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Yaotong Lu
Professor Griffith
English 113B- 11:00 AM MW
2 May, 2016
Law Kills Ideology
In Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451 is about people who living in the future have a
depressive life. There are many laws that seems ridiculous, such as: people are not allowed to
own and read books; people are not allowed to drive slowly; people are not even talk to each
other. In Margaret Atwoods Oryx and Crake, the regular human are gone, except Snowman.
The rest of human are Crakers which make by Crake. Therefore, Crake is the God, and
what he says is the law for all Crakers. Those things happen because the governor wants to keep
the society under controlled. In another word, the governor is trying to brainwash everyone.
Clarisse is the girl who can actually see this society. She has the knowledge that how
people live in the pass, then trying to understand why does society changed. Her face was
slender and milk-white, and in it was a kind of gentle hunger that touched over everything with
tireless curiosity (Bradbury 3). The word hunger and tireless curiosity saying that she is
desire for knowledge. However, in the beginning of the book, says: While the books went up in
sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning (Bradbury 1). The
traditional way to get knowledge is by read books, but it is burned. She cannot get any useful
knowledge from other media either: And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios
tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in,
coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind (Bradbury 10). The radios sends nothing but
trash information. It uses two times of music and talk and coming in, meaning that this

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trash information is endless and keep brainwash peoples mind. So, in this kind of environment,
the only way that Clarisse can get knowledge is by ask people who read books before.
One day, Montag just finish his job and come back to his house, then he meets Clarisse.
They talking while they are walking. When they talk about the books, says:
Do you ever read any of the books you burn?
He laughed. Thats against the law! (Bradbury 5).
Clarisse asks this question because she is inquisitive. Montag laughs because he though this
question is obvious. The law does not allow people to read books is deep in peoples mind.
No one care and want to know why this law exists. People are numb, losing their ability of
thinking. The flowing conversation proves that most people in this society cannot thinking:
Bet I know something else you dont. Theres dew on the grass in the morning.
He suddenly couldnt remember if he had known this or not, and it made him
quite irritable.
And if you lookshe nodded at the skytheres a man in the moon.
He hadnt looked for a long time. (Bradbury 7)
Even the thing around people, they are not paying attention on it. People are indifferent to
everything. They dont care what is right and wrong, and losing their ability to ask question,
thinking, and even talking and making friend with other people. All they does are what the
government says, and ever ask why. In this kind of situation, Clarisse is a crazy girl, because
she dare ask what, why and how. She can still thinking. More importantly, she wants to know
more.
The society does have school, and allow people to communicate, but here is how the
school works and children get educate:

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But I dont think its social to get a bunch of people together and then not let them
talk, do you? An hour of TV class, an hour of basketball or baseball or running,
another hour of transcription history or painting pictures, and more sports, but do
you know, we never ask questions, or at least mot dont; they just run the answers
at you, bing, bing, bing, and us sitting there for four more hours of film-teacher.
Thats not social to me at all. (Bradbury 27)
The kids in school are leaning nothing. They never ask questions, never thinking and discuss
anything with each other. They sit together but never talk. They transcription history for
homework but never thinking about what does this means. What they care is the answer, but
they are not even trying to understand what is this answer means. In this depressive
environment, those kids are about being psycho:
They run us so ragged by the end of the day we cant do anything but go to ed or
head for a Fun Park to bully people around break windowpanes in the Windows
Smasher place or wreck cars in the Car Wrecker place with the big steel ball. Or
go out in the cars and race on the streets, trying to see how close you can get to
lampposts, playing chicken and knock hubcaps. (Bradbury 27)
Also:
They kill each other. Did it always use to be that way? My uncle says no. Six of
my friends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks.
(Bradbury 27)
Children have the most curiosity, but the society doesnt allow them to ask question, to think,
and communicate. They are being depress for a long time. Eventually, they will do some crazy

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things to avoid this depress. As the text says, they racing cars, smashing windows, bully each
other, and kill each other. This is pathetic, but it might as well as a liberation for them.
In Oryx and Crake, the story happens because the technology. Crake finds out that
people are using technology to make huge amount of money, even dehumanization. So Crake
thinks that human has to be purify, and he will be the leader who can lead human to another
world where human can live peace. He makes a plague which will kill everyone in the earth
beside Snowman, then release those Crakers, so they will be the only thing that live in this
earth with Snowman. Crake, King of the Crakery, because Crake is still there, still in
possession, still the ruler of his own domain, however dark that bubble of light has now
become (Atwood 333). Crake finally creates his kingdom. He makes his Crakers, and put
everything they have to know in their brain. Therefore, those Crakers dont have to know
anything else. All they have to do is follow what Crake give them: how to speak and make baby.
Event thought Crake does make the world peace, but the world is dying too. Those Crakers
know nothing except the order that Crake has given. How far can a baby go without grouping
up?
After all human are dead, Snowman leading those Crakers to a place where they can live
better than before. He is like a sheepherder who have to take care those sheep. He cannot even
imagine the future for him and those Crakers. He cannot even give them a name. It was one of
Crakes rules that no name could be chosen for which a physical equivalent even stuffed, even
skeletal could not be demonstrated (Atwood 7). Those Crakers know nothing. Every time
they catch up a new word form Snowman, they always as he what does it mean. Also, they
seems like dont care about the name as well. The only name for them is Crakers, even though
they will never know.

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In Fahrenheit 451, people are numb, and the world is cold. People are not communicate
with each other. Children are hurting and killing each other. People are not paying attention on
anything around them. The governor controls all, even peoples mine. It doesnt allow people to
think, to talk, and to ask. The law wants people to work, and work only. The terrible thing is that
people think it is right. They never query law. They doesnt have their own mind. They live like
a zombie, like a walking dead. In Oryx and Crake, all human are dead because greed. The only
human alive is Snowman, and Crakers. The Crakers are created, so the thing in their mind is
already up there, no one can change it.
This two novels is describing a society which has a governor who want to control all
human. Even though what they are doing might looks good for now, but it is actually killing
human from ideology. In their society, human cannot thinking, and they dont have to think,
because the governor will do it for them. All they have to do is follow the order that the
governor has given to them. In this society, they are no human, they are animals.

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Works Cited
Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. New York: Anchor Books, 2003.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1950.