all in all is a worthy read
for anyone interested in a novel about the nature of man or
the future.

15. Discussion
Were the “Millgram” experiments an ethical
undertaking and do they prove that man will go
against his own values in the face of adversity and
when he is pressured by the presence of an authority?