...The themes within Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury differ from the themes in many of Poe’s stories, but also share some similarities. In Bradbury’s story, major themes include the influence censorship has on societies, the violent nature of human beings, and the discovery of self identity. Many of the themes in Poe’s stories include the effect of the loss of a loved one and the impacts of death on others. While the themes are not completely connected, Bradbury uses the death of one of Montag’s neighbors to spark a disgust in his current society which in turn leads to his discovery of his self identity. The violent nature of human beings drove others to kill Montag’s neighbor through a violent car chase. In stories such as “The Fall of The House...
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...Science fiction is a genre that most people don't approve of. Not because it requires crude humor or other horrible things to be in it (which it doesn’t), but because of what it tells us. Science fiction books have been rejected by many people because those people believe that it makes us want to rebel, and tells us something about our society that we might be better off not knowing. Two science fiction stories, the book Fahrenheit 451 and the short story "Harrison Bergeron", beg to differ. Both stories display clear proof that knowledge is power in both, the setting created by the authors of the books, and the world we live in. Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, showed that knowledge is power throughout his book in many different...
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...Symbols or the act of symbolism is when select things are used to represent another. For example, a fire could represent a passion or love. Green in the novel The Great Gatsby symbolizes the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. It represents Gatsby's deep love to Daisy and his American Dream. Another example of symbolism is spirit in Copper Sun. Spirit seems to be used as a description of the underlying essence of someone, something that gives an individual his or her purpose. Spirit is that everlasting quality of a person that can still be present even after the individual is dead. It can also be broken when a person is still alive. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury uses symbols to display how something can be quickly overlooked as...
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...Ray Bradbury Research Paper The short novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury published in 1953 is a story that revolves around the near future where books and literature and banned and burned. Many aspects of this book where heavily influenced by events that happened in Ray’s life when he was a child and throughout his adulthood. The location of Fahrenheit 451 takes place in an urban American city, no specific name or location given, surrounded by suburban houses in the outskirts of the city. Ray had been living in southern California near Santa Ana around the time had begun writing Fahrenheit 451. It was around 1940 “…Ray wrote what he would later call ‘five ladyfinger firecracker’ which led to the ‘explosion’ of Fahrenheit 451.” (Weller 199) The story takes place in the 20th century with no specific year given where two nuclear wars had taken place since 1990. Ray was inspired by the events taking place at the time such as the rise of Nazi Germany, McCarthyism and the “witch hunt set out by the House Un-American Activities Committee in Hollywood in 1947…” (Weller 199) In addition to the setting, a few, but not all of the characters from Fahrenheit were influenced by certain events from Ray’s life. On a windy autumn night in Los Angeles, Ray had been out on a walk with a friend of his, when “A police car wheeled up beside them. The officer stepped out and approached the two men. He asked what they were doing” (Weller 199) in which Ray responded, “Putting one foot in front...
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...The society of Fahrenheit 451 and our own share many similarities, such as social tendencies and individuals devolving into fantasies, but differ regarding governmental control and the right to action. Ray Bradbury correctly theorized the epidemic of short attention spans and devolving social interaction in Fahrenheit 451. When Montag claims that he is sick and asks Mildred to bring him water and an aspirin she leaves the room, then comes back without either item. When he asks “Where’s the aspirin?”, she leaves the room again and only gets him water (Bradbury 46). This is a nod to to the seemingly shrinking attention span that people have today. During breakfast, Mildred has sea shell ear thimbles on her ears. She has “both ears plugged with electronic bees that were humming the hour away.” (16). Many people today don't take out their earbuds when talking to someone. These are examples of the current shrinking attention span and lack of social engagement. There is a blurred distinction between life and death in Fahrenheit 451 that can be seen in our own society. Clarisse McClellan is a character in Fahrenheit 541 who is described as having “eyes...
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...Many novels often possess several types of characters to make the book extravagant and exciting. The outcast, a character who stands out from the majority of others described in the text. The outcast in a story is usually portrayed as a threat of society to the surrounding community. The outcast will often become the hero or heroine as the novel progresses. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, MT Andersons feed and William Shakespeare Othello, each outcast displayed their importance to the novel not only as an outcast but also for there mighty heroic acts throughout the texts listed. Othello from William Shakespeare's othello stands out from the community he lives in for many reasons. Othello is a moor who is seen different because of his skin colour causing him to be the main outcast of the play yet he is in a very high position of his culture and people do not like him for this reason. He is a general and commander and eventually governor of Cyprus. This shows characteristics such as independence, strength and bravery are all present in othellos lifestyle. These aspects ultimately define him as the heroic figure in the play....
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...Fahrenheit 451 Censorship Censorship has a major role in the book Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury criticizes the censorship of the early 1950's by displaying these same themes in a futuristic dystopian novel called Fahrenheit 451. In the early 1950's Ray Bradbury writes this novel as an extended version of "The Fireman", a short story which first appears in Galaxy magazine. He tries to show the readers how terrible censorship and mindless conformity is by writing about this in his novel. Bradbury develops the theme of censorship by gradually introducing the ways in which society chose to neglect literature and the government's reasons for censoring intellectual thought.Initially, Bradbury describes how the government decided to censure knowledge by destroying books. As the novel progresses, Captain Beatty explains to Montag how society's wish for immediate entertainment and the population's distaste for criticism led to the censorship of books. Essentially, the dystopian society sought to eliminate any type. Ray Bradbury wrote "It didn't come from the Government down. Beatty explains that the censorship did not come from the government, it came from the people. People...
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...People are always establishing their own unique personality. This is also evident in literature. Authors are known for their distinct writing style that sets them apart from the crowd. The author may be known for their style of characterization or how they describe a setting. Ray Bradbury exhibits this by using descriptive language to demonstrate the theme of his works. In his novel, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury uses descriptive language to portray the theme of the story, which is individualism is important. He uses personification to bring things to life that are normally inanimate. "With this brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world..." (Fahrenheit 451, 3). Montag, the main character,...
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...American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, and poet. Although the genre of many of Ray Bradbury’s stories is fiction, he rejected being categorized as a science fiction author, claiming that the only story he has ever written that is a science fiction story is Fahrenheit 451. BIOGRAPHY Ray Douglas Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois. He enjoyed a relatively idyllic childhood in Waukegan, which he later incorporated into several semi-autobiographical novels and short stories. Bradbury's life revolved around magic, magicians, circuses, and other such fantasies. He decided to become a writer at about age 12 or 13. He later said that he made this decision to "live forever" through his fiction. His first official pay as a writer came for contributing a joke to George Burns's Burns & Allen Show. In 1937, he became a member of the Los Angeles Science Fiction League, whose help enabled him to publish four issues of his own science-fiction fan magazine, or "fanzine," Futuria Fantasia. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. His formal education ended there because they had no money to send him to college due to the Depression. However, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942. He published his first short story in a fan magazine in 1938. Bradbury says that he learned to write by recalling his own experiences. Many of his early stories are based, unsurprisingly...
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...John Quincy Adams once said “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." Throughout history, authors and writers have created characters that are meant to influence and inspire the protagonist. This is present in the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. On the other hand, there are some stories such as Test by Theodore Thomas that have taken a different approach. First, in Fahrenheit 451 the author Ray Bradbury writes Clarisse into the novel to inspire the protagonist Guy Montag to take a stand and become an individual and to stop being controlled by the government. She does this by showing him who she is as a person, questioning his morals, and asking him about love. To begin, Clarisse attempts to show Montag who she really is and not for the fugitive that she’s claimed to be. "Well, doesn't this mean anything to you?" He tapped the numerals 451 stitched on his char coloured sleeve. "Yes," she whispered. She increased her pace. "Have you ever watched the jet cars racing on the boulevards down that way? "You're changing the subject!" "I sometimes think drivers 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. Isn't that funny...
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...Sometimes, reading literature may be very challenging for a reader. He/she will need to define a few components that will help him/her to understand the true meaning of literature. A poem, short story, novel or fiction is full of those elements, which make literature more understanding for a reader. However, sometimes the poet or writer presents those elements as irony and the reader may get confused about the true meaning of literature. Irony exists when a reader is led to expect things to happen but exactly the opposite happens. Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 familiarizes a reader with irony. His main character, the protagonist, Guy Montag is presented as a person whose life is full of irony. Through the irony of Montag’s life, Bradbury brings the reader into a better understanding of nature of language, of people understanding of their own life, and of the effect of technology. The first example of irony in the novel is the job of fireman. To readers, a fireman helps to put out fires. However, Bradbury presents the fireman, Guy Montag, as a person who starts the fires. Moreover, the symbol of hearth and salamander, in the first part of the novel, symbolizes a traditional home fireplace and the creature from mythology that could survive in the fire and not get harmed. However, Bradbury through that symbol presents irony. The reader discovers that Montag does not live unharmed by fire; but he realizes, how burning many books destroys his society. The symbolism presents irony...
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...In the novel Fahrenheit 451, the author Ray Bradbury paints a picture of a science fiction dystopian world that warns people of the dangers of becoming too hopelessly dependent on society and its rules. He does this mostly through the descriptions and lives of his characters, none more so than his main protagonist of Guy Montag, who is a fireman whose role in life is to burn books until he starts to question this role and his place in the world. Guy Montag is the main protagonist in the novel Fahrenheit 451. When we meet him in the book he seems to be a man who is carefree and living in society exactly as he should. He is a fireman who’s only job in life is to burn the books that make people ask questions that might otherwise upset the natural...
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...Fahrenheit 451 A Cautionary Tale (there may be grammar and or spelling mistakes.) By: Class: English 3 Honors Teacher: Fahrenheit 451 is a novel set in a futuristic America focused on a “fireman” named Montag Montag. In this world firemen like Montag set the blazes rather than extinguish them. Books are banned and if they were found in your house your home was burned with the books in it. As a result of owning a book you would languish for the rest of your days in a government facility. Montag had no problems with his job after all who wouldn’t love getting paid to burn things? Then one day they got a call about a woman who had a whole library of books in her house. When they arrived to do their job only one thing was wrong. The police hadn’t taken the woman away yet. It is here the story begins, with a woman who refuses to leave even as they are dousing her home with kerosene. When they try to remove her she reveals a kitchen match in her hand scaring them out of the house, she then lights the match committing suicide. Shaken by this incident no one talks on the ride back to the station. On his way home Montag runs into his new neighbor, seventeen year old Clarisse McClellan. A chatty, young girl who opens his eyes to the world of nature and not being one of societies stooges. After this meeting Montag returns home to find his wife overdosed on sleeping pills and promptly calls for help. Instead of paramedics he gets two technicians who are nothing more than plumbers...
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...While conforming to society’s ideals are beneficial, it is also very harmful for the person to lose their sense of individuality. There would be no way to differentiate people from others as they would all think and act alike. These two themes of conformity and individuality recur throughout the three works: Anthem by Ayn Rand, Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. These three works establish a society in which every citizen needs to conform to the society’s ideals and those who refuse to follow these are seen as outcasts and punished. Conforming to society's beliefs will cause and help fix some problems. If everyone chose to stick with society's ideals, there would be less fighting amongst people, everyone would be cooperative and helpful, but each person would lose their individuality. They would not be able to think for themselves, know what they believe in, or even form their own identity....
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...Within the book Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, the characters, along with their individual conflicts and developments, help paint the big picture of the story; censorship. A word that many associate with blackout of profanity on TV, or even obscene scenes within movies that are aired on TV, however, by definition, censorship means: the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc., and suppressing unacceptable parts. Take careful note of the word unacceptable “parts”. While within this particular story line the government does suppress many knowledge-based objects and actions, the various characters show different depths of censorship, or their lack of, and how it shapes, affects them as people. Through the eyes of Guy Montag, a fireman that takes great pleasure in his job, readers witness the depth of censorship lying within. The “firemen” that are depicted in Bradbury’s novel start the fires. Men like Montag are issued flamethrowers to consume entire libraries in a gulf of flames, clearly displaying how thoroughly books are censored, up to the point of burning every single one of them. Not only do firemen represent the willingness of mindlessly censoring objects they have not a clue about, but Montag is representative of the percentage within this group (society as a whole) that enjoys the act...
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