eal or expects her to love him. This relationship and living arrangement, with its lack of love, is Bradbury's way of showing what life could be like if people not only stop communicating but stop thinking and choosing, thus loosing control over their lives. Montag and his wife continue to live together though people in that situation today would not hesitate to terminate such a relationship. Montag's wife apparently accepts this relationship because it is normal for the society in which she lives. (Wolfheim) Like Brave New Worldcharacters escaping from reality through the use of soma, Montag's wife, and many other characters, escape through watching a sophisticated form of television. This television system covers three of the walls of the Montag's TV room (they can't afford to buy the screen to cover the fourth wall), has a control unit that allows the watchers to interact with the characters on the program and another unit that inserts Mrs. Montag's name into specific places, thus creating the image they the characters are actually conversing with them. Montag's wife, having only a few friends and ones she rarely sees, spends much of her day in this room, watching a program called "The Family", a government sponsored program that shows the viewers what life at home should be like. The problem with this is that Montag's wife takes the program as a substitute for reality. She is almost addicted to the program, much as people were with soma in Brave New World. Bradbury uses this television and it's programs as a way of showing the escape he is worried people will look for in the future. Without actively questioning society's values, he is concerned that people will look for ways to idly spend their time. But like Marx, Montag chooses not to take part in this addiction. By abstaining, he can see the affects it's use has on the people around him, much as Marx and more importantly John the Savage saw in their culture. Both authors try to s...
