Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

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Fahrenheit 451 is a literary work of art. It is a novel about censorship and one mans fight against it. The story was written in the fifties, but is set in the future. Ray Bradbury’s prediction of what the future will be like is precise in some aspects, but completely outrageous in others. He pictures the future as a somewhat a dictatorship government. The government controlled everything in their lives. People don’t think either. Technology is made it so that people are given all their information through a television sort of a device that imitates a family. Books are obsolete, so they are burned. Our hero of this story is a “fireman';. Only, these futuristic firemen don’t fight fires, they burn books. They burn them so people don’t think, and so everyone is of equal intelligence. They don’t want anyone to rise up and be higher than the next person. This fireman’s name is Guy Montag. He lives in a condominium with his wife Mildred. The story sets off as Guy is walking home from work. The Hearth and the Salamander As he walks home, he meets a 17-year old girl named Clarisse McClellan. She talks to him about his job and they talk for a while. He finds out that this girl lives upstairs from him. He returns to his home after talking to Clarisse, and finds his wife lying on the bed with an empty bottle of sleeping pills next to her. He calls the emergency hospital and an ambulance comes, pumps her stomach, and replaces her blood with clean blood. The next day Mildred remembers nothing about overdosing on the sleeping pills. After breakfast, Montag goes to work at the fire station. Over the next seven days, Montag talks to Clarisse more and more. On the eighth day, Montag doesn’t see Clarisse. He goes to work that day, and the alarm sound for them to go to a decayed old house. Montag finds hundreds of books in the old lady’s attic, and one falls onto his hand. He unthinkingly hides the book under his coat and begins to spray kerosene over the house. The old woman that owns the books refuses to leave the house. Beatty begins to light the fire, but Montag stops him. Then, suddenly, the woman strikes a match and lights the house. The spectators watch in horror as the old woman burns up along side her books. Montag goes home and hides his stolen b... ... middle of paper ... ... shown to people on television, and the original print was outlawed. This is another example of their totalitarian government Critique Ray Bradbury, the author of this novel, used irony that added effect to the story line, although the ironies are only realized to the character at the end. This story has hidden plots that can be uncovered after reading it twice or even three times. Also, the plot was original. It also showed the relationship between the people and their government. In this nation, the government had absolute power, which I think, referred to the dictatorships of then Nazi Germany or the Fascism of Italy. It also showed the conflict of good vs. evil. Faber represented the good, somewhat holy side, and Beatty represents the mind controlling satanic character trying to make Montag stay on the enemy’s side. Faber leaves Montag to choose himself which path to take. Bradbury also used dramatic pauses, to add to the intensity of scenes. Fahrenheit 451 has become one of my favorite books to read and I recommend it to anyone. His characters left a lasting imprint on how I think about the future, the government, and about censorship.

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