Themes In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

An informative comparison of themes by Camryn Porter, sourced from Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451.

The world has grown and evolved in so many ways. One of the most revolutionary, man-made, everyday appliance for your house hold is the TV. The TV has brought so much more to a person’s finger tips at a click of a button and flipping to a channel to what they want to see. You can watch different food programs, where to buy things, what is going on in everyday American life knows as the “News”. Or just a show on TV for entertainment. And the list goes on and so forth.

This is a huge change of character for Montag as he is a fireman whose job is to burn books yet he read them. This shows that Bradbury uses character development to develop his theme. Montag wanted more knowledge as to why books are not allowed. He grew curious and tried to read some. As he read them, he grew more wisdom. He started to question society and why books are banned. This shows the theme of when someone gains more wisdom, they start to realise the society around them and question it. This is how Bradbury uses character development to convey his theme.

How scared would you be if at any moment your house could get burnt down for just having a book? This fear is realized in Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451. Fahrenheit 451 is about a dystopian world where books and free thinkers are singled out and attacked by the rest of society. The book follows the main character Guy Montag as he uncovers the truth about books and what society use to be. He starts off as a book burner, but later realizes how useful books are to people. The culture, characters, and theme in Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 create an interesting dystopian novel that serves as a warning to future readers.

A very fitting title, based on the fact that paper ignites at 451 degrees Fahrenheit. In both Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and in Anthem by Ayn Rand, the main protagonists are both challenged by society in their own way. One by reading a book and the other by thinking independently compared to thinking collectively. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury uses cultural and physical surroundings to convey the idea that governmental control of knowledge by removing books will cause the society to collapse due to rebellion and controlled thinking as seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Guy Montag.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss-American psychiatrist and author of the book Death and Dying, once imagined that, “The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.” The text’s collection focus on Ray Bradbury’s science fiction, Fahrenheit 451 discusses about the growth and struggles of Guy Montag’s beliefs against his society. Montag is a fireman and his job is to restrain people from learning by burning books. He meets special people and realizes the stimulation and manipulations of his society. He realizes that by struggling and suffering, there is wisdom rewarded at the end. This demonstrates

Montag’s actions changed drastically before he was a hardworking fireman that had one job to burn Clarisse made him think and wonder if there was something more. Then his adventure begins, he starts looking for answerers. “do you ever read any of the books you burn” he just laughs and said, “that’s against the law” (Bradbury 8). He soon finds an old English professor that is willing to help him. He has many books hiding at his house. He would not trust Montag at first, he thought he what going to burn his books and jail him. Faber soon realized that Montag was doing something for the good and was trying to save the books. “are you happy” she said, “am I what” he cried “happy! Of all the nonsense” he stopped and just laughed (Bradbury 10). Even though he is a fireman and no one agrees with him he still stands up for what he thinks is right. Clarisse made Montag wonder and think she made him question everything that he was ever taught about books being bad and that’s when he took a stand.

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who do not do anything about it” (Albert Einstein). In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, the novel explores censorships role as a hindrance on individuality, and the severe toll it takes on society’s self-awareness. Academia has widely argued the reason behind Bradbury’s dystopian themed work of art. Most interpretations of the novel suggest the work resembles anti-censorship propaganda. On the other hand, Bradbury himself stated: “I wasn’t worried about censorship-I was worried about people being turned into morons by TV” (Smolla, The Life of the Mind and a Life of Meaning: Reflections on Fahrenheit 451).

Ray Bradbury once said, “There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.” Knowledge is power, and those who yearn for absolute power will execute anything to suppress the knowledge of those they try to control. In the book, Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury enforces this by showing the lengths society will attempt to reach the objective of eliminating the people’s knowledge. The positive impact of literature often goes farther unnoticed the longer time goes on. Fahrenheit 451 presents many parallels to our current society. Bradbury’s predictions of the future are heavily mirrored in reality.Censorship is common, and in a few forms, it is generally accepted. Lack of

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), whose works gained recognition at prestigious award ceremonies, represents a life transforming power of literature that shapes the thoughts, dreams, and overall humanity in every reader. From a young age, books impacted Ray Bradbury’s life. Instead of classroom environment, he preferred learning through intensive reading of literature (Eller 167). For that reason, he never attended college. Ray’s life signifies that success comes through determination, hard work, and faithfulness toward a goal. In his twenties, he disciplined himself in writing a short story every week, a habit that he carried on for six decades (Person). Even though his first work was published at the age of 18, the

Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 presents readers with multiple themes. In the novel Bradbury conveys message through strong use of literacy devices. In the fictional society of Fahrenheit 451 books are banned. In the society of Fahrenheit 451 firemen create fires instead of putting them out. Bradbury portrays the society as dystopian; Although Bradbury never directly states, he implies great disdain for a society like Fahrenheit 451. 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 decipher. Is ignorance bliss? Or, does the ability to think for oneself create happiness? Throughout the novel Bradbury entices the reader to interpret his writing on a deeper level. Contrary to Bradbury’s illustration of an unintellectual society, Bradbury’s themes require in-depth interpretation of the novel. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury conveys the stories’ themes through characterization and symbolism.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is book that has many themes that are expressed through each character. The book takes place in the future when books are outlawed. The book is about a fireman whose task is to burn any books that are found; however struggles with this, as he wants to know more. His wife Mildred, exemplifies one of the themes of the novel which is disconnection and the power that the government has over its people.

Over time the structure of family has evolved. Since the introduction of television many sitcoms have shown the development of the early days to the modern. Sitcoms such as ‘Leave it to Beaver’, ‘Growing Pains’ and ‘Modern Family’ highlight evolving families over the last 60 years. Overtime the image of family has changed and is still changing to this day. In the 1950s sitcom ‘Leave it to Beaver’ the family was represented as ‘The Perfect Family’.

Montag in the beginning of the book is totally controlled by the system and lets the government control him. His setting made him a pawn for the government and made him burn books. Without this setting, Montag would have no reason to burn books. Later in the book Montag rebels and starts questioning authority and the

{In the modern world, televisions are almost a necessity to keep us informed about daily happenings in the regions where we come from and for entertainment.|Today, televisions are so important in our lives that they are almost necessities because they keep us up to date with news from our regions and they offer great entertainment.|In our world today, televisions have gained so much regard that they are almost being termed a necessity because they are a great source of entertainment and information about our regions and the globe at large.} {The television is also a platform on which businesses advertise their products to their target