Ray Bradbury's Farheit 451

My appreciation of a literary work was enhanced by understanding symbol when I read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. The science fiction novel is about Guy Montag, a man who is a firefighter. In this time, the job of a firefighter is to burn and destroy all books because reading or having books is illegal. He does his job, day by day, burning books without giving it a thought. As the novel continues, Montag realizes that books are not bad and tries to save them. He remembers a time when fire was not a destructive force; fire was also a source of warmth and comfort. In this novel, fire represents two opposing forces, depending on how it is used. The firemen use it to destroy, but Montag learns that it gives a source of a warm and comforting affect when used correctly.

Guy montag, a future fireman who sets fires, and enjoys it. This society cant read books, it's illegal, all books are burned seemingly to everyone’s enjoyment, including guy. Largely defining his character as finding a fire-fueled smile that never leaves his face. Clarisse, a girl living next to guy, changes his mind with simple questions he’s never heard, “are you in love?’’ No one asks him a personal question, he doesn't know the answer. With books being burned for their knowledge, authenticity is scarce and people are feed what they “need” to hear, substance-less information no one cares to change or question because they don't know how, just hop in the truck and hit 90 mph for an hour if something bothers

Guy Montag, on the other hand, is a fireman who starts fires, rather than stops them, in order to burn books, which are banned. Anyone caught with books are reported and their house and sometimes the people themselves are burned to the ground. People in his society don’t read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations. Guy is struggling with the meaninglessness of his life. His wife doesn’t seem to care and when he meets a seventeen year old girl named, Clarisse McClellan it opens up his eyes to the emptiness in his life. After this Montag becomes overwhelmed because of the stash of books in his house that he stole while on the job. Beatty, the fire chief, says that it’s normal for every fireman to go through a stage of wondering what books have to offer. Beatty gives Montag the night to see if the books have anything valuable in them, and to return them in the morning to be burned.

Mankind has been utilizing fire for millennia; it has been used to make food safe, to provide warmth, to illuminate the dark and unknown, and to protect from savage beasts. It is also practical for torturing, killing, intimidating, and destroying. It only takes one glance for someone to see how fire -- as it dances, spearing the sky for but a moment before it is gone, only to be replaced by another flame -- is far too chaotic to be controlled. In the world of Fahrenheit 451, it seems, superficially, that man has conquered fire at last; the home, man’s refuge from everything undesirable in the world, is fireproof. Why, then, are things still burning in this gilded utopia? In this futuristic society where there is no such thing as an uncontrolled fire, fire has been reduced to a mere tool to be wielded by mankind. As such, fire, in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, is a reflection of the true nature of each character in the novel. In the hands of the society and especially the fireman, fire is a tool wielded for fractious and destructive intent. For Clarisse, who is compared to a candle, fire is friendly and inspiring of thought. And for Montag and the other literates hiding outside of the city, fire is a warm gathering place that fosters kinship and the proper ideals to feed a revolution.

Ray Bradbury once said, “My stories are warnings; they're not predictions. If they were predictions, I wouldn't do them. Because then I'd be part of the doom-ridden psychology. But every time I name a problem, I try to give a solution.” Ray Bradbury predicted everything from digital surveillance to our short attention span. Even more surprising, is how our world appears to slowly turn into the world of Fahrenheit 451. In the book, the US has taken a turn for the worse. Children are killing each other, robots are replacing people in the workplace, and most importantly, books are banned. It is intriguing (and even scary) how much this book and our society have in common and if we don’t want be like this, we need to be like Ray Bradbury and find

“Fire is dangerous,” is what my mother always told me. Growing up with a mother that harped about playing with fire turned that very thing into my biggest fear. When I was younger, I had a repeating nightmare that my house would burn down in the middle of the night, and sometimes I would get stuck inside; other times I would escape and be purely mesmerized by both the danger and the beauty that the blaze held. This mesmerizing impression is brought to life in Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury employs many different human associations and responses to fire throughout the novel. In fact, the image of fire is the most dominant image used in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury presents fire in many different ways in the novel, such as, a destroyer, things of beauty, and a restorer.

Later that same day, the firemen burn a house and a lady who chooses to die with her books. In his altered state of mind thanks to Clarisse, Montag saves one of woman’s books from its fate and takes it home with him. That evening at Guy’s house, he realizes that he and Mildred do not love each other as they can’t even remember when they first met. Guy makes another startling finding when Mildred tells him that Clarisse has died as a result of being run over. The next morning Guy fakes sickness to get out of going to work. He argues with Mildred over the genuineness of his sickness. Then, Captain Beatty arrives at his house and lectures Guy on how a short period of resistance to being a fireman is common among firemen and how the destruction of books was caused by society, not the government. The captain concludes with telling Guy that the work of their job keeps everyone happy. Guy asks the captain what were to happen if a fireman took home a book. Guy is informed that a fireman is allowed to keep the book for 24-48 hours; if fireman hasn’t burned the book after two days, the other firemen will do

Imagine a society completely run by technology—robotic workers, home theatres, supreme medical care. Despite the benefits technology could provide, its flaws are masked away by the glossy image created by the media. Fahrenheit 451 focuses on a dystopian society, taken place in the future, where technology is deeply engraved into the people’s lifestyle. With technology playing a major role in their lives, the people are isolated from their world as they are not exposed to many aspects of being human—knowledge, independence, emotion. Montag, the protagonist, soon realizes the missing elements of life, being human, due to the heavy uses of technology, and begins finding solutions in books. Ray Bradbury composed the novel in 1953, and was

Shall one remove the sack placed so cruelly upon one’s head by the crooks one calls society? Revealing the truths that were hidden far away in the corner of the world, Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 as a way to open the eyes of the reader, allowing them to understand a dystopia of hidden truths. Placed in futuristic times, the world in which Guy Montag lives is grim, in the eyes of an onlooker. From the eyes of Guy Montag however, nothing was wrong. He has the job that he loves, a wife to come home to every night, everything is safe, or in other words, peaceful. Or is it? Such is the path they walk, hidden from truth and they have no reason to suspect that what they know is anything but. Montag is in several cases blind.

What would happen if society sped up so much that murders were overlooked, billboards had to be built miles long so we would notice them, books were outlawed, knowledge was forbidden, and memories were hard to come by? In the 1950 novel Fahrenheit 451, author Ray Bradbury presents a society which invokes much thought about the way we live in society today. It’s a story about a lifestyle in the future that has evolved from our present, but in seemingly different worlds. Through the protagonist, Guy Montag, Bradbury makes a wider point about the dangers that a society can present. The government of this future forbids its people from reading or taking part in individual thinking. This science fiction tells the story of a community that relies on technology advancements to guide them in their everyday lives. His characters live in a fast paced society where they don’t read books, watch a lot of TV and drive very fast. Does this sound familiar?

Someone famous once stated, “The eyes are useless when the mind is blind”. In our present society, to find a place in which our minds are not being constantly suffocated with what the world wants us to perceive is becoming a strenuous task. From the grocery store to the rooms of our very own homes nothing seems to be of our own conscience anymore. Yet we are able to turn a blind eye to this fact. Why’s that? Just take a few seconds to think to yourself, “ How long [has] it [been]since you were really bothered? [Bothered ]about something important, about something real?”(pg)

Guy Montag is a fireman who burns books in future America. The people in future America don’t read books, having meaningful conversations, or enjoy the moment. They all listen to the radio or watch t.v . soon montag meets Clairsse who opens his world to the nothingness of his life with her love for people and nature. The next few days his wife Mildred attempts suicide by swallowing sleeping pills later on a elderly women decides to burn with her books then Clarisse is hit by a car and killed. Montag soons becomes dissatisfied with his life and begins to look for an answer in his secret stash of books he has hidden. His chief later visits his house explaining why books were banned in the first place. His chief later gives him 24 hours to read

“The world is darkness; knowledge is light; but knowledge without truth is a mere shadow.” (Ali Ibn Abi Talib) Truth is the key to the cave of ignorance that confines each and every human being on this planet. Although many of us think we are consciously aware of all truth, society has restricted us to believe what we are told by continuously stacking layers of lies over top of each other. As a growing society, many lies have been recovered but many still linger around us every day. Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, is based on a dystopian society solely made up of lies. When the truth confronts a major character in this novel, shocking decisions are made to ensure its protection. Similarly in the Wachowski Brothers’ film, The Matrix, Neo felt something; he didn’t know what it was but it was driving him mad. He needed answers, and when he finally got them, he was the only one who could protect it for the sake of all of humanity. Finally, in Philip Noyce’s film, Rabbit Proof Fence, three little girls express their loyalty to the truth with their persistence towards saving their cultural identity. These three pieces of literature are prime examples of how lies can easily take over a life, however, strong will and persistence kept the humanity of truth alive within them. The awareness of truth within a society drives one to embrace the insight that they now hold; this allows them to protect their new knowledge from the surrounding influences that could easily take it away.

Picture a world where one must meet the expectations of being normal, where diversity is not accepted, or even worse, a detached society where emotions no longer exist. By reading the first few pages of Fahrenheit 451, readers immediately get the feeling of a dystopian society. Firemen creating fires, instead of extinguishing them, and technology that has taken their society to a whole new level of entertainment. These are exaggerated ideas right off the bat, yet Ray Bradbury carries the readers through the story in order to show them his own outlook on the future- in fact, all dystopian works share an aspect of how the world could turn out to be. There are many ways of creating a true dystopian story, although social commentary is by far the most impactful. This is a stylistic element that creators use to express their opinions about society. Fictional novels and films such as Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, The Young Elites by Marie Lu, and Kurt Wimmer’s Equilibrium, each provide a different message to the audience, including the dangers of advanced technology, what could happen if people lived in a non-diverse society, and how emotions are significant in life. The different style techniques that the writers and directors use allow the people to become more aware about the dangers of things and realize that although they may seem like far fetched ideas, they have the potential to become a reality.

Set in a futuristic, dystopian civilization, Fahrenheit 451 trailed the crumbling of society and values as technology replaced intellect. It discussed several issues that resulted from excessive machinery and an overpowering government. Thus, the setting and genre of this story undoubtedly affected its plot in countless ways. Without the specific setting and genre that the author, Ray Bradbury, provided, this novel would have been unconvincing and inane. Evidently, it was a science fiction novel, as shown by the futuristic setting and various technological advancements. This genre made certain parts more believable, while generating interest and originality. Similarly, the setting of Fahrenheit 451 was a great factor in