English 2342
20 April 2011
Dover Beach and Fahrenheit 451 The classic poem, Dover Beach, written by Matthew Arnold, is a statement about losing faith as a result of enlightenment. In an emotionally charged scene in Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, fireman Guy Montag reads the poem aloud to his wife and her friends. Bradbury could have chosen any piece of literature for Montag to read as a means of unveiling his collection of hoarded books and his newfound interest in reading them. Bradbury uses this particular piece because the speaker in the poem is expressing feelings that are very similar to those of Montag in Fahrenheit 451. Matthew Arnold’s masterpiece, Dover Beach, has been dissected and analyzed endlessly since its
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For the world… hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.” With this statement, “Arnold is announcing the big question for the modern world, intent on forcing love to bear the enormous weight of providing human lives with meaning: If love is all humans have, what do they do when they cannot find love, or keep it?” (Ingersoll) Through the words of the man looking at the bay out the window with his love, Matthew Arnold has challenged two of the most widely accepted and unquestioned fundamental beliefs of the past few centuries, or even millennia: faith and love. In Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is his society’s Matthew Arnold. Instead of being a reverend’s son, he is a fireman’s son. Firemen in Montag’s world don’t extinguish fires, they create them in order to destroy books and all the possible evils that the books contain. His society burns books as if it is a religion. By becoming a fireman himself, Montag is positioned as an integral part of this “religion.” However, as he becomes more and more curious about why they burn the books without ever questioning the burning, he starts to secretly hide books away in the air conditioning vent in his home. Montag knows that hoarding these books is against the law in the society in which he lives, and even punishable by death in extreme cases. The society in which Bradbury has created in Fahrenheit 451 is what is referred to as dystopian. While
In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury shapes a society that is restricted in speech and thought and centered on technology. In this future, books have been banned. When discovered, they are burned along with the houses they are found in. Responsible for setting the fires are “firemen”. Among them is Guy Montag, the main character of the novel. The elimination of books was merely one step of many to fully eradicate individual freedom of thought and speech. In his efforts to explain to Montag the history of their society’s censorship, Captain Beatty lectures: "The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts. Lock up your typewriters. They did”(Bradbury 57). Beatty clarifies that it was the people rather than the government that purged the world of books in order to cease controversy and prevent feud. Opposite to the presumed result, their world is more consumed in war than ever before. The privation of human interaction leaves their society passionless and without true happiness. To compensate for the love lost, their world is drowned in various technologies. Televisions coating entire walls, and the characters inside them, become of chief importance over actual people: “’Will you turn the parlour off?’ he asked. ‘That’s my family’” (Bradbury 48-49). Montag’s wife Mildred entirely disregards her husband’s request as it seems her television characters are of higher value to her than her own husband. Along with her, the
In Ray Bradbury’s novel, censorship is implemented in an odd way through the dystopian society. Firemen in today’s time are ordinarily known for “those who put out fires,” but the role of firemen in this story is completely different. They are the enforcers of the censorship law and are called when there is a suspect known hiding books in their home. Montag who is the prime character and fireman starts the story with a quote saying, “It was a pleasure to burn” (3). This confirms that firemen in the dystopian society seem to take their jobs as book burners with satisfaction. When Guy Montag awakes in the novel and questions the reasons why books are considered dangerous and to be burned. In Fahrenheit 451, Montag had said, “There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.” He realizes that if someone dies for books they must be doing something right.
“’Strange. I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames’” (Bradbury 6). In the dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag is a fireman, someone that burns books for the government to keep a firm control on what knowledge society has. However, through a series of events populated by an attempted suicide, a young girl, and an old man, Montag is shown a life where books are treasured instead of feared and hated. Armed with a vision of what the world has been, and could be like again, Montag ultimately meets up in the aftermath of a war with others that share his vision, and they begin their mission to make fire something other than a source of fear: a healing power.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, there are many different characters and each one plays a different role. One of the main characters, Guy Montag, is a fireman who takes pride in his work and enjoys burning books as a part of his job. His outlook about burning books changes after he meets Clarisse McClellan and Professor Faber. It’s very interesting how Montag’s way of thinking transforms overtime. He becomes very courageous about hiding books and is also curious about reading them. Throughout the novel his actions, ideas, and his feelings change as he starts to think for himself.
“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” These were the wise words of John F. Kennedy, and ones that many in society would do well to listen to. In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Guy Montag is a fireman who burns books in a dystopian society where books are banned. After meeting a teenage girl named Clarisse he realizes he isn’t happy and that he’s different than everyone else, and reveals he’s had 20 books hidden. He has a plan with Faber to fool his captain who knows of his books, but things go south and he ends up having to burn his house down, in the process killing Beatty. Afterwards, he gets chased down to a river where he meets Granger and other book-burners who read books and burn them after, but keep the books ‘stored’ in their
In a society where firefighter’s purposely burn books, anything is possible. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a firefighter, Guy Montag, follows the rules and expectations of burning books. The job of a firefighter is to burn books because they are banned in the society Montag is a part of. Throughout the book Montag meets various characters that create curiosity and help him gain knowledge about the rules of his society. In the end, Montag is able to develop his own opinions and views about the rules he is following.
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was first published in 1933, and its story entails a futuristic world in the middle of a nuclear war. The totalitarian government of this future forbids its people from reading or taking a part in other acts that involve individual thinking. The law against reading is, presumably, fairly new, and the government is faced with the enormous task of destroying all of its citizens' books. This disposal of books is the profession of the main character, Guy Montag, who is officially titled a "fireman." He and his crew raid libraries and homes, burning any books they find before dozens of overjoyed onlookers. Throughout the beginning of the novel, Montag appears to be a
Introduction “Books can not be killed by fire. People die, but books never die” said Franklin D. Roosevelt, a former president of the United States of America. However, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a book about a about a futuristic society in which firemen illegally burn books. At first, Montag enjoyed his job as a fireman burning books along with the homes of their owners. However, later in the book Montag questions his job and the purpose of his life.
“To one another! For the world, which seems/To lie before us like a land of dreams/ So various, so beautiful, so new/Hath, really neither joy, nor love, nor light, /Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;/And we are here as on a darkling pain” (30-35). Arnolds makes the point that the world we live in might seem perfect because of what we have, (cars, flat screen TVs, etc.)
In the book Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, shows a society that is totally consumed by pleasure and laziness. Among this society there is a certain individual who rebels against his society’s nature, Guy Montag. Montag is a fireman and in his civilization, he burns books instead of putting out fires. Montag in the beginning of the book was mindless as any other citizen in his society. He was ignorant until his eyes were opened by a strange girl named Clarisse McClellan. She made him realize what knowledge is and why it should be obtained. Shortly after this event Montag steals a book, which is illegal in this community. When this situation has occurred the police in Montag’s city started chasing him. While Montag was on the run he runs into an organization of people where they try to save the information that are in the
Firemen burn books, so why is Guy Montag trying to save them? Books are illegal everyone knows that, especially the firemen. Throughout the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury(1953): a fireman named Guy Montag's perspective on books changes significantly. When the veil over his eyes gets lifted he starts to question the logic on why books are banned, and soon will do anything to save them. Montag's actions change in many ways, but the things that impacted his beliefs the most are meeting and talking to Clarisse McClellan, when Mrs. Blake would not leave her books, and when he started talking to Faber.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the firemen burn the most wonderful things books. The main character Guy Montag is one of the main characters that is a fireman. Instead of putting out fires like they do today, they burn any house that has any type of evidence that you have books. They do not care who you are or what you do, they will burn your house if you have them. In the start of the book he is burning the books and just doing what he is told.
Dover Beach intrigued me as soon as I read the title. I have a great love of beaches, so I feel a connection with the speaker as he or she stands on the cliffs of Dover, looking out at the sea and reflecting on life. Arnold successfully captures the mystical beauty of the ocean as it echoes human existence and the struggles of life. The moods of the speaker throughout the poem change dramatically as do the moods of the sea. The irregular, unordered rhyme is representative of these inharmonious moods and struggles. In this case, the speaker seems to be struggling with the relationship with his or her partner.
In Fahrenheit 451’s dystopian society, the possession of books is considered criminal. A once proud fireman who regularly burned books turned a new leaf and began to understand and value the importance of literature. Multiple characters in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 impact the ex-firemans, Montag, life in a way that changed him forever. Throughout the novel Montag discovers a different outlook and perspective on the society in which he lives and how he perceives books. From a fireman to an outlaw, a few specific characters greatly impact Montag. Montag meets a young woman who perceives the world in a different way which affects Montag’s outlook on society. Also, a retired English professor gave Montag confidence and the comprehension of books. A character close to Montag, his wife, shows him how the loss of importance of books would affect his life . When Montag goes outside, he comes across a young woman who does not seem like the others in the city. Montag begins to talk to her and his life changes in a major way.
In the poem "Dover Beach",witten in 1867 Matthew Arnold creates the mood of the poem through the usage of different types of imagery. He uses a dramatic plot in the form of a soliloquy. Arnold also uses descriptive adjectives, similes and metaphors to create the mood. Through the use of these literary elements, Arnold portrays the man standing before the window pondering the sound of the pebbles tossing in the waves as representation of human suffering. The man arrives at the vision of humanity being helpless against nature. Arnold creates the mood by suggesting mental pictures, actions, sights and sounds the man sees. Some examples are "folds of a bright girdle furled", "lie before us like a land of dreams"