What Does The Mask Symbolize In Fahrenheit 451

“I feel like the word ‘DIVERGENT’ is branded on my forehead, and if he looks at me long enough, he’ll be able to read it” (164). When Tris gets attacked by some of her fellow initiates, Four gives her advice to stay safe. “‘You think I have to pretend to be vulnerable?’ I ask, raising an eyebrow. ‘Yes, I do’“(285). Lord of the Flies shows that people hide behind masks to liberate themselves of shame. Jack is an excellent example for a character who uses masks to cover his true self. When Jack makes himself a mask made out of mud, he becomes a different person. “He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger” (31). “He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness” (33). When the boys kill the pig, they are all somewhat horrified that they did it, but Jack makes a joke out of it and puts on a mask. “He giggled and flecked them while the boys laughed at his reeking palms. Then Jack grabbed Maurice and rubbed the stuff over his cheeks” (195). Social media allows people to also use masks.

Happiness is something many people vie for but can't quite reach. It's something that is a result of fully developing one's potential. In Ray Bradbury's, Fahrenheit-451, the main character, Guy Montag, experiences internal conflicts such as his sudden realization of unhappiness and his insatiable home life.

It is natural for people to seek happiness. Everyone has their own methods, but at the end of the day, they all search for pleasure and gratification for their actions. Sometimes, this happiness can be long-lasting, and at other times, it is merely a short-lived illusion. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, society has conditioned itself to believe that instant excitement and shallow stimulation is equal to happiness. Due to this, people no longer take the time to appreciate and create intimate relationships with others. Guy Montag, a fireman and conforming member of society, begins to question these beliefs. He begins to see that people seek instant gratification and refuse to put effort into finding happiness. He recognizes these traits not

The poem We Wear the Masks by Paul Dunbar is an example of how people hide their feelings due to what others think of them. Like in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, the colored people in town are stereotyped due to their color and looks. The poem states, “We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes” (Dunbar). When people are stereotyped they hide their feelings to make others happy. Wearing the mask is a symbol of how people cover themselves to get away from their feelings.

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.

In today’s society masks are used depending on the specific social group we interact with. Most people tend to have various masks or personalities when they are with specific people; such as with their friends, family, and during work. In Kenneth Gergen’s essay “In Defense of Masks,” he claims that people are not apt to find a specific mask to which they can be true too however, having various masks could be important because it allows people to adapt to various social groups . I disagree with Gergen’s claim and counter argue that utilizing only one specific mask with whomever we interact with will help anyone live a genuine lifestyle. There are various categories that fall into masks; for instance, makeup, clothing, religion, and appearance. Many individuals acquire masks because they seek approval from others or simply because they are mimicking someone. Once someone adapts to having multiple masks, it is difficult to figure out our true identity due to the variety of personalities that are being portrayed.

“Like circus performers, we smear on makeup to become someone else. Far beyond applying a little lip gloss or hair dye, our mask attempts to cover up who we really are. Our mask attempts to cover up who we really are […] what we’ve been through, what we know to be important, and what we are afraid to share with others”. (O’Leary, 36) John O’Leary focuses heavily on the concept of taking off our masks in his inspirational book, On Fire: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life. What O’Leary means by this analogy is that we should all break the barriers which we have erected to protect ourselves from the world, walls that were built after being hurt, experiencing something traumatic, or perhaps after being betrayed. However, such walls oftentimes do not benefit ourselves in the way that we may wish. Instead, more often than not, our masks do the opposite, and they isolate us from what we as humans need most: friendship, companionship, and love.

Finally, when Montag finally escapes from the city, he realizes that he could be truly happy for once, “He was not empty. There was more than enough here to fill him” (Bradbury 146). When Montag escapes the oppression of the idea that ‘ignorance is bliss’, he realizes that the outside world, with all of its raw beauty and reality, could be more than enough to make him full and happy. When compared to his life as a fireman at the beginning of the story, he realizes that he wasn’t truly happy when Clarisse asked him if he was. In stark contrast to the beginning, Montag is hopeful and optimistic about the future and truly believes that he can fix himself and become happy. In conclusion, in Fahrenheit 451, it is not true that ignorance is bliss because conformist citizens like Mildred are suicidal, many people use escapism and ignorance to escape from their unhappy life, and the only time in the book that Montag is truly happy is when he escapes the city and this

Life is filled with sorrow and melancholy; they are unexposed to a world of different ethnicities, standpoints and emotions. In this next quote, the main character, Montag reads a poem to typical Fahrenheit 451 housewives. This happens towards the middle of the novel. These house wives are non-thinkers and have already been brainwashed by the propaganda, “‘Dover Beach.’ His mouth was numb… he began to read in a low stumbling voice that grew firmer… Montag finished it out…Mrs. Phelps was crying… She sobbed uncontrollably. Montag himself was stunned and shaken. ‘Sh, sh,’ said Mildred… ‘I’ve always said poetry and tears, poetry and suicide and crying and awful feelings’… ‘Clara, now, Clara,’ begged Mildred, pulling her arm. ‘Come on, let’s be cheery, you turn the ‘family’ on, now’ (Bradbury 96-97).” In this quote, the first emotions are shown by a non-thinker. Her sudden mood swings from happy to sobbing can portray how other civilians do not know how to react to the emotion. The constant need to watch the ‘family’ affects people and makes them lifeless, they are seen as useless bodies whose only emotions are confusion. The existence of these non-thinkers is useless, they do not contribute to society in any way. Fahrenheit 451’s plot is also affected by these non-thinkers. This anti-thought society caused the main character, Montag to run away, wanting to change the government where books are illegal. A society

Masks are a covering for parts of the face that are worn for a disguise, pleasure, or to scare people. Greek theatre utilizes masks innumerable times for evident characters in their plays. The actors/actresses who position their masks on, become divergent people. The denotation the boys’ have behind the mask is unique from when they have the mask off. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the mask is used as a disguise from their normal society and civilization. Jack, Ralph and Roger prove that this statement is true throughout the novel. Golding once said that civilization is “the mask which enables the individual to hide his primitive nature.” This illustrates how one will disguise himself as someone or something that triggers their primal nature. William Golding’s purpose in writing this novel is to present to the readers when an individual loses connections with society they can regenerate one's true self to become someone they are not. The masks are utilized by these three characters to shield their nefarious doings. Jack, Ralph and Roger all have measures that delineate the diabolic and shadow within all humanity.

A major theme found in the novel Fahrenheit 451 is that your perception of happiness affects your happiness. This message is largely emulated in Montag’s journey of self discovery throughout the book. His perception of happiness changes from the beginning to the end. In the first few pages, Montag believes happiness comes from being comfortable, along with the rest of his society. The novel opens with the line “It was a pleasure to burn”(3). Guy Montag is introduced as being content with his life and his job. He appears to find his satisfaction in the pleasure of burning books. However, after conversing with a bright minded girl named Clarisse, he begins to question what happiness really means to him. On page 12 he explains, “He wore his happiness

Being told you’re happy and believing it doesn’t make it true. Fahrenheit 451 is about a society that bans books and promotes violence and TV. The people in Fahrenheit 451 think that they are happy because what they live with seems normal to them. However, when a character realizes the world they live i has not always been the same, they become unhappy.

Different people put on a different mask depending on what “part” they are playing . Whether that be with peers, friends, teachers or parents you change because of the surroundings. Masks make you feel untouchable while you wear them, but when you take the mask off you feel monstrous about the acts committed while wearing your disguise. The power masks hold cannot be explained, they can turn the innocent into the barbaric. Masks have been worn throughout history. A good example is the German Nazi Swastika that symbolizes World War Two. The Nazi’s Swastika resembles their mask of genocide, deception, and tragedy. They wore this on their left arm and felt domination. They did not feel remorse for the inhumane acts they committed while hiding behind “their masks.” Once the war had completed, many Germans felt disgrace for their actions. The novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding was published at about the same time World War Two was occurring. Golding took ideas from the annihilation of the war and put it into the context of his story. Some of his ideas were inspired from the cruelty of war. William Golding was a British novelist, playwright, and poet known for his award winning book Lord of the Flies, published in 1954. In Lord of the Flies, most of the boys abandoned the civilized society they had always lived, and resorted to being savages.

Literally, people wear “masks” to cover their faces. In the poem, “we wear the mask” to hide our true feeling. For example, on the first line “We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shaded our eyes…” (Dunbar, 527) shows that do not be deceived by that mask because it is full of lies. “They wear a grinning mask that hides their true feelings. This image of the grinning mask evokes an ancient and ritual African mask used for ceremony, hiding the eyes and face of the wearer with an impersonal expression. In that case, the mask carries a divine dignity, something superhuman, mysterious, and perhaps implying a terrible retribution to the enemy in the future.” (“Overview: ‘We wear the mask’ ”) Plus, by wearing the masks, people cannot see the emotion shown on the face. People also cannot look into each other’s eyes to understand the thoughts. According to Huff, “To ‘hide our cheeks’ means to stiffen the face so as not to reveal genuine emotion, and to ‘shade our eyes’ has the triple meaning of adopting an indirect or deferring manner, of avoiding the eye contact that implies a shared understanding of the situation, and of internalizing society's artificial barriers so that an individual will not embarrass himself or others by appearing to desire things that are clearly beyond his reach.”

In We Wear the Mask, the author’s purpose is to push the reader to feel something about the way things were in his perspective.