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Use Of Irony In Fahrenheit 451

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In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, irony is used to convey information and it contributes to the overall theme of the novel. Written during the era of McCarthyism, Fahrenheit 451 is about a society where books are illegal. This society believes that being intellectual is bad and that a lot of things that are easily accessible today should be censored. The overall message of the book is that censorship is not beneficial to society, and that it could cause great harm to one’s intelligence and social abilities. An analysis of irony in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury shows that this literary technique is effective in contributing to the overall theme of the novel because it gives more than one perspective on how censorship can negatively affect …show more content…

You can say that Montag was fighting fire with fire. Bradbury chose to include this quote in Fahrenheit 451 because Montag is against the idea of censorship and this fits in with the main themes of the book.
Bradbury uses Clarisse to help readers compare and contrast the lifestyle in Fahrenheit 451 to our world today. These quotes are especially interesting because Bradbury contradicts himself, and seems to change opinions on whether Montag is a good character or bad. On page 7, Clarisse says “I’m seventeen and I’m crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane” (Bradbury 7). This is ironic because Clarisse is calling herself crazy and insane, while by today’s standards she may be one of the few sane citizens in that society. Along with Faber, they are shunned because they are intellectual and try to understand life beyond what they learns in school and what she is brainwashed to understand. A few days after Clarisse has this conversation, she is killed by a speeding car. Although Bradbury never directly states that the government planned her death, it is quite possible, as she was an outlier and did not follow the society’s laws. Bradbury may have tried to mock how McCarthyism was related to lawful US citizens living in fear of being arrested

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