In Montag's dystopian society, the totalitarian government censors literature and promotes mindless entertainment in order to create a passive, ignorant population that is easy to control. Instead of engaging in intellectual endeavors, the majority of citizens spend their leisure time glued to their televisions covering their parlor wall. The televisions have extremely large screens, which are high-definition and display realistic images, creating an exciting experience for viewers. Each television takes up an entire wall of a home, and Mildred desires a fourth wall to make her viewing experience complete. In addition to the high-definition screens, the sound system is extremely loud and distracting.
The programs on the parlor walls are shallow and lack a clear plot. The majority of the shows are simply explosive, colorful images that fascinate the audience and require them to keep pace with the random, quick-moving clips. Mildred's favorite program focuses on a "family," and she...
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plays a minor role in the television show by reading the script. Before each show, Mildred is mailed a script and follows along from the comfort of her home. Mildred is so obsessed with the program that she considers the television series her real family. According to Mildred, the family discusses nothing of importance and simply shouts over each other. In this way, the family resembles typical dysfunctional families and other shallow programs.
Montag despises the parlor walls and finds it hard to concentrate when Mildred is watching her mindless programs. In part 2 of the story, Montag loses his temper and pulls the plug on the parlor walls while Mildred and her friends are watching. Montag proceeds to read them a moving poem, which upsets Mildred's friends and influences Mildred to turn him in to the authorities.
In Fahrenheit 451, the parlor walls are a form of entertainment that most people have inside their homes. Specifically, they are television screens which cover the surface of an entire wall, and we know from Part One of Fahrenheit 451 that Mildred and Montag have three parlor walls installed in their living room. Once the walls are turned on, they "bombard" the viewer with loud music and bright colors. The walls also play shows featuring the "family." These shows, often based on plays or comedies, feature recurrent and recognizable characters, like the White Clown, and are interactive. Mildred, for example, loves to take part in shows with the family and, in Part One, is learning a script for a forthcoming play.
For people like Mildred, the walls and the family have become part of everyday life. She is absorbed in this form of entertainment to the point that she is completely ignorant of the world around her and its problems.
The wall is a wall-to-wall circuit TV they have installed in their parlor. Mildred is obsessed with it. She had the TV installed on three walls, but she wants a fourth wall installed also. Mildred is interacting with the people on the walls.
"It's really fun. It'll even be more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed." (pg 20)
The family are the characters in the walls that interact with Mildred. They are the uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, and nephews that lived in those walls. Basically, they are TV characters. Montag had
"....taken to calling them relatives from the very first. " (pg 45)
The walls are one controlling factor of the people. People no longer read, so they watch television, and they are given a script on how to interact with it. They are told what to think and say, and the characters become real in their lives.