Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’S Dystopian Novel

0 / 5. 0

Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury, first published in 1953. Often considered as one of his best works, the novel presents a future American society where books are prohibited and the ‘firefighters’ burn all who are found. The motto of the book explains the title: ‘Fahrenheit 451: The temperature at which the paper is set on fire and burns …’ The main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who disappoints himself with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, and finally renounces his work and his commitment to the preservation of literary and cultural writings.

Fahrenheit 451 is in an un specified city in 1999, although it is written as if it were in the distant future. The first editions make it clear that it takes place not before the year 1960.

The novel is divided into three parts: ‘It was great to burn’, ‘The screen and the sand’ and ‘Live fire’.

Guy Montag is a ‘firefighter’ used to burn the possessions of those who read forbidden books. He is married, but he has no children.

Guy Montag has a certain image about what is the “family."In the book Montag always said that Mildred’s family was in the room, when in reality those" relatives "were nothing more than television characters that Mildred and society were so addicted. Society called them that way because they are present all day, so they were already like their "family". Television were always located in the most important place in the house. The programs were personalized towards each one to make a more personal sense between the program and the public, which explains why they are told “relatives” to the characters. "" It’s very distracted. And it will still be more when we can install television on the fourth wall. How much do you think we will take now to be able to replace that wall with another with television? It only costs two thousand dollars.

—That’s a third of my annual salary.

"It only costs two thousand dollars," she said. And I think you should once have a certain consideration. If we had the fourth wall … Oh! It would be as if this room was no longer ours, but it belonged to all kinds of exotic people. We could go out of some things.”(Bradbury, 1953).

Books are very controversial in the book society. Those who were already age people saw them as something crucial for the human race, while the youngest saw them as a threat towards people’s happiness. This point of view could have a symbolic meaning with today’s society when everyone is always on their phones and very few people read for pleasure. The book is like a vision in the future in which it predicts which books will become as used as the telegraph. Today, all we want is to be happy, as in the book.

When Montag and Faber entered an argument about the books, Faber told Montag 3 things that do a good book, “The first, as I said, is quality of information. The second, leisure to assimilate. And the third: the right to undertake actions based on what we learn by interaction or joint action of the other two.”(Bradbury, 1953). With the first faber point it refers to a book must have a very good story, or information that makes sense. The book must be entertaining. The second point says that a long time should be applied in the book to be able to get all the information correctly. The third and last point says that being able to gather everything learned either read or experiences and apply that with the other two points makes an impeccable book.

The problems of the book society can be related to current society. In the book everyone is always attached to television. In the real world everyone is attached to the phone. Also in the book Captain Beatty says, “the greater the population, the more minorities there are.”(Bradbury, 1953). That is also true in our society. Mexico City is the most populous city in the country, and it is inevitably where there are more minorities.

The main argument of the book, I believe, is that nobody questioned anything. As that was a dystopian society, everyone was supposedly happy or found ways to try to be. The only character in the book that actually questioned something about her was Clarisse, which ended up murdered by what we understand about Montag’s thoughts. “I would like to know if they are the same ones who killed Clarisse!".”(Bradbury, 1953). Montag also tried to reveal when staying and reading some books. The only thing he managed was to be chased by firefighters and police, and those who thought they killed Clarisse. Montag managed to escape the river where he was already out of the reach of the police. He later met a group of people who for the same reason that Montag had to escape also. While Guy learns the philosophy of exiles, he and the group observe how bombers fly above and annihilate the city with nuclear weapons. The imminent war began and ended on the same night. This demonstrates how people have no absolute freedom in book society. Books treat in the same way that our society treats drugs. They focus on the entertaining instead of the crucial. Its biggest goal is to be happy all the time regardless of the cost that in this case was the destruction of an entire city. At the end of the book and shortly after destruction, Granger says that “we must build a mirrors… we will manufacture mirrors and look at them long in them.”(Bradbury, 1953). What Granger refers to this is that he wants people to take a very long look in the mirror to reflect on their lives. As soon as the group has just had lunch, they are heading towards the ruins of what was previously a city to try to help reconstruct a better society. 

Free Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’S Dystopian Novel Essay Sample

Related samples

Zika virus: Transmission form Introduction The Zika virus belongs to the Flaviviradae family, was found for the first time in a monkey called Rhesus febrile and in...

Zika virus: cases and prevention Introduction The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that Zika is a virus caused through the mosquito bite which is...

Zeus The King of Greek mythology Introduction Zeus is the Olympic God of heaven and thunder, the king of all other gods and men and, consequently, the main figure...

Zeus's punishment to Prometheus Introduction Prometheus, punished by Zeus Prometheus, punished by Zeus. Prometheus is a ‘cousin’ of Zeus. He is the son of the...

Comments

Leave feedback

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *