Fahrenheit 451 Literary Devices

Someone reading Fahrenheit 451 for pleasure will most likely recognize some of the ironic details prevalent in the novel. One of the most obvious examples of irony in the novel is the idea of the firemen. In our world,

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

Bradbury uses literary devices to show how people struggle to find themselves within a society that is deprived of individuality. It wasn’t always missing, the more people came into their society the less room they had to be any different from each other. How could one expect a society-programmed Montag to even attempt to understand that there’s a possibility to be something else than what he was taught. “Once books appealed to a few people, here, there, everywhere. They could afford to be different. The world was roomy. But then the world got full of eyes and elbows and mouths.” (Bradbury 51) Throughout Fahrenheit 451 Montag is who he’s “supposed to be” but to himself he is not happy, he doesn’t realize he is feeling this way though. He wore his happiness like a mask, a mask that covered his face and didn’t really show what was going on underneath. A girl Clarisse removes the mask from his face and makes Montag realize there is something you could be other than the culture defined norm, “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.” (Bradbury 9) Clarisse took it forever and Montag could never be the same again. The use of metaphors here gives a good understanding as to how Montag first is hit by the realization things won’t ever be the same for him, his “happiness” is now Clarisse’s and there is no way to ever wear it the same again. In order for this society

From a general perspective, literature works are more interesting for the readers when these include a sequence of events that result in unexpected outcomes. If every book you read had exactly what you expected, it would become boring. The fact that the end of a novel is different from what the reader assumes, is what gives life to a story. Readers choose books by their content of conflicts, and often prefer books that are not vague or predictable. The book Fahrenheit 451, is a literary work with various unanticipated incidents; termed ironies. The main character named Montag, is the cause of these ironies. More than one type of irony is identified. There are several literary devices used in short stories, novel, poems,

Right away, it becomes clear that firemen aren’t as they are known to be in this book, which is probably the most ironic. Very often firemen are looked at as friendly and respectful but not in Bradbury’s world without books. As told in the article “Irony In Fahrenheit 451”, “In his dystopian community, people are afraid of firemen because firemen are the ones that set fires to the homes of rule breakers” (Irony In Fahrenheit 451). Right off the bat irony is used, firemen setting the fires sets the tone of the book and leads into several other ironic parts of the book. In part 2, Clarisse is killed by being hit by a car, this is an example of irony because she was the character that was always wondering around and talked of how dangerous people of her age are. As stated in the book Fahrenheit 451, “I'm afraid of children my own age. They kill each other…Six of my friends have been shot in the last year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks” (Bradbury 14). This is found to be ironic because she talks of car wrecks being the death of people her age, but then that’s how she ends up dying as well. Likewise, when Montag burns Beatty is also irony because of what advice Beatty gave him. Also in Fahrenheit 451, “A problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it” (Bradbury 53). As the quote suggests, it’s ironic due to the fact that Montag used Beatty’s advice, only it

“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

The science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, is about a futuristic dystopian society where everyone follows simple rules/norms: don't read books and spend time with their “families”. The families in the novel are also known as the TV’s. Whoever in the novel reads or owns books, gets put down by the hound. Montag, a protagonist in the novel, works as the fireman whom are very violent (like the rest of the society). No one in this society ever think, but when Montag (Protagonist) meets Clarisse McClellan, he becomes to question everything. Bradbury tries to portray that when people become emotionless, they don’t think about their actions which end up being violent. Bradbury’s hound (terrifying mechanical beast that kills who are unlawful) represents a type of police in the society that regulates everything and everyone. Thus Bradbury’s predictions are similar to today’s society in the police forces (which are controlled by the government).

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.

Although the rhetorical devices used throughout this book are exceptional, the themes are what makes Fahrenheit 451 so popular. Rhetorical Analysis Bradbury uses sentence structures, including complicated sentences and polysyndeton to paint a picture for the readers as if they are in the character’s lives. Describing Montag’s hands while starting a fire, Bradbury stated, “With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its

“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.

Many authors use literary devices such as allusions, metaphors, similes, imagery, euphemisms, and others to create a more enhanced effect to their work. Ray Bradbury, the author of the acclaimed dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, cleverly incorporated several of these, throughout the text, along with a lot of symbolism. One example is the relentless burning of literature, symbolizing the ignorance of human beings, as well as the censorship of knowledge and freedom of thought. Another example is the many fascinating technological innovations featured in the novel, such as the TV walls or the mechanical hound, which expresses how people had mindlessly replaced the “real” stuff with the artificial.

One irony that Bradbury uses in Fahrenheit 451 is the different role of firemen in the society. The firemen in this society are very different from the firemen in our society. For example, when Montag told Clarisse that he was a fireman, Clarisse asked, “Is it true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?” (Bradbury 8). Clarisse heard that firemen used to extinguish fires instead of starting them, but Montag disagrees. This is