Over the summer a movie came out, The Stepford Wives, in it men "computerized" their wives how they would want them to be, superficially perfect and non-dominant. Do you think that the way the Mildred is pictured is an appropriate analogy to this movie? If so, How?
I don't think that the analogy of the Stepford Wive's and F451 is appropriate at all because Mildred was nowhere close to the perfect computerized wife. In The Stepford Wive's, men programed their wives to be 'perfect'. If I can recall correctly, Mildred was so absorbed by her 'wall family' that she hardly realized her own husband Montag coming home from work. I don't think Bradbury was trying to make the women characters non-dominant either. Through the female characters it was easier to show the way their society had an effect on the average person. Through Mildred we see how removed she is, and how emotionless she is, since she doesn't have a strong outside impact directly on her by real humans, or through books. There are obviously huge differences between the two situations of Stepford Wives and F451.
The movie, The Stepford Wives, is a way to depict how women can be made into pieces of property that men own and control. I feel that in F451 that doesn't happen. In a way the picture of the female character is the same between the two, but in The Stepford Wives, the women are mechanical and do everything the men want them to do. Whereas in F451 the women aren't mechanical even though they may seem like it at times. The main difference between the women in The Stepford Wives and the women in F451 was the ability to make some choices. In F451, Mildred can make some of her own choices. She chooses to take the pills herself and to watch the family in the parlor when Montag doesn't want her to. If it was the Stepford Wives the women would have never overdosed on sleeping pills unless the men wanted them to and if the men didn't want them to watch television they wouldn't. Also, when Mildred and Mrs. Phelps were being read to they wouldn't have minded if it was The Stepford Wives because whatever the men wanted the women to like or disslike they would. In F451, Mildred is not perfect. Henceforth her ability to not comprehend what is going on in Montag's life. If Montag had the same thing happening to him in The Stepford Wives then his wife would know what was troubling and agree with everything that he said or did.
