Fahrenheit 451 And Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

     Fahrenheit 451 is a well-written book that tells a story of a dream world and one man who wakes up from that dream. Montag, the protagonist of the story, brings home a book of poetry one day and begins to read the poem Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold to his wife and her guests. Many critics think that Bradbury picked this poem because it paralleled life in his book. The poem Dover Beach can be compared to Fahrenheit 451 because both pieces of writing talk about themes of true love, fantasy and allover hopelessness.

Guy Montag from Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, reflects onto the prisoner of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” because both characters progress into enlightened and inquiring members of society after being estranged to being ignorant for their entire lives once they undergo struggles and revelations. Ray Bradbury’s novel centers upon Guy Montag, a fireman; however, the gusto of this novel focuses on the irony of his career. Being a fireman in this society means you partake in being a catalyst of destruction, or a butcher of nature or society. “Allegory of the Cave” features a prisoner for a character who acts as a catalyst for preventing society from expanding upon its horizon unknowingly. These two texts are evidently alike in which both characters discover knowledge that gives them a degree of clarity or understanding for the world they live in. Expectedly, with this newfound knowledge of the unknown; it devises struggle.

In two stories from different decades have one similarity in common. They both are stories that show and take place within a dystopian society. The book Fahrenheit 451 is the story of a firefighter that lives in a dystopian society that does not allow books to read for a source of media. Along with the book Night, a teenage boy named Elie who lived through the Holocaust. Even though that the Holocaust was an actual event in our world's history, it is still considered a dystopian society. Despite the thoughts of many individuals within these dystopian societies, the governments try to take over and control these persons thoughts on the way society works. The two books Fahrenheit 451 and Night are similar in many ways, because of the fact that both governments try to control the way the people within them live.

“If someone tells you what a story is about, they are probably right. If they tell you that is all the story is about, they are very definitely wrong.” (Neil Gaiman). This quote connects to how stories, are not just based off of one topic, but are based off of several topics that can all relate to the central idea or message. Similarly, it represents how others’ perspectives on what the meaning of a true story is can be different from others. In this case, Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel written by author Ray Bradbury, in which the protagonist and firemen, Guy Montag is required to burn and destroy books in the homes of citizens. Montag does not usually question why he does this, until he meets a fellow young

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury uses many allusions to show the oppression in their society. Bradbury uses alludes to the book of Ecclesiastes to show how there is no individual thought in the Fahrenheit 451 society. He also alludes to Thomas Paine’s book Common Sense because it inspires individual thought and uprise against the government. Last, Bradbury alludes to Henry David Thoreau’s book, Walden to show how the Fahrenheit 451 society should be open to positive change. The use of the book of Ecclesiastes shows oppression in Montag's life and those around him.

In both books you have a corrupted government that believe in using the desire people have for fairness against them. In Fahrenheit 451 the Government takes the books away from everyone to make them all less intelligent and to use that against them. The government brainwash the people by making them believe books are

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is considered a model for Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, because of the struggles and revelations of the prisoner. Guy Montag is the prisoner in the novel. His society, with the fake reality, has caused him to undergo a series of struggles and revelations as he ascends. The novel and the allegory relate because the allegory is an outline for what the novel is.The allegory has a prisoner stage, the bonfire stage and an above ground stage. Montag went from being prisoner and believing in all the fake realities; such as, the fireman rules or any of societies rules. Then to the bonfire stage where Clarisse played a big part in making him realize that books provide meaning to people. After is above ground,

To begin, both “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury are pieces of literature that illustrate a symbolic scenario of human society, and the relationship between individual truths and reality. As they both share the same vital messages concerning society’s reactions to unfamiliar and new knowledge, both passages contain similar themes and characters. Comprising of universes that include people who are heavily influenced by physical and mental barriers, “Allegory of the Cave” and Fahrenheit 451 emphasize the importance of curiosity, insight, and radical perception.

Most people do not walk to a bookshelf and read a book in a one sitting anymore. Has the current world become similar to the society in Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury? Fahrenheit 451 is set in a future idea of the world, where books are forbidden. Firefighters have a different type of job in this world; instead of putting out fires, they start them. One of the firefighters, Guy Montag, is not as interested in his job, he becomes interested in books. At a point in the story he is hunted down by the government and is chased to railroad tracks. At the tracks he meets rebels that are constantly memorizing books and philosophies, in order to repeat them

Fahrenheit 451 and “The Allegory of the Cave” relate in the sense that society is ignorant and fears facing reality. In both, the discovery of something unknown or unfamiliar changes the characters’ views on the world, especially after being exposed to something so different to what you have spent your whole life knowing.

Fahrenheit 451 is a fictional novel by Ray Bradbury that takes place in the far future. In this book, the possession of books is illegal to everyone. Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass is an autobiography about his life during slavery and how its only wrong for a person of colour to be seen with a book in their hand. Although Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is about a fictional society whereas Learning To Read And Write by Frederick Douglass is an autobiography, both authors explain the roles of Conformity, Knowledge, and Freedom in there given environments.

Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are both dystopian fiction. This type of fiction was created to provide entertainment to the reader, but to also warn us of a possible path to avoid. All dystopian fictions rely on the fact that somewhere down the line, something went wrong and society is now twisted and wrong. This is the core idea of not only Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451, but the core idea of all dystopian novels. Even though the societies in Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451 are different in many aspects, they are fundamentally the same.

“Do you begin to see, then what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias…” (Orwell 267). 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are both dystopias, although in each society, the government tells the citizens that it is a utopia. A dystopia is, “An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression or terror” (“dystopia”). On the other hand, a utopia is described as, “An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects” (“utopia”). There are many similarities between the society in 1984 and the society in Fahrenheit 451, as well as many differences.

As Socrates is describing the cave and the situation, he stresses the point that the prisoners are completely oblivious as to what is reality as they would know nothing but the shadows casted by items held by the puppeteers, and believe this to be their own reality. This is important to the story as it shows that what we believe is real from the moment we are born is completely wrong based on our own flawed interpretations of reality. The point so far is that it is not what we can see but what we can’t see is what grasps our minds and Plato describes this thinking as “imagination.”

“See human beings as though they were in an underground cave-like dwelling” (193). Although Plato’s famous allegory of the cave doesn’t appear until Book VII of The Republic, its significance cannot be understated. The meaning behind the Greek philosopher’s imagery manifests itself throughout the rest of the work, specifically Book I. After outlining the description of the cave and demonstrating how the rest of The Republic dramatizes it, I argue that Plato (or Plato’s Socrates) is revealing a relationship that posits philosophy, which can only come about through mutual respect, as critical for the city’s well-being, but ultimately not enough just by itself.