Fahrenheit 451 Literary Analysis

Fahrenheit 451 is set in a futuristic American city where books are illegal, firefighters start the fires, and filled with people who do not think independently. Guy Montag, a local fireman, becomes frustrated with his life and starts taking books from homes that he burns. Once the fired chef begins to finds out what Montag is doing Montag become flustered trying to understand what the books mean before he gets caught. He turns to a retired professor named Faber to help him. Faber and Montag come up with a plan to bring down the firemen by putting books in all of the firemen’s houses. This plan stopped when Montag got into the fire truck, and it shows up at his own home to be burned down. After burning down his own

Fahrenheit 451 is a central story of one man’s journey to re-evaluate the truth, which can be deconstructed from its narrative structures to apparent binary oppositions. Bradbury uses a variety of paradoxical statements to describe the deconstructive difference between alive vs. dead. While Mildred, Montag’s wife feels alive with her television family that she regularly interacts with in the parlor, Montag feels like Mildred is physically present but her thoughts and feelings are elsewhere. Furthermore, Montag describes the mechanical hound and “electric-eyed snake” as living creatures, however they are spiritually dead, “the mechanical hound slept but did no sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly

“There must be something in books, something we can imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”(Pg. 51) Main character Guy Montag is a servant to a society that is controlled by censorship and the fear of knowledge; Montag has spent his life burning books, to prevent the spread knowledge. But a series of events cause Montag's mind to change, and result in him breaking free from his society. The internal struggle of dynamic character Guy Montag, as to whether he should go on believing the lies his society has told him, or risk his life for something as simple as words on a page, brings readers into the corrupt society of Fahrenheit 451. In the novel Fahrenheit 451 author Ray

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel written by Ray Bradbury that depicts a futuristic American society where books are banned and independent thought is persecuted. Bradbury uses his imagination to take a hard look at a world consumed by technology, and he presents predictions about pleasure, violence and anti-intellectualism that are alarmingly similar to the modern American society. Notably, in both societies people find pleasure in entertainment that is endlessly preoccupying. Second, people are violent and careless. Finally, anti-intellectualism and suppression of independent thought affect both societies, as firemen ban books in Fahrenheit 451 and, in the

Fahrenheit 451 is a novel of little happiness. Society as a whole has become content with watching television and wasting away their lives, while a few individuals ponder the true meaning of life and happiness. Bradbury throughout the book depicts what our world could become, and almost sends a warning to the reader on how to avoid this unfriendly fate.

Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 presents readers with multiple themes. In the fictional society of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, books are banned and firemen create fires instead of putting them out. Bradbury portrays the society as dystopian. Bradbury crafted the novel to be interpreted intellectually. The characters claim to be happy. However, the reader can conclude otherwise. Bradbury creates a question for the reader to answer: Is ignorance bliss or does the ability to think for oneself create happiness? Bradbury shows the importance of self-reflection, happiness and the ability to think for oneself as well as isolation due to technology, and the importance of nature and animals. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury conveys the stories’ themes through characterization and symbols.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is set in the dystopian future of the 24th Century in relation to the government influence on society. The main purpose of this book according to the Author was to prevent the possible future with the new technologies of 1953. Another purpose in this book was to warn people about what technology can do to you. This book was more based on the thoughts and beliefs of anti-Transcendentalism with a negative purpose portrayed.

In Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, and “There Will Come Soft Rains,” the authors, Ray Bradbury and Lois Lowry, portray a dysfunctional world that has dehumanized its people. All three literary works display a world where the minds of people are twisted. They support the theory that technology takes away everything that makes humans unique. In these stories, the society that the main characters live in is too dependent on technology, resulting in people with empty, meaningless lives.

In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is one man attempting to turn his society upside down. After discovering for himself the injustice of his society as it shuns all literature, Montag relentlessly fights to fix this corruption and endures large amounts of persecution in the process (Bradbury). Meanwhile, in his autobiography, Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass recounts his past as a single slave doing his best to right the evils of southern slaveholders. Although one takes place in a fantasy and one during 19th century America, both works portray individuals going against the unjust grain of their societies, and persevering through extreme opposition in the process. After escaping the grip of slavery, Douglass recounts his life story to a curious, yet most-likely privileged audience in an intelligent and revealing manner. Throughout his narrative, Douglass praises the surprising resilience of the human spirit even in the midst of constant hardship.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a novel that illustrates what could happen to our society in the future. The novel portrays a society in which books, excluding comic books and other simple technical books, are banned and burned for the good of the society as the people believed. The books are seen as a source of unhappiness and, therefore, the society has decided to Ban them and put the fireman in charge of maintaining the censorships. I believe that books are not only banned because they make people unhappy but because they make people unequal. I believe that censorship of books is indented to make everyone in the society equal.

“I don't try to describe the future. I try to prevent it” (Ray Bradbury). Today in our society we face many issues, but not as many as the world that the people in the novel Fahrenheit 451 face. The novel Fahrenheit 451 is based on futuristic times. A society where everything and everyone is falling apart. It is a place where they are not concerned about the well-being of their society. Our world has some of the same issues, but in some ways, we also live completely different lives. Although some differences between Fahrenheit 451’s society and our society are somewhat noticeable, the similarities may be a bit harder to find.

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”- Mahatma Gandhi. Fahrenheit 451 is about a man named Guy Montag who doesn’t realize it yet but is one of the most important people in his society. Ray Bradbury wrote this book to show society the change that can and will happened if we keep going the way we are going. Montag has changed through his journey in many ways. One way is Montag has changed from not caring about his wife Millie to caring if she died during the war. Secondly Montag has changed in his journey ever since he met Clarisse, and lastly Montag has changed when he started taking books, reading them, and realizing what him and the other firemen are doing is wrong.

“The woman reached out with contempt to them all, and struck the kitchen match against the railing” (37). Montag and the other firemen report to a house that is suspected of harboring books. They are correct, and they find books in the attic of the home. The books belong to an old woman whose name is unknown to the readers, and she was devastated that the firemen were destroying her home and books. Ultimately she kills herself by setting fire to herself, her home, and the books. The very property and books in question that were about to be burned by Captain Beatty. She felt that books were so important in her life that she could not go on without them. Some people would feel that things to die for, like freedom, liberty, and their family would be more important, but this woman chose her books. It seems very clear to me that Ray Bradbury seems to be telling us, the readers, that there are things in life

In Fahrenheit 451, The Hearth and the Sledgehammer, Ray Bradbury writes of a fireman, Guy Montag, who is the fireman in charge of burning books. He wears a helmet with the numbers 451 engraved in it, which represents the temperature at which paper burns. His uniform, black with with a sledgehammer on the arm, which seems to really attract the ladies. After suspecting an abiding near by he decides to meet up with his new neighbor, Clarisse, instantaneously she becomes greatly intoxicated by the fact that he is a fireman and feels a slight attraction toward him. Clarisse's constant “flirting” with Montag causes him to slightly feel attracted to her. After meeting with his new neighbor Montag returns home only to find his wife, Mildred, doing exactly what she had been doing for the past two years, listening to the radio with her earphones.

Entertainment has taken over everyones lives with televisions and earbuds. Bradbury discussed and even predicted the future by his examples of Mildred through the parlor shows, seashells, and thimble radios. Mildred is addicted to her television shows. She is addicted to the point she calls them, “my family” (Bradbury 46) and wants “to save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a fourth wall-TV put in”. (Bradbury 18) Her addiction to her television represents how majority of the modern-day citizens watch television, and Netflix shows all day. Mildred falls asleep every night to the “little Seashells, the thimble radios…electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk…coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind”. (Bradbury 10) She listens to them so much “there had been no night in the last two years that Mildred had not swum that sea”. (Bradbury 10) That is an