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Dystopia year 7 essay
The dystopia essay
Dystopia in society today
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In Fahrenheit 451, the reader gets a very vivid description of the deplorable dystopian
society by reading only the first few pages. Fahrenheit 451 was written by Ray Bradbury in
1953. A dystopia is an imaginary place where everything is as miserable and horrific as it could
possibly be for the citizens. Guy Montag is the central character and a fireman, under the
command of his superior fireman, Captain Beatty. Montag walks home with seventeen year old
Clarisse, who asks him many unusual questions, which gets him thinking about his job.
The “firemen” in Fahrenheit 451 do not extinguish fires. They actually start fires, by burning
everyone’s books, in order to stop all knowledge in this society. Therefore, Montag is caught in
the conflict between the all-powerful firemen and the unconcerned citizens, which shapes the
entire novel.
Now that Montag and Clarisse are friends, Clarisse asks Guy many poignant questions,
including some unfamiliar ones. She asks him “How long have you been working as a fireman?”
(8) and “Do you read any of the books you burn?” (8), but her one statement, which leaves
Montag thinking deeply, is, “I heard once that firemen used to extinguish fires at houses that
were accidentally set to flames.” (9) Clarisse is obviously very interested in everything that
Montag thinks and expresses to her. At first, he responds by simply laughing, but later, his mind
begins to transform. Clarisse also asks Guy whether he enjoys doing his job or not, and Montag
replies to her that he loves his job. But, after Clarisse tells Guy about what firemen used to do, he
thinks more about it. The reader can assume that Montag will soon begin to slowly dislike his
job. As a resu...
... middle of paper ...
...out society in 2011. The
number ‘451’ refers to the temperature at which books burn, according to the Fahrenheit scale.
Books contain facts, knowledge, ideas, and philosophies from history. If there is no truth
and knowledge of the past, then society can easily turn into a dystopia. Under a dystopian
government, a single group of people controls masses of citizens by keeping them ignorant.
The author helps the reader to think about what citizens need to do today to prevent this from
happening. When Bradbury wrote this book, his forms of communication were limited to radio,
telephone, television, newspapers, and books in libraries and on shelves. The Constitutional
Freedoms of religion, the press, assembly, and speech need to be protected and guarded by
knowledgeable citizens of Fahrenheit 451, unlike the Captain Beatty’s of this world today.
His choice of becoming into an individual himself changes him into a completely different person. As the book gets closer to ending, Montag ends up meeting up with professor Faber. Professor Faber is one of the outcasts because of everything he knows. Montag asked him for help because he started to become interested in reading books. Montag explains to Faber “Nobody listens any more. I can’t talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me. I can’t talk to my wife; she listens to the walls”, Montag started to feel different from the others because society started to move him away from his old actions (Bradbury 78). Also in the beginning, Clarisse asks Montag about the smell of kerosine. This part started to foreshadow Montag as an individual and thinking for himself. Montag would be characterized as the protagonist of this novel. Clarisse’s way of thinking was the reason that mostly influenced Montag to change into an individualist. Her personality made him want to be like Clarisse.
'Is it true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?’ ‘No. Houses. have always been fireproof, take my word for it.’ ‘Strange. I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames.’ He laughed.
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 McClellan, a unique outcast whose personality traits you could say has influenced Montag to question his life. During one night after work Montag has a little run in with this unique individual into which his transformation initiates. Montag and Clarisse share a conversation into which becomes a life changing experience for Montag, they talked about life and how it’s so different from the times long ago. However though towards the end of this fascinating conversation Clarisse asked Montag one last question right before taking off, she asked Montag this, “Are you happy?”(Bradbury 7). Montag hesitantly states that yes he was happy right when she took off. Later on that night we find out Montag’s wife Mildred had overdosed on ...
At the begging of the story Guy begins to talk to his neighbor Clarisse McClellan, a seventeen year old girl who has a completely opposite outlook on life than that of Montag’s wife, Mildred. Being around Clarisse makes Guy re-examine his life, leading him to believe that he is no longer happy with his life and that he no longer loves his wife Mildred. As all of this is happening, Mildred has no idea because she is so submersed into interactive televisions, an unhealthy tranquilizer addiction, and her seashell radio.
Fahrenheit 451 was written by Ray Bradbury in response to the threat of censorship and book burning in America. It is a dystopian novel concerning the effects that media can have on society. In this case, media has completely taken over. Books are outlawed and burned. Anyone caught with one is considered a criminal. In the novel, Guy Montag, the protagonist, is a fireman whose job is to burn books. His boss is Captain Beatty. After meeting (almost) 17 year old Clarisse McClellan and one particular incident where the book owner decides to die in the fire with her library of books than live without them, Montag begins to question what makes the books so valuable. He turns to Faber, a former English professor, for guidance. All three men, though different in many ways, possess similar traits. These help define their characters while also showing their part in the plotline.
One night on Montag’s usual walk home from work, he meets a young unusual girl named Clarisse McClellan. She is different from most people, she is idealistic and hates what being social has turned into. She tells Montag of a society where firemen once use to put out accidental fires, and not start them as they do now. Montag thinks this is nonsense the Chief has reassured him that firemen have always started fires, it’s even in rule book. Clarisse continues to tell him about her uncle, who remembers such things from the past. She tells Montag about her family and how they stay up all night talking about a variety of different things. Montag thinks this is very odd, why would anyone want to waste their time just staying up and talking?
Their initial conversation is the focal point of the book, revealing to the audience that Montag is different and more capable of thinking. Additionally, Bradbury makes it seem like the other characters who don’t question society such as Mildred and Beatty, are threatened by Clarisse and her way of thinking. Mildred acknowledges Montag and Clarisse short friendship in a harsh way and is glad to mention to Montag that Clarisse has been killed at the end of the first chapter. Clarisse’s character is assumed to have been hit by a car and killed during the middle of the first section. Although her role in the novel is fairly short, her first few meetings with Montag make a huge impact on the story
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.
In the beginning of the book, Guy Montag never once thought of what his job really entailed or why he was burning houses and books down. Until one night, he met a girl named Clarice; the girl who changed everything. She might not have been in the book long but her character was essential. Clarice was the start of Montag slowly realizing what it exactly is that his job is making him do. “ ‘Do you mind if I ask? How long’ve you worked at being a fireman?’ ‘Since I was twenty, ten years ago.’ ‘Do you ever read any of the books you burn?’ He laughed. ‘That’s
“a society characterized by human misery, as squalor, oppression,disease, and overcrowding.” (“dystopia”). Dystopia is a genre created on the base of human misery; essentially it is a nightmare that has become the characters’ unfortunate reality. Many prolific authors create books like this.
The first of all, Montag loses his control over his own mind. At the beginning of the story, he meets a beautiful girl called Clarisse. She is a peculiar girl who wonders about the society and how people live in there. She tells Montag the beauty of the nature, and also questions him about his job and life. Though he has been proud of being a fireman, Clarisse says, “I think it’s so strange you’re a fireman, it just doesn’t seem right for you, somehow” (21). Montag feels “his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a not trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other” (21) by her words. Everything Clarisse says is something new to him and he gradually gets influenced a lot by this mysterious girl. Actually, the impact of the girl is too significant that his mind is taken over by her when he talks with Beatty, the captain of the firemen. “Suddenly it seemed a much younger voice was speaking for him. He opened his mouth and it was Clarisse McClellan saying, ‘Didn’t firemen prevent fires rather than stoke them up and get them going?’” (31). His mind is not controlled by himself in this part. He takes of Clarisse’s mind and it causes confusion within his mind. It can be said that this happening is an introduction of him losing his entire identity.
Some characters like Montag did not succumb to the ignorance of society. Unlike Mildred characters like Montag believed in the power books and knowledge. Montag was once like Mildred until he met Clarisse; his neighbor. Clarisse was different from anyone Montag had ever met. She made him question his career, his happiness and even his marriage. After talking to Clarisse, Montag realizes he’s been ignorant for his whole life and begins a dangerous search for knowledge. After eventually stealing a book and reading it Montag realized that knowledge is really important. Books symbol knowledge because they provide their readers with information they did not know prior to opening the book. Montag no longer believed that ignorance was bliss “”. Through Montag’s fight for knowledge Bradbury is able to help the readers to understand that people are afraid of knowledge because they fear making mistakes. “You’re afraid of making mistakes. Don’t be. Mistakes can be profited by” says Faber (Bradbury 104). Knowledge is gained from experience. The best and worst sides of Montag were revealed during his journey because he made mistakes and learned from them. At the end of the novel Montag like readers comes to the realization that knowledge and experiences is the true meaning of life.
The first role that fire plays in Fahrenheit 451 is apparent from the very beginning of Bradbury's novel. "IT WAS A PLEASURE TO BURN. It was a pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed" (3). In these first two sentences, Bradbury creates a sense of curiosity and irony because in the story, change is something controlled and unwanted by the government and society, so it is very unlikely that anything in Guy Montag's society could be changed. The burning described at this point represents the constructive energy that later leads to catastrophe. A clear picture of firemen is first seen when the narrator says, "With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black" (3). Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which books burn and is symbolically written on the firemen’s helmets, tanks, and in the firestation.
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