with the viewer. The show on these televisions give here a fake family who she feels is more

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1 Chayanne Garcia Synthesis Paper Introduction Thesis: The people who control a person s interests or practises control the person. Media has influence over an individual by controlling what the individual observes on the media. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the protagonist s wife, Mildred, is addicted to parlor walls which are massive wall sized television screens that interact with the viewer. The show on these televisions give here a fake family who she feels is more real than her actual family. She is so compelled by the parlor walls that anything elses in normal day life is dull in comparison to a point she disregards it completely. This lead the protagonist, Montag, into a journey to question society and to see if he was really living happily. Will you bring me aspirin and water? You ve got to get up, she said. It s noon. You ve slept five hours later than usual. Will you turn the parlor off? he asked. That s my family. Will you turn it off for a sick man? I ll turn it down. 46. In this passage you can see the hostility just to turn off the T.V. even when her own husband was sick in bed she couldn t change to help him. She also said that the Parlor was her family and if she were to turn off the Parlor she would turn off her family. And in later passages she never gets him the water or aspirin and never even turns down the volume on the Parlor. Only when later when Montag s boss comes to there house and asks yells at Mildred she complies to his wishes. I think what Bradbury is saying is that we are falling into a possible reality where media is what our lives revolve around and that anything that does not concern itself to the media does not concern itself to us. You see this in the novel with

2 Mildred and her obsession with the Parlor walls and many other individuals that live in their society. Mildred may actually be a depiction of todays youth. Many youth today need media the same way Mildred needed her s. Things live On-Demand Television, Internet, and Videogames is what many youth see as life. All you hear is Did you play this game, did you watch the new episode this, or did you hear what this famous person tweeted. When a person is surrounded by this type of information it becomes influential. For a example media controls fashion trends. People want to dress up like the people they idolize on the media and the people they idolize know this. That is why stars make clothing brands because they know if they wear it people would want to buy it. This is rampant in today's society and especially in youth because they are the people raised around this media. News sources are a vital part of how society receives information. In the novel No Easy Day by Mark Owen the author talks about his influences into joining the US Navy Seals and the experiences while climbing up the ranks ending up as a Tier 1 Operator for the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group also known as DEVGRU or Seal Team 6. He eventually went on Operation Neptune s Spear which was the mission where they killed Osama Bin Laden. The one major thing that lead the author and many other young men enlist at the time was the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, This was the mission I d dreamt about since I watched the September 11, 2001, attacks on TV 3. This is what he was thinking when he was on the helicopter heading to Bin Laden s compound. He also uses the word dreamt in a odd manner, he dreamt of going to exact revenge on a man he never met after watching a video on the television. We can look back now and say that his thoughts would have been justified but is it normal to want to kill something after seeing something on the television? What if it wasn t Bin Laden or the News gave a wrong name.

3 Especially at the time there was much chaos and confusion in situation people were still trying to figure out if it was an accident or an attack. And out of this chaos came anger that was the new s responsibility at the time to direct and had the power to point the finger to whomever they pleased. But we trust that the news gives all the correct information that is backed up with solid evidence. There is a lot of debate today if the news is biassed or not, this is important because in key moments our news sources have power to feed influential information and whether it is correct or not is up to them. Society influences an individual because the majority can pressure a minority. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury society was very robotic and mundane. Everyone stayed inside and watched giant television screens known as Parlor Walls and rarely had social meeting unless it had to do with the Parlor Walls. In the novel the protagonist s wife has friends who only do what she does and the only thing they ever talk about are the Parlor walls and their families. There is a part in the novel when the protagonist, Montag, invites over his wife s friends to read them a book to show them that it is something beautiful and in response one of Mildred s friends (Clara) starts to cry. Clara, now, Clara, begged Mildred, pulling her arm. Come on let s be cheery, you turn the family on, now. Go ahead. Let s laugh and be happy, now, stop crying we ll have a party! 97. In this passage they show how in society it is wrong to like anything but what everybody else likes. She later leaves blaming Montag for causing her to embarrass herself by making her cry to cover the fact that she actually like it. We see a modern portrayal of this as peer pressure to like what everyone likes even if you don t like it yourself. Another example of society influencing an individual is in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. The novel takes place in a country known as Oceania where everything one and everything is controlled by a man known as Big Brother who no one knows anything about. The

4 country is always monitored by cameras or by giant wall sized TVs in peoples houses known as telescreens. And everything you do is monitored by the thought police. The main character is Winston who starts to question Big Brother and society. One thing that the government does to brainwash people is known as the two minutes of hate. It is when everyone stops work and gathers at the telescreen to stare at a face of a public enemy and express hatred towards it. The next moment a hideous, grinding screech, as of some monstrous machine running without oil, burst from the big telescreen at the end of the room. It was a noise that set one s teeth on edge and bristled the hair at the back of one s neck. The Hate had started. 10. In this quote it describes how the hate starts every day they do this just because they have to. And because everyone has all this rage built up for multiple reasons they unleash it there and because they are in crowds. But the point the author is trying to make is if you weren t in that crowd would you do all that? But because people are groups and people are watching people feel obligated to do it or they don t fit in. Another influence force besides media and society is belief and religion. A example of this is in the novel No Easy Day by Mark Owen. This novel is about the steps leading into the death of Osama Bin Laden. The whole reason we went to go look for him in the first place was because of the attacks on the September 11, Bin Laden convinced 19 people to give up their life to take the lives of thousands of innocent men, women. and children and promised them that they would have a better life in the afterlife. He d inspired men to fly planes into buildings filled with innocent civilians. That kind of fanaticism is scary, 4. When a man who is trained to fearless is scared of someone then you know that, that person is not an ordinary enemy. He has the power to use someone's religious beliefs that they have had their entire life and use it to control them to even a point where they will give their own life for it which is a realistic example

5 of psychological manipulation. Ultimately the government of a country controls the influential power of media, society, and beliefs controlling the people controlled by those things. A example of this is in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. In this novel the government controls everything the population does, sees, and believes. They do this through hidden camera, propaganda, giant televisions with controlled programing, and even monitoring what they are thinking. And because of the government s power they had the ability to dispose of anyone who opposed the ideals. the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. Big Brother Is Watching You, the caption beneath it ran In this quote it talks about one of the major factors of control in the novel. These were posters of Big Brother who was the head of State in the country and it induced fear into everyone making them think that they are constantly being watched. This made sure that everyone was in there place and stopped most forms of mutiny because they were always scared. Another example of a controlling government is in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The protagonist s name is Montag and he is a fireman in the future. But in the future because science has advanced to the point everything is fire retardant, fireman now burn books because the government think they spread ideas that may offend or produce troublesome ideas. The Montag questions this and then is deemed an outcast for reading a book that he saved from a house he burned because it contained books. Was it my wife turned in the alarm? 111. This quote was the turning point of the novel where Montag had to burn down his own house because it contained books. Society was also so corrupted that his own wife turned him in because he was changing there way of life that was government, and societally approved.