...Fahrenheit 451: A Story of Severe Censorship Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, describes a futuristic world which embraces extreme censorship. The story envelopes around Guy Montag, a fireman, who ends up learning more than what he’s supposed to. He is caught for having a book in a society in which firemen burn books. Montag, having no other option, ends up a fugitive on the run. He meets a man named Faber, who helps him avoid the law. Fahrenheit 451 shows the danger of censorship or lack of, but reveals how freedom of the press is important and necessary to resist such danger. There can be great danger in too much censorship. This idea can be found in government, especially, as well as through newscasts. People try to censor ideas that...
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...there are some things that most people will agree on. The literature version of dystopian future has been written about a lot. This is especially true of books like The Hunger Games, and Divergent have given new to life and popularity to the genre. However, the messages are a little misread by a society obsessed with stories. These stories in actuality remind us of what we could become in the future. There are many classical works of literature that shows us the future of our society. There is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury where knowledge and reading are sin. There is Anthem by Ayn Rand which handles the topic of collectivism, and only doing what the party tell you to do. There is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, where the main topic of discussion is how media distracts and brainwashes you, while also...
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...In Fahrenheit 451 people were faced with the issue of having to be suppressed in thought and in mind. For many, they did not question these ideals, but rather went along passively. Although there were some that questioned the lack of their own natural human thought. Some had a need to think and feel. These people were known In Fahrenheit 451 as the book rebels, the people that thrived to think. They committed their very lives to the ideals of thought and creativity. They did this by memorizing works of literature, and by forming groups of thought. If I was to be a book rebel I would dedicate my life to the memorization of George Orwell’s “1984”. I would definitely preserve this book because its meaning extends to all people of all cultures. In my opinion no other work has better expressed the effects of a totalitarian government on people and society. It is of utmost importance to understand the ideals of this book to protect our own individual freedom. This book does not merely serve as an outlet for creativity and entertainment, but as a simulated warning of the hardships man must face, if he does not speak out and think for himself. I believe this book would be most valuable committed to memory especially to the people in the society of Fahrenheit 451. The book of “1984” would not only be the work I commit to memory if I were to be a book rebel. I would also recomend “1984” to moderm society in order to protect their own livelihood and that of there children’s...
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...KEY LITERARY ELEMENTS SETTING The novel takes place in an unnamed futuristic city sometime in the 24th century. The atmosphere is fantastic, for technology has transformed society into a land of virtual reality and ultra- futurism. Television is totally interactive. Giant crematoriums collect and dispose of bodies in a monstrous, helicopter-borne contraption known as the Big Flue. Doors are programmed to announce visitors before they even arrive. Books are illegal, as is any true exercise of thought. Mankind has become lazy and stupid because of the excesses of technology. In fact, the people no longer know how to do simple things because some machine has been designed to do everything. Although there are some familiar things in this society, like neighborhoods, cars, and trees, there are also many fictional creations, like the Mechanical Hound, a robot designed to track and kill violators of the law once it has been programmed with their scent. Houses are so fireproofed that firemen start fires rather than put them out. Houses have built-in alarms that ring when someone has a book in his possession, alerting the firemen to go there and begin the burning. There are so many suicide attempts that traveling orderlies are always on hand to pump stomachs or stitch self-inflicted wounds. In the craziness of this futuristic world, it is comforting to find that beds still have to be made and breakfast still has to be eaten. In short, Bradbury has created a world alien enough to be...
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...Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury is a futuristic novel that incorporates symbolism to represent specific meanings which are in the novel. 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 title of the novel: Fahrenheit 451 is a symbol itself. If you break it down and understand the hidden meaning of it, readers can see why Bradbury decided this specific title for his book. Paper burns at 451 degrees Fahrenheit and as readers read the novel they will understand what the book is about and how the title represents it. The Hearth and the Salamander, the title of part one, is the second example of symbolism. The title suggests two things which have to do with fire. Hearth, which people would think of a fire place, can be represented by warmth and goodness. It shows how fire can be used for good and in a non-destructive way. As for Salamander, this can be defined as a small lizard type amphibian which in mythology is known to tolerate fire without getting burned by it. As readers get through part one, they can see how Bradbury uses the salamander as a symbolic meaning for Guy Montag. Guy Montag’s character can be portrayed as a salamander because he works with fire, tolerating its danger yet he continuously believes that he can escape the fire and survive, much like a salamander does. The third symbol which is demonstrated in the novel is the phoenix. A phoenix can be defined as:...
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...In Fahrenheit 451, owning and reading books is illegal. Members of society focus only on entertainment, immediate gratification and speeding through life. If books are found, they are burned and their owner is arrested. If the owner refuses to abandon the books, as is the case with the Old Woman, he or she often dies, burning along with them. People with interests outside of technology and entertainment are viewed as strange, and possible threats. In the book, Bradbury doesn't give a clear explanation of why censorship has become so great in this futuristic society. Rather, the author alludes to a variety of causes. Fast cars, loud music, and massive advertisements create an over stimulated society without room for literature, self-reflection, or appreciation of nature. Bradbury gives the reader a brief description of how society slowly lost interest in books, first condensing them, then relying simply on titles, and finally forgetting about them all together. Bradbury also alludes to the idea that different "minority" groups were offended by certain types of literature. In his discussion with Montag, Beatty mentions dog lovers offended by books about cats, and cat lovers offended by books about dogs. The reader can only assume which minority groups Bradbury was truly referring to. Finally, in the Afterword to Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury clearly expresses his own sensitivity to attempts to restrict his writing. For example, he feels censored by letters suggesting he should...
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...Poetic Prose Project for Fahrenheit 451 Due ___________________ Ray Bradbury used figurative language throughout his novel to create mental pictures or images in his readers’ minds. As a result, his prose often sounds much like poetry. Part One: On notebook paper, create your own chart of poetic prose from the novel. Use blue or black ink. Do not write on the back. Skip a line between each example. To avoid using my quotes, don’t use quotes from the first fourteen pages of the novel. On line A, write the page number and the quotation. On line B, write a paraphrase of the quote. FIND FOUR OF EACH TYPE OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. Place the four similes on page one, the four metaphors on page two, and the four examples of personification on page three. Part Two: Choose one of your quotes and make a visual no larger than 9 X 12 expressing its meaning. Neatly write your quote on your visual. Do not put your visual on notebook paper. A SIMILE is a figure of speech in which like or as or similar words are used to make a comparison between two basically unlike ideas. “Alex is as bright as Jason” is a comparison, not a simile. “Alex is as bright as a light bulb” is a simile. A METAPHOR is a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken of as though it were something else. Unlike a simile, a metaphor implies a comparison between two basically unlike ideas. Example: Alexander is the sunshine of my day. PERSONIFICATION is a type of figurative language...
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...Censorship in Fahrenheit 451 In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the people live in a society full of censorship. Montag, the main character of the story, is inspired by a young girl to question law around him and begins to have doubts about what good they serve. In Fahrenheit 451, censorship in the world consists of book burning, manipulative parlor families, and the intolerance of those who attempt to be an individual. Book burning in the story is done by firemen to supposedly prevent society from unhappy emotions and unjust thoughts. Any person who was perceived or proved to possess any sort of reading material was reported to firemen using alarms, which were sent to the fire station. On duty firemen then immediately went to the home of the lawbreaker and burnt the books discovered. Books would be covered in kerosene and torched with a flame-thrower. Houses were made fireproof in order for the firemen to burn the books inside the house without causing too much destruction. Immediately after the books are burned, the offender is arrested and taken to prison. Although book burning was the most abrupt and outlandish form of censorship, people experienced mind censorship in their homes every day. Parlor walls were walls in a room used for watching television and specially designed "interactive" programs, designed to provide people with pleasure. Shows written for the soul purpose to please people in their parlors...
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...Heavens. The reason they want to build this tower is to have power like God. So while they built the tower, God watched them and began to realize that they can someday be powerful. With that in mind, he went down with the angels to confuse the people in Shinar and separated them all over the world with different languages so they could not understand one another. That would stop them from trying to regain the possibility of having the power like God. It was called Babel because of that reason and this is how our world has come out to have many different languages. Allusions are found in many forms of art. One of the arts that hold allusions to a biblical story is literature. Ray Bradbury published one of his most famous works in 1953, Fahrenheit 451. This novel is science fiction and holds the story of a fireman named Montag in a future like city. His job is to start fires, burn books, not put them out. The setting that Montag is placed in is not allowed to get in contact with books because they hold knowledge and their government believes that it gives power. The main character lives this way too until he meets a teenager names Clarisse and an English Professor named Faber. They show Montag the beauty of nature, knowledge, and literature. Further...
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...Statement of Intent: Independent Study Project: Fahrenheit 451 My tentative topic for this ISP will be Ray Bradbury’s use delusion of truth, the desire of ignorance and the fear of freeing oneself from propaganda to express society’s desire for perfect happiness- no matter the cost- in Fahrenheit 451. In this dystopian novel, Bradbury uses Clarisse and her odd family to foreshadow some of Guy Montag’s doubt in himself, his family and his daily life. Clarisse’s role in the novel is made clearer as Montag begins searching for the truth as she is seen as a guiding light to give Guy hope for a better future where he is happy. Given the government dictated culture they live in, the danger and fear of finding the knowledge that Montag is paid to destroy, there is no doubt that Bradbury is using the dystopian society’s unconscious desire to live a lie, the yearn to not know more and the consequences of finding out the truth in order to highlight society’s solution for happiness: delusion. In this Independent Study Project I will attempt to showcase that seeking out the truth in a government enforced web of lies is unwanted, fear inducing and dangerous. To prove this, I will connect the laws, crimes, those who commit and their consequences with those who ignore the truth and act content with their deluded lives. In doing so, I hope to demonstrate that as Guy Montag figures out the truth, he realizes how much the government dictates the culture he lives in In the paper, I will consider...
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...Ray Bradbury is a master of characterization techniques. He uses his expertise, such as indirect characterization, in the creation of Fahrenheit 451. In addition to learning about the explicit qualities of Bradbury’s characters, readers receive deeper insight as we carefully read his stories. In Fahrenheit 451, we learn more indirect information about the protagonist, Guy Montag, through the words used to introduce this character. We have a clear view of Montag’s thoughts and feelings that lead him into his own transformation. When the novel begins, we learn that Montag’s values are similar to that of the society he lives in. The culture in which Montag is accustomed to is one without cogitation or analysis. Their society believes that books cause pain and should not exist. Everyone in this society believes they live in a carefree, painless world beyond having burdens. In the first sentence of the novel, Montag shows how much he loves his work as a fireman: “It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 1). The job of a fireman in this society is to set fires, not to eradicate them. Houses that are revealed to contain books, by those who set off the alarms, are destroyed by firemen. Montag enjoys watching books wither and disintegrate in front of his eyes, but never thinks why he does it. His ideas begin to change when he walks home one evening and runs into a young woman named Clarisse McClellan, who lives on the same street as...
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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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...Compare and Contrast Essay Have we become so dependent on technology today that it has destroyed our relationships? This essay will shed some light on the similarities and differences to the story of Fahrenheit 451 and our culture today. For instance, face to face communication has become less important in our world where devices are used frequently to make contact. We are also still able to write and read books, but could eventually become more like Bradbury’s classic if our dependence on technology continues to grow. In Fahrenheit 451, the characters have relationships with technology instead of each other; however, people today often get too fond of technology as well. In today’s society, the main way to communicate is through technology, just like in Fahrenheit 451. This is apparent throughout the novel, where technology has become the primary means of communication. Montag specifically mentions this in the book, “and in her ears the little seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind” (Bradbury page 12). There is also less face to face communication, which is evident in the amount of time that Mildred spends watching television in the parlor and listening to the radio. The book also highlights this with Montag’s thought, “wasn’t there an old joke about a wife that talked so much on the phone that her desperate husband ran out to the nearest...
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...Tyriq Coleman E2 Honors Begovich In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the use of archetypes contributes to the overall strength of the novel. During when the various times the “light vs dark” archetypes are utilized and when the archetypical death and rebirth occurs to convey the extent of which the novel is strengthened by archetypes. In Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 the light vs dark archetype helps show to what extent archetypes are used to strengthen the novel when Montag is conversing with Clarisse after Mildred began reading her script. The author states “He felt his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding one upon another.”{Bradbury 21}. In this passage Bradbury is showing that inside Montag the light and dark are warring against each other. As light vs dark are opposites the author uses opposites to show the relationship between the two, for example the comparison between cold and hot, the cold represents the dark as darkness is inherently cold as light provides heat. The two parts grinding against each other show to the light and dark at war, as they at odds at one other. Since they cannot coexist the light and dark in this situation refer to the Montag, in that they are his struggle to free himself from the ignorance that is his societal beliefs. The author also states when Clarisse and Montag walk to her house, "When they reached her house all its lights were blazing" (Bradbury...
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...“1984” A Book Worth Preseving In Fahrenheit 451 people were faced with the issue of having to be suppressed in thought and in mind. For many, they did not question these ideals, but rather went along passively. Although there were some that questioned the lack of their own natural human thought. Some had a need to think and feel. These people were known In Fahrenheit 451 as the book rebels, the people that thrived to think. They committed their very lives to the ideals of thought and creativity. They did this by memorizing works of literature, and by forming groups of thought. If I was to be a book rebel I would dedicate my life to the memorization of George Orwell’s “1984”. I would definitely preserve this book because its meaning extends to all people of all cultures. In my opinion no other work has better expressed the effects of a totalitarian government on people and society. It is of utmost importance to understand the ideals of this book to protect our own individual freedom. This book does not merely serve as an outlet for creativity and entertainment, but as a simulated warning of the hardships man must face, if he does not speak out and think for himself. I believe this book would be most valuable committed to memory especially to the people in the society of Fahrenheit 451. The book of “1984” would not only be the work I commit to memory if I were to be a book rebel. I would also recomend “1984” to moderm society in order to protect their own livelihood...
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