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 …show more content…
This is because this immolation of Beatty relates to the story of the phoenix that burns itself and rises from its ashes. Beatty burning to death represents the phoenix burning itself (Beatty also wears a phoenix on his hat and rides a “phoenix car”) and from this rises Guy’s intellectual rebirth and motivation to escape this toxic society. This outlook backs up the theme of rebirth from one’s ashes. At the end of the novel, Granger states “ and when the war’s over, some day, some year, the books can be written again, the people will be called in, one by one, to recite what they know, and we’ll set it up in type until another Dark Age, when we might have to do the whole thing over again.” which directly supports the thesis about the cyclical nature of life. Granger explicitly acknowledges that even though one day the character may be able to pull themselves up from this dark age, another one will eventually follow. Peter Sisario also analyzes the literary and biblical allusions placed throughout the novel. These allusions are implemented to highlight the blankness of the century and also used to show the hope for the upward swing to pull humanity back up from its Dark Age. Montag reads a passage from Gulliver’s Travels, “A Voyage to Lilliput” because it …show more content…
Bradbury expresses his strong opinions against bookburnings done by Hitler during World War 2 and states that burning a book is just as bad as his killing of people because both contain ideas that pass on their knowledge from one generation to the next. This article also includes a quote from Mr. Bradbury about the Red Guard in China burning books during the 1960’s where he states it is another example of the nature of humanity to burn, suffer, build, prosper, and repeat. This relates to the cyclical nature of life because he sees how his generation is burning literature so the next generation will remember the books, the generation afterwards will print again, while the next burns again. These events followed a couple of years after Bradbury’s novel was published, further showing even the warnings from his novel cannot stop the circular path of humanity. Another point made by Diane Wood emphasized the slow intellectual stagnation that led to the dull-minded society was only made possible by the citizens themselves, not some governmental or military overtake. Even though it is true their society was not the product of a revolution, but the importance of the government can not be overstated because it is the government