...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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...In Ray Bradbury’s 1953 anti-utopian novel “Fahrenheit 451,” all works of literature are burned and all critical thinking is halted in order to not offend anyone. The Firemen in this society ironically but ablaze any houses suspected of hoarding books and the government expels those who attempt to think freely. Guy Montag is the main character who begins to question his job as a fireman and becomes curious about books. The inspiration for the censorship in this novel came from the effects of McCarthyism and the Cold War during Ray Bradbury’s time. Thousands of Americans were being falsely accused of treason against the U.S. or for being communists due to the escalated tensions caused by the Cold War. For Mr. Bradbury, this time represented one...
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...kill herself, and what is there in your life that is worth dying for? Books meant almost everything to the woman and if the firemen burned the books, there is no point in staying alive if everything she believes in is gone. She also understood that the books would be burned one way or another and instead of the firemen burning them, she burned it herself. This is used to protest the burning of books because traditionally the firemen were the ones to start the fire, but by starting the fire by herself, she hopes to show how books are of a significance than the belief that it is detrimental to the people and to incite a protest against the burning of books. In my life, the thing that is worth dying for is my family as it is...
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...A book about burning books if that isn’t ironic then the definition of ironic needs to be checked. In the book, a man’s, named Guy Montag, eyes are opened to view life around him and as it progresses finds different types of fire. The man who thought up and wrote this ironic and classic novel titled Fahrenheit 451 was author Ray Bradbury. And in Ray Bradbury’s novel a symbol, fire, was represented in three different ways. The first representation of fire is that it is used as the solution to every problem. To help support this is a quote from captain Beatty on page 60, ”Burn all, burn everything. Fire is bright and fire is clean.” Well before captain Beatty said this he was talking about burning things that make others unhappy which means...
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...Exposition 1. Guy Montag- when he was introduced he was a very happy man burning books for a living. Clarisse McClellan- when she was introduced she had a leadership-like characteristic that when she talked to Guy Montag, the man was left with a lot of doubt about everything. Mildred- she passed out when she was first brought up in the novel. Beatty- he is very strict about his job. An example is he tells Guy Montag to play cards with him, and the other workers, or to be productive. 2. The setting was described as a town that was very spread out. A good example of this is the distance from Guy Montag’s house and workplace. Which the book makes it seem like there is a good distance between the two places. 3. You learn that Guy Montag does not like what society is doing. Society is burning books, but Guy Montag wants to keep them and read them for knowledge. 4....
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... Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was written in 1950, however it takes place far into the future, even beyond 2014. In this future society, television and radio essentially control the world, and literature is virtually becoming extinct. Firefighters's jobs are to start fires, not put them out. Their mission is to burn all books and the houses they're found in. Guy Montag is one of these firefighters, who is numb to the effects of book burning. He finds joy in the fires and goes about his duties every day, burning books, coming home to his wife, Mildred, who is addicted to her television "family" and sleeping pills. His world is loud and busy, but essentially empty. Eventually, Montag meets his neighbor Clarisse, who is unlike everyone else in that she notices the details in life and the nature all around her, and values the old way of life, including books. Once Montag starts talking to her, he starts to see the flaws in this modern society and wonders what books really contain. This curiosity is heightened even more when he witnesses an old woman die with her books in her house fire because she refused to leave them. Montag begins to collect and read books, which ultimately...
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...when they encounter one another it is not intentional but, destined. Clarisse was innocent which made Montag observe her further. He is curious as to why Clarisse is so interested is a lot of things. This is new to Montag because he is not used to walking around and questioning everything and why things do what they do. From his perception, he feels as if something is being done like the burning of books for a reason, but we should not think of the...
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...Jean- Jacques Rousseau was a philosopher of the Enlightenment era, whose main belief was that the progression of science and art caused moral corruption. He also believed humans were good by nature as well. I basically disagree with both of his philosophies, because people would still be corrupted without progression in science. I do however agree with Rousseau’s belief in education and the importance of it. The tragic burning of the library of Alexandria by the Caliph Umar destroyed valuable knowledge at the time. Umar believed that the books in Alexandria were blasphemy to the Koran, and that the Koran was the only book needed. If the library contained the holy book it was deemed as unnecessary and seen as a sign of mercy. This event I believe...
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...fires, but the people who start them. Fire is one of the main themes in this story, and Bradburry makes sure to incorporate as much as he can. The irony behind fire in this story is that not only does fire viscously incinerate books, which are banned, but by the end of the book it furnaces warmth and hospitality to Montag. The main reason Ray Bradbury incorporates irony in this story, such as the two different uses of fire, is to convey two essential life lessons. Ray Bradbury's outstanding intellect in literary knowledge fabricates the importance of irony in this story, and its relation to this society. The irony of the opposing uses of fire in is that not only does it cause death and despair, but it also gives off warmth and ease. As Montag harbors into the homeless camps among the most infamous literature writers, they come together and start a fire. A fire in which, “...It was not burning, it was warming,” (Bradbury 139). The significance of this moment in...
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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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...Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451, learned from this. Ray Bradbury’s distopian novel shares a similar representations towards knowledge. In the novel the protagonist, Guy Montag, becomes aware of the fact that he is living in a world were knowledge and individuality is lost. People tolerate and abide by the rules and limitations specified by the government. There is nothing except for books in this society to cause people to wonder about how valuable and important knowledge and identity are. Guy Montag is a fireman whose job is to search for books and burn them. Most of the people in Fahrenheit 451 are convinced that books are a waste of time and are useless. Montag also believes this up until a change of...
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...Montag’s realization of his oblivion comes to light after his meeting with a strange girl. It is very clear that Montag is unthinking, unintelligent, oblivious, and frivolous. Clarisse, the young girl Montag meets, asks questions of Montag which shake his composure. While answering questions, Montag “never [stops] to think what [he is] asked”. Instead of thinking about the questions, he simply “[starts] to laugh”. His answers are inauthentic and it seems as if he is flippant towards many things he does. As a fireman, he burns many books but has never thought of why he does this as his job. He has been burning a plethora of books and houses with only the excuse of “it [bringing] pleasure to [him]”. He stays ignorant towards why books are illegal...
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...The society consists of a general public who don’t seem to do anything except feeding their minds with anything that will entertain them. There are firemen whose job is to burn books to rid the community of the past and the valuable knowledge that books contain. These people are conditioned to think that their simple, routine life, makes them happy. In the beginning of the book, the main character, Montag, doesn’t even realize how dissatisfied he is with life until a teenager named Clarisse brings it up to him. She asked Montag if he was happy and his first thought was to be stunned at such a question. When Clarisse asked him he responded by saying “ ‘am I what?... happy! Of all the nonsense.’ ” (Bradbury 7-8). Montag was so greatly affected by society that he thinks it’s impossible for someone to be sad. This is Bradbury’s way of providing social commentary on the fact that people think that they must be happy. Society when he wrote the book, and currently, is in this mindset. It is an issue to be discussed because people often think that it’s not okay for them to be sad. This leads to people staying unhappy and not reaching out for help because they think they will look foolish for not fitting in with the world’s “norm” of having fun and constantly being...
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...In William Faulkner’s story, “Barn Burning”, a young man, Colonel Sartoris, struggled with the relationship he had with his father and his own conscience. Sarty, the young man, develop into an adult while dealing with the many crude actions and ways of Abner, his tyrannical father. Sarty was a puzzled youth faced with the decision of either going along with the views and actions of his morally challenged father or asserting his own morality and individuality by running away and leaving his family and his pain behind. His struggle dealing with the reactions that were caused by his father’s action resulted in him thinking more for himself throughout the story. Sarty knew he “smelled cheese, and more.” He smelled the “fierce pull of blood,” his father’s blood, the blood of the family name, Snopes. Sarty knew he was also the son of the “barn burner.” A name he heard hissing as they passed by boys in town. Sarty fought to defend his father, but when hurt; he seemed to need the blood to remain for a while as a reminder of why he stayed with his father. Sarty viewed his father at times as “bloodless” and cut from “tin.” Sarty could usually convince himself why his father was this way. The fact that he had to be a horse trader for four years, hiding from the blue and the gray armies to exist by stealing or “capturing” as he called it, horses caused Sarty to view his father the way he did. “Barn Burning” was a sad story because it not only showed the classical struggle between...
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...On a hunt to learn more about the world, Equality discovers electricity, causing him to wonder if “the secrets of [the] world are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek [it]” (Rand 52). While society has regressed, the government has decided to hide away its past, allowing others to get curious. Once Equality knows the truth, he becomes overjoyed about the knowledge he learns and how it has helped him. In comparison to the burning woman, talking to Captain Beatty, and uncovering knowledge of the past, these events show the significance of knowledge affecting happiness. The freedom to express individualism is also fundamental to making a human happy. Equality 7-2521 struggles with his identity, as he has grown up in a society where there is no ‘I’, only the Great ‘WE’. He understands that “centuries and chains” cannot “kill the spirit of man nor the sense of truth within [mankind]” (98). Equality knows that centuries that have been buried by society will not keep him from becoming an individual. He believes nothing can kill the spirit of man and will not stop them from finding the...
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