Analysis of Fahrenheit 451 a Novel by Ray Bradbury

In Ray Bradbury’s Novel Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury warns society against the dangers of censorship, anti social elements and technology. Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in the age of the 50 year war known as the Cold War and his novel reflects the state that Communism would bring about should it reach a western country. His thoughts on Communism was reflected by how knowledge was treated in the novel which was that it would have never been preserved and interpersonal relationships between citizens would have been suppressed by mind destroying propaganda to create a robot state of unquestioningly loyalty. Censorship is defined as the act of hiding or suppressing something in an attempt to make sure that it is never seen by a certain audience. Censorship in the novel is the mass book burnings that are conducted by the firemen in civilian’s houses that are hiding the books. Anti social element are seen throughout the novel because the citizens that interact with each other never have meaningful conversations and never express any feelings. Unchecked technology is another worry Bradbury expresses concern over and presents them as a danger with the most terrifying of them being the robot dogs that the firemen use to punish civilians breaking the law. Fahrenheit 451 is about a fireman named Guy Montag who all throughout his life went about following the mass culture of ignorance that most of the citizens followed and simply was a law abiding citizen who did his job. Although he is a fireman, he does not put out fires but starts them with the goal of burning illegal books that are being housed by book readers of society. By the end of the novel Montag kills the antagonist, his boss Beatty, and finds a group of homeless intellectuals who h...

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...ho read them. Bradbury also warns against any anti social elements that may affect society such as an unfeeling human being who cannot express their thoughts because the first step in culture of ignorance is having no empathy for one another. Bradbury’s greatest fear is how unchecked technology would affect society. He first delves into how the seashells and T.V. produce propaganda that encourages no thoughts since people have no idea what they really want and the government takes advantage of the want of security from people to effectively control them. The mechanical hounds were made to show readers that unchecked technology can become something that could only be dangerous to society with no other reason than destruction such as nuclear bombs.

Works Cited

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 Grammer is a Destination Kendall Hunt

Publishing Company Web. 16. Mar 2014