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Compare utopian and dystopian
Literature And Society
Literature And Society
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Censorship in Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451 begins on the East Coast, IN LARGE AMERICAN CITY OF THE FUTURE. The futuristic world described here is chilling, a future where every type of book, save inexpensive comics, are burned by "firemen." One such fireman is Guy Montag, who is tall and dark-haired like most firemen. One thing sets him apart from his colleagues, though he secretly loves books.
One night while Montag is walking home from a day's work, he meets a young, bright girl named Clarisse McClellan. She is idealistic and hates the social structure of the times. She says that firemen once put out fires started accidentally instead of starting them. Montag thinks this to be nonsense, for the Chief told him firemen have always been fire-starters. Clarisse goes on to tell him about her uncle, who remembers the past and has a sharp intellect. She tells Montag that her family stays up all night talking about a variety of different subjects. He finds this to be extremely odd. Why would anyone want to stay up and talk?
Montag decides that Clarisse is eccentric because hardly anyone except for firemen walk down the street at any time. He goes home to his wife Mildred, a woman who has very little to do except to take part in interactive TV shows. She has three walls of the living room equipped with such walls. She thinks that a fourth wall would be great, while Montag refuses because he thinks it is useless and expensive.
The next day, Montag finds Clarisse waiting at the bus stop. He asks her if she goes to school. She says she does NOT, because she HAS been labeled anti-social by her teachers. They SPOKE for a while, and he eventually goes to work. When he gets to work, an alarm is sounded, so the two firemen go to destroy the house of books. Before they burn the house down, Montag takes two books. When the owner of the house refuses to leave, a fireman burns her along with the house and its books. Montag feels sorry for the old lady, and he becomes depressed. The next day he calls in sick.
Captain Beatty, comes by and talks to him. Montag is lying in bed with a book behind his pillow.
Imagine living in a world where everything everyone is the same. How would you feel if you were not able to know important matters? Being distracted with technology in order to not feel fear or getting upset. Just like in this society, the real world, where people have their faces glued to their screen. Also the children in this generation, they are mostly using video games, tablets, and phones instead of going outside and being creative with one another. Well in Fahrenheit 451 their society was just like that, dull and conformity all around. But yet the people believed they were “happy” the way things were, just watching TV, not thinking outside the box.
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 opens with Guy Montag, a fireman, reminiscing of the pleasures of burning. As the story unfolds, we learn that Montag is a fireman who rids the world of books by burning all that are found. Walking home one night Montag meets Clarisse, his strong minded neighbor. She begins peppering him with questions. Clarisse doesn’t go along with societal norms and Montag realizes that immediately. “I rarely watch the 'parlor walls ' or go to races or Fun Parks. So I 've lots of time for crazy thoughts, I guess.” (Bradbury 3) Clarisse uses her imagination brought by stories from books and family instead of watching television. Clarisse helps Montag realize that the government induced censorship and conformation is stifling society’s education and imagination. Montag’s wife, Mildred ,is incapable of having a personal conversation with Montag. She conforms to societal standards and is greatly
The questioning from Clarisse has lead Montag to a loss of self. Clarisse, Montag’s new neighbor, starts a conversation with him. Clarisse has a different personality than the other people Montag knows at the fire station. She is very outgoing, likes nature, and is not into vacant socializing. When Clarisse asks about Montag’s job, she says that Montag is a fireman without the typical fireman qualities. Then she asks “Are you happy?”(14) Clarisse runs away into the moonlight...
Clarisse shares with Montag that her entire family was almost killed by the government for knowing too much. The government said we were a threat to society and needed to be eliminated. Clarisse’s Uncle was very educated and knew the things they had to do in order to live. They then escaped in the night, but the government did not seem to care. The government then tried to cover it up by saying that she got hit by a car. Clarisse’s family then made it to the same intellects that Montag had been with, and they directed them to the city. Their family then reached the city, where Montag is now. They realized that books were allowed and accepted in that society, and have been living there for the ever since. About three hours go by of Clarisse pouring her brain out to Montag, and finally they look around and see that it is nighttime. The two of them gaze at the stars and let out a small
Set in an unspecified city during the twenty-fourth century, Fahrenheit 451 follows Guy Montag a fireman whose sole job is to burn illegally owned books and the houses that they reside in. Originally guy enjoys his job, noting that it even brings him extreme pleasure, however as the story progress Guy Montag begins to question why he does what he does, and begins to become rebellious. As he meets individuals along the way Montag learns that there’s more to life and society than the suppressive government has taught them.
The two observation Clarisse makes about Montag’s conversational mannerisms are that Montag laughs when Clarisse haven’t been funny and unlike other firefighters, Montag listens to Clarisse’s story without considering them as jokes.
“Behind his mask of conformity, Montag gradually undergoes a change of values. Montag realized his life had been meaningless without books” (Liukkonen). In the beginning of the novel, Montag said, “It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (Bradbury 3). For most of his life, Montag conformed just like the other members of society. He set things on fire because it was his job and did not question whether or not it was the right thing to do. Throughout the story, however, he grew to find and voice his own opinions and resisted the conformity that his society stressed. When Montag had to decide whether or not to burn Beatty to death, he proved himself by not giving in to what was expected. He killed the captain of the police department, which was an entirely defiant act (Bradbury
Montag is influenced by Clarisse a lot. And, her impact on him is tremendous. She questions his whole life, teaches him to appreciate the simple things, and to care about other people and their feelings. “You're peculiar, you're aggravating, yet you're easy to forgive..”(Bradbury 23) Through all Clarisse's questioning, Montag knows that she is trying to help him. Because of her help and impact on him, Montag is changed forever.
Guy Montag is a fireman in charge of burning books. In the town he lives in the people are forbidden to read books. Whenever a person was caught with books that made them question anything the books were burned and sometimes even the people. A young girl named Clarisse McClellan opened his eyes to the emptiness of his life with her innocently penetrating questions. She makes him start to think about the things he used to do such as his job (Bradbury 12). When he continues to talk to her, he begins to change.
Clarisse is a young, but intelligent girl that, unlike many children in the novel, was raised with discipline. “I was spanked when i needed it, years ago.” Clarisse said to Montag referring to how she was raised. Kids used to be loving and caring, but now it’s not like that anymore. The world is a dystopia and everyone has lost hope, but Clarisse, her family, a group of hobos who want to join the fight for books, and a secret team of Harvard graduates. Clarisse met a man named Montag, who is a firefighter that burns books down along with the house they were in if the owner of the books refuses to reveal their location. Clarisse walked with Montag, right after they had met, and told him of the many things life has to offer that he doesn’t see because he is caught up in burning books for a living. She caught Montag’s emotions and this is what ultimately ended up with Montag deciding he was going to stop burning books and even help the Harvard graduates memorize and spread the words and knowledge of the books that remain. Clarisse filled Montag with empathy and this changed Montag’s view of life
When Montag meets Clarisse, his neighbor, he starts to notice that there is more to life than burning books. Montag states, “Last night I thought about all the kerosene I have used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of those books” (Bradbury 49). It begins to bother Montag that all he has done for the past years is burn books. He starts to rethink his whole life, and how he has been living it. Montag goes on to say, “It took some men a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life and then I come along in two minutes and boom! It is all over” (Bradbury 49) Before, Montag never cares about what he has been doing to the books, but when he begins to ignore the distractions and really think about life he starts to notice that he has been destroying some other mans work. Montag begins to think more of the world
In Montag’s society, everyone is the same, and no one questions anything that is happening around them. Clarisse, a girl who questions the way their society works, tells Montag, ‘“They
Guy Montag, usually referred to as “Montag,” is a third generation fireman in the world of Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury 42). His world is a place where firemen start fires rather than putting them out; until the start of the book he does not question anything he is told (Bradbury 15). Montag goes through a series of events that cause him to doubt what he has always known. He learns that not all people are what his society finds normal, and when a woman is burned alive he feels that he needs to know more about what these books are all about (Bradbury 16, 35). As these events unfold before him, Guy becomes more and more intrigued with the books. He becomes so intrigued that he steals a book from the woman’s house before they burn it, which is later revealed that he has been doing for a while (Bradbury 34, 53). Throughout all this Montag finds that he is quite unhappy with his life, but he does not kn...
The Campaign for Women’s Suffrage. The campaign developed at that time, as it was then the rights of women began to improve. Though women were still thought of as second-class citizens, during the 1870’s the women’s suffrage became a. mass movement. Prior to 1870, there were laws that meant that women were unable to keep any of their earnings once they get married.
Fahrenheit 451 is a narrative of a forthcoming community where books are prohibited. Firefighters move from house to house, searching for black-market literary production to burn. As the novel goes, books are hazardous. These are the source opinions and beliefs. The books advance beliefs and opinions — and melancholy comes into philosophy. Despite the fact that books have illegal status, there is an underground community which craves them. Guy Montag, a 30-year-old fireman, comes to the decision to take a book home to find out about it.