...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 Montag. She initiates a conversation with Montag that makes him feel uncomfortable. All of...
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...can destroy persons and human values" (67), but this is an unfortunate simplification” (McGiveron). This quote brings up another overlaying theme in Fahrenheit 451 which is the dehumanization of the populace in the novel. The people in this book no longer care about anything whether it be their children, war, death, or the problems in the world around them. This is because the less they had to think the more they stopped to care and they gradually stopped caring about anything at all. Death, war, famine, and pain are all just words to them and mean nothing because they no longer understand the gravity of these concepts and it is all because...
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...Name Professor Class Date Fahrenheit 451 (word count: 1,426) The book “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury conveys to the reader that censorship and technology can be a tool used by governments to restrict human freedoms supported by endless access to knowledge and intimate relationships. The message of the book is that censorship and technologies, without limit, will erode the nature of human freedoms experienced in a society that values access to knowledge, books, and deep thinking. The world within Fahrenheit 451 can be characterized by a population controlled by media and extreme levels of knowledge censorship. The media is the tool employed by the government and embraced by most citizens as a means of steering the group aimlessly through life; vicariously living out any lingering ambitions and motivations towards non-conformity through the characters inside the television. In an effort to stifle creative thinking, spiritual growth, resistance, and the human tendency towards a general thirst for knowledge, the government has issued legislation that makes books illegal. Books are considered a social evil due to their inherent ability to encourage individuals to question existing frameworks and think for themselves. Therefore, the society in the book lives in a world where history does not exist and the reality is constructed and delivered through the television. The book’s protagonist, Montag, represents an individual that makes a transition from a...
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...The development of technology has clearly transformed society and its routine. The evolution of technology was accurately predicted by Bradbury through descriptions included in his novel, Fahrenheit 451. Characters in the novel’s society as well as our own society experience loss of memory and destruction of relationships due to the excessive use of technology. The effects of negative influences brought by technology created distractions and caused violence to arise in both real and fictional societies. Author, Ray Bradbury, communicates his predictions regarding technology and its impacts on humanity through his brilliant novel, Fahrenheit 451. Despite the novel’s date of publication, Ray Bradbury included pieces of technology...
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...actions. It relates to a 24th century city dweller named Guy Montag. He takes pleasure burning illegally owned books and the homes of their owners while considering himself as a fireman. His story in Fahrenheit 451 thoroughly describes the different changes a person can experience through the variety of someone's actions. Throughout the text of Fahrenheit 451, Montag shows many different traits such as being oblivious, rebellious, and audacious. Throughout the hearth and the salamander, Montag is oblivious to his society’s problems. As stated in the text, “While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning. Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by flame. He knew that when he returned to the firehouse, he might wink at himself, a minstrel man, burnt-corked,...
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...A Study of the Allusions in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 Author(s): Peter Sisario[->0] [(essay date February 1970) In the following essay, Sisario examines the source and significance of literary allusions in Fahrenheit 451 and considers their didactic potential for the beginning student of literature.] Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is more than just a readable and teachable short novel that generates much classroom discussion about the dangers of a mass culture, as Charles Hamblen points out in his article "Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 in the Classroom." It is an excellent source for showing students the value of studying an author's use of specific allusions in a work of fiction. While writing excellent social criticism, Bradbury uses several direct quotations from works of literature, including the Bible; a careful analysis of the patterning of these allusions shows their function of adding subtle depth to the ideas of the novel. Fahrenheit 451 is set five centuries from now in an anti-intellectual world where firemen serve the reverse role of setting fires, in this case to books that people have been illegally hoarding and reading. Literature is banned because it might potentially incite people to think or to question the status quo of happiness and freedom from worry through the elimination of controversy. "Intellectual" entertainment is provided by tapioca-bland television that broadcasts sentimental mush on all four walls. The novel, first written in a shorter version...
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...Evidence of the increasing obsoleteness of the relevance of gender and power can be found in recent literature and film. Many of society’s collective Heroes are not only female (Princess Leia, Star Wars; Daenarys Targaryen, A Game of Thrones; Janie Crawford, Their Eyes Were Watching God), but children as well (Alice, Alice in Wonderland; Scout Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird; Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games). Even male Heroes have shifted from super-human to ordinary men (The Father, The Road; Winston Smith, 1984; Guy Montag, Fahrenheit 451). A single trait relates theses Heroes and every other Hero in literature—they have made considerable sacrifices in the face of adversity in order to accomplish a task more significant than their own trivial, everyday interests. However, all of these modern Heroes differ from their more ancient Hero counterparts: they are extremely ordinary. Campbell, Vogler, and Jung were, and still are, critical figureheads in the analysis of quest literature. Their explanations of literary archetypes are paramount in describing the similarities and differences of stories in various cultures and eras. The central archetype, according to these scholars, is the Hero; however, the societal idea of a Hero, at least in most developed Western societies, has become broader over time. No longer does the Hero archetype need to be a super-human male individual with extravagant power and wealth; today, the Hero archetype is extremely versatile. Today, an impoverished...
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...Дневник читателя READER’S JOURNAL Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea (1952). Joseph Heller. Catch-22 (1961). Tennessee Williams. A Streetcar Named Desire (1959). Iris Murdoch. The Black Prince (1973). Jerome David Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye (1951). Michael Ondaatje. The English Patient (1992). Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Ken Kesey. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962). Edward Albee. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962). Arthur Miller. Death of a Salesman (1949). ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea (1952). ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- FULL TITLE · The Old Man and the Sea ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- AUTHOR · Ernest Hemingway ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- TYPE OF WORK · Novella ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- GENRE · Parable; tragedy ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- LANGUAGE · English ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN · 1951, Cuba ------------------------------------------------- ...
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