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Fahrenheit 451

2005-05-25T13:48:33-04:00

For me “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury is a prophet for the future. Unfortunately it is a real one. The book describes a lurid picture of our world – a world where books are burned. Heinrich Heine once said that “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings”. It is also necessary to consider that the book was written after Hitler’s deeds became familiar to the world (Nuremberg trails). In our book we have a similar example– a woman burned with her books. Bradbury compares the Nazis (a dreadful past) with firemen burning people and books (a horrible future). Our setting is everywhere. It is mentioned that the story takes place in America– but it can happen everywhere. TV's are sold everywhere and soap operas are watched everywhere. The time period is the future– but the begging of this dreadful vision is today– we watch soap operas all the time– and we don’t see the danger. In this essay you’ll see the warning of Bradbury which is expressed in his book. "Bradbury's acount of this insane world, which bears many alarming resemblances to our own is fascinating" (The New York Times). His prophet is delivered by the main characters in the book. As soon as people will be afraid of becoming like some of the characters, the world will be saved from Disaster. The common image in Bradbury's world is represented by Mildred. Mildred is not the most important character, but she is very important for understanding the world Bradbury describes. She is very shallow and her life is based on "Family" ("Family" is a very famous soap opera). Mildred has a conflict of interests with her husband Guy Montag. In fact Montag has a conflict of interests with society. Mildred can not have a conflict of interests- she is to shallow for that. She can't think properly, so she can't argue for values. She doesn't have any. For example, Mildred takes a full bottle of sleeping balls- without even noticing. She didn't do it for suicide reasons. When someone wants to suicide he feels bad. Mildred can not feel bad, for Mildred can not feel at all. She doesn't have any feelings. "The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again. She is abandoned on her own land, between the prostitutes, with no one to get her get

Individualism in Farenheit 451

2002-03-30T13:00:00-04:00

All great things that have been created by mankind have evolved from individuals who dare to think outside of the box. There are the regretful ideas from which we learn from and of course the great ideas in which humanity has developed. For us to grow and change, mankind needs a diversity of ideas and thoughts. Without individualism, how can we evolve? Individualism creates uniqueness, different thoughts that some people think are strange and just wrong. All these ideas contribute to filling man with more knowledge and wisdom. We have learned the best ways to do tasks, about the earth and universe, almost everything we know, all from individuality. Take Hitler and his idea of the persecution of the “inferior race” for example. That was plainly a corrupt idea, but humanity grew stronger from this experience. We learned from that by being able to recognize evil early on and stop it, and it showed many that we are all equal no matter what race. The theme that I picked from the book Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury is individualism. The way this corresponds with Fahrenheit 451 is that the people and the schools destroyed intellectualism, and uniqueness, because these qualities create different ideas. As Henry Ford said,” All Fords are exactly alike, but no two men are just alike. Every new life is a new thing under the sun; there has never been anything just like it before, never will be again. A young man ought to get that idea about himself; he should look for the single spark of individuality that makes him different from other folks, and develop that for all he is worth. Society and schools may try to iron it out of him; their tendency is to put it all in the same mold, but I say don't let that spark be lost; it is your only real claim to importance.” The people in the book destroyed anything that had two sides to it, and imagination that other people just couldn’t believe. Throughout history, this has occurred for thousands of years, and especially when the bible and religions came around. This all led to controversy which made life and society unhappy and restless. Anything that had racism, they burned it. If a book had all woman in it, the males would feel envious, jealous and resentful, and so that too got burned. Bit by bit, people banned books and

Influences on Montag

2001-06-25T14:00:00-04:00

In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the main character Guy Montag makes a complete metamorphosis. He goes from hating books to loving them. He changes from a stolid character, incognizant of the activities in his surroundings, to a person conscious of everything, so enlightened by the new world he is exposed to. There are many stimuli in Montag’s society that help him change. A major reason is the people in his life. The people who influence him to change are Montag’s wife Mildred, his next door neighbor Clarisse, and his boss, the chief of police, Beatty. The first personal influence on Montag is Clarisse. She is a very positive influence on him. Clarisse is the young, teenage girl, who moves next door, with her uncle, to Montag. Clarisse is classified as an odd person, but she is a very friendly girl. She loves to talk to Montag, ask him questions about himself, and she loves to talk about the world and its wonderful sites. She is also very perceptive which is shown in this excerpt from the novel: “…I like to watch people. Sometimes I ride the subway all day and look at them and listen to them, I just want to figure out who they are and what they want and where they’re going…Or I listen at soda fountains…People talk about nothing…” (32-33). Clarisse teaches Montag to look around him, look at the people for who they really are. Montag never did that before. Clarisse helps him look around and see everything, from the smallest snowflake to the prettiest flower. She shows him, with a simple dandelion, that Montag isn’t really in love with Mildred anymore. He doesn’t realize it then, but later he does. Montag never really thinks about what is happening in his life, or why it seems he never shows much emotion towards anything. Clarisse teaches Montag to look around and to pay attention to what is really important in life, just not what his society tells him. The second influence that I chose was Mildred. Mildred is a negative influence on him, trying to push him away. Mildred is his wife of a few years. She does not know who she really is and lives in an illusionary world with her television shows. She is a very down person always Montag feel badly about himself. One night she overdoses on sleeping tablets and Montag starts to

Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 - The Fear of Utopia

2001-04-07T14:00:00-04:00

Several conflicting frames of mind have played defining roles in shaping humanity throughout the twentieth century. Philosophical optimism of a bright future held by humanity in general was taken advantage of by the promise of a better life through sacrifice of individuality to the state. In the books Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451 clear opposition to these subtle entrapments was voiced in similarly convincing ways. They first all established, to varying degrees of balance, the atmosphere and seductiveness of the “utopia” and the fear of the consequences of acting in the non-prescribed way through character development. A single character is alienated because of their inability to conform – often in protest to the forced conditions of happiness and well being. Their struggle is to hide this fact from the state’s relentless supervision of (supposedly) everything. This leads them to eventually come into conflict with some hand of the state which serves as the authors voice presenting the reader with the ‘absurdity’ of the principles on which the society is based. The similar fear of the state’s abuse of power and technology at the expense of human individuality present within these novels speaks to the relevance of these novels within their historical context and their usefulness for awakening people to the horrendous consequences of their ignorance. In these novels the main characters are, or become, unable to conform to the society’s standards. These characters represent the authors’ view of the ‘utopia’ as they see it with the veil of ignorance removed. In 1984, for instance, we start out with a character, Winston, who is constantly observing the ironies of the world about him. Through his job at the ministry of truth, he becomes a hand of the state, creating fiction to support its endeavors: “Comrade Ogilvy, unimagined an hour ago, was now a fact … he would exist just as authentically … as Charlemange and Julius Caesar.” (1984, p54) As the book progresses he becomes more aware of his individuality and eventually is unable to hide it. Similarly in Fahrenheit 451, Montag becomes aware of problems with his society, but not logically - emotionally. It disturbs him greatly when a medical team that helps his wife appear and disappear within a matter of minutes: “There are too many of us, he thought. There are billions of us and that’s too many. Nobody knows anyone.” (F451,p14) He becomes further agitated when

Fahrenheit 451: Similarities to our Society

2000-06-18T14:00:00-04:00

Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction book that still reflects to our current world. Bradbury does a nice job predicting what the world would be like in the future; the future for his time period and for ours as well. The society he describes is, in many ways, like the one we are living in right now. We are always demanding more advanced machinery, and from the past, we have grown into a much more technological society. Lately, more and more people not only want more technology, they want them to be quicker. Things such as quicker computers, quicker connections to the internet, better cell phone connections, pagers, cars with more power, voice mail, palm pilots, etc. are in greater demand. People don't want to waste time anymore. We want things done quicker without as much effort. We want things to take less time to do them so we can have more time for other things. Their society is exactly like ours. Besides having advanced technological machines, they also have much larger speed limits, so people could get where they want a lot faster. Clarisse and Montag make it obvious to the reader that they live in a fast-paced world when they first meet each other. Before Clarisse runs into her house, they notice how fast drivers go that they "'don't know what grass is, or flowers because they never see them slowly,' she said. 'If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! he'd say, that's grass! A pink blur! That's a rose garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days'"(9). Their speed limit is so high that everything that they see seems like blurs. They never see objects; they only see colors. Our speed limit isn’t as high as theirs is, but people usually go much faster than the speed limit is. Another reason their society reflects the one we live in is that the people there are becoming more and more violent towards each other. Clarisse tells Montag that she’s “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. I’m afraid of them and they don’t like me because I’m afraid” (30). They even

Fahrenheit 451 - Duality

2000-01-31T13:00:00-05:00

Dualities are the most elementary of comparisons, and are the easiest for the mind to comprehend in that total opposites are brought to attention. These opposites subconsciously provide one with a deeper insight of the material and consciously entertain. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, many dualisms are included both within Montag and in the outside world that provide 180 degree flip-side views, giving the book further depth and inner meaning. Within the many layers of Montag lay several opposite sides. For example, Montag is a fireman who burns books for a living but at home, spends time reading novels, poetry, and other written material. Although Montag could be called a hypocrite, he does not enjoy both the reading and the burning at the same time; he goes through a change that causes him to love books. Humans have the power to change and grow from one extreme to another, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. In addition, when Mildred is with Montag, Montag does not have feelings for her but thinks of her as she is killed by the bombs. He possesses both the knowledge that Mildred does not love him and the heart that truly cares, but he knows not how to deal with this. His feelings are oppressed; it takes a major event (the bomb) to jolt them from hibernation. There are many dualisms in the outside world of Fahrenheit 451. For example, Montag receives contrasting lectures from Faber and Beatty on what to do with the books and how to be. Beatty and Faber are like black and white: total opposites no matter how you look at it. This "flip-side of a coin" clearly compares the book burner to the book reader, the hatred to the love, and it also gives the reader the opportunity to "choose" their side. In addition, the fire is used to burn houses and books, to destroy possessions; it also is used by the outcast men to cook their meal, warm themselves, and provide light for them. The fire has, in itself, two conflicting sides which includes destruction and preservation. The fire gives Montag as well as the reader the understanding that one thing can have both good qualities and bad qualities at the same time, and that many powers can be spoiled if used for negative intentions. These contrasts all give two perspectives on an issue, whether that be directly or

Fahrenheit 451: Symbolism

1999-11-21T13:00:00-05:00

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury is a futuristic novel, taking the reader to a time where books and thinking are outlawed. In a time so dreadful where those who want to better themselves by thinking, and by reading are outlaws as well. Books and ideas are burned, books are burned physically, where as ideas are burned from the mind. Bradbury uses literary devices, such as symbolism, but it is the idea he wants to convey that makes this novel so devastating. Bradbury warns us of what may happen if we stop expressing our ideas, and we let people take away our books, and thoughts. Bradbury notices what has been going on in the world, with regards to censorship, and book burning in Germany, and McCarthyism in America. That is what he is speaking out against. Bradbury is also a very symbolic writer, he incorporates symbolism into his book. Bradbury's use of symbolism throughout the novel makes the book moving and powerful by using symbolism to reinforce the ideas of anti-censorship. The Hearth and the Salamander, the title of part one, is the first example of symbolism. The title suggests two things having to do with fire, the hearth is a source of warmth and goodness, showing the positive, non-destructive side of fire. Whereas a salamander is a small lizard-like amphibian, and also in mythology, is known to endure fire without getting burnt by it. Perhaps the salamander is symbolic of Guy Montag, who is being described as a salamander because he works with fire, and endures it, but believes that he can escape the fire and survive, much like a salamander does. On the other hand, it is ironic that Guy, and the other firemen believe themselves to be salamanders because both Capt. Beatty's and Montag's destruction comes from the all mighty flame, from which they thought they were invincible. The symbol of a Phoenix is used throughout the novel. This quote accurately describes the Phoenix, "It is known to be a mythical multi-colored bird of Arabia, with a long history of artistic and literary symbolism, the Phoenix is one of a kind. At the end of its five-hundred-year existence, it perches on its nest of spices and sings until sunlight ignites the masses. After the body is consumed in flames, a worm emerges and develops into the next Phoenix."(24, Cliffs' Notes on Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451) The Phoenix symbolizes the rebirth after

Fahrenheit 451

1999-03-02T13:00:00-05:00

I.Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a novel about the descent into super-individualism through mass governmental brainwashing. The book begins while the main character, Guy Montag, is burning a house for concealing contraband literature. It portraits the pleasure he derives from this act of mindless destruction. After this work though an eccentric neighbor girl who does not fit the status quo confronts him. She begins to ask him questions that force him to think about things he has taken for granted before. The story progresses as this girl continually influences him until a car killed her. The next time he is called to incinerate a house, he ends up taking a book and watching an old lady burn to death. This event coupled with the death of the neighbor girl influence him to seek out a book-reading professor he had met previous to this story. The professor and him begin to plot the downfall of society and the Firemen. Just when you think things are gonna work out, he is ordered to burn his house after which he burns his boss with a flame-thrower. This makes him a fugitive from justice. He then flees from the scene and ends up evading the manhunt. After a while he meets up with other people who are fugitives because of their literary learning. The next day the city he fled from is destroyed in an atomic blast and the bums go in to help the survivors. II. a) Man against Man: The only instance in the story that fits this category is the conflict Guy has with his boss. His boss, Beatty begins to suspect Guy's illegal reading of contraband and begins to take steps for Guy's downfall. First of all Beatty is much smarter and well learned than Guy so he begins to play mind games to try and trip him up. He also forces Guy to burn his house and tries to arrest him. Guy comes out on top and wins the conflict by setting his boss on fire. b) Man against Himself: One good example of this type of conflict is the inner turmoil in Guy Montag. This conflict was started by his talks with the neighbor girl. She awakened a self-thinking side of him that was at odds with his brainwashed, socially acceptable side. As should be, this new side won out over his old self after he thought about it.