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About fahrenheit 451
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Fahrenheit 451 analysis commentary
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The book that will be reviewed is Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury. The author used the effect of parallelism extremely well by showing the similarities of both then and now. In the following paragraphs we're going to encounter these parallelisms, we will compare the book to the time period in which it was written, and our own time period post September 11. Before we can do this we must first get to know the author and the era in which it was based off of just a bit.
To get a clear view and understanding of the book, first must review the time period in history. The book was written in the mid 1950's during the cold war. Former General McCarthy, then U.S. Senator started a fire ball of suspicion, suppression, and incarceration. This had a very huge impact on the entrainment industry, which included everyone from playwrights to filmmakers, as well as writers and actors. If anyone in that time period was suspected of being a communist, the government could come and pull them out of their home. At the least a suspected communist would be banned, or put on a black ball list. Printed in the Times, McCarthy's First Slander, "Overnight, his speech sparked a media firestorm that played to the basest fears of Americans swept up in a frightening cold war and triggered loyalty oaths, blacklists and personal betrayals that cost an estimated 10,000 Americans their jobs and some shattered innocents their lives." (Johanna McGeary 28) This happened to a number of actors and film makers during that time period. The black ball list was a list of names of people who were believed to be communist. The people on this list came from the movie industry as well as writers. These people would no longer be able to get work ...
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...suppression, and incarceration. That ended up costing American an estimated 10,000 jobs. The government had complete control over the media, educational system, and any literature that was available. Books were illegal, and were burned in the novel by the government enforcers, the firemen. We saw the comparison with the time period in when the novel was written, and post September 11. It is great how the author's work still has great meaning in today's society.
Work cited
A) McGeary, Johanna. McCarthy's First Slander. Time, 3/31/2003, Vol. 161 Issue 13, pA28,1/4p 1bw; (AN 9349282)
B) Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451. Published by the random house publishing group, 1953.
C) CHAVEZ, PAUL . `Fahrenheit 451' author Bradbury demands Moore change his film's title. Environment CustomWire, 06/19/2004, Copyright 2004 Associated Press, All rights reserved.
The drive to expand westward, fueled by Manifest Destiny, lead to the colonization and connections that make up the America of today, influenced by the Doctrine of Discovery, industrialization, and the outcome of court cases like Johnson v. M’Intosh. Without this, the unification and might of the United States would be significantly smaller and less influential on the world. As for the novel itself, the book was actually really enjoyable and easy to read. The authors opinion came through with sufficient evidence to back up his claim.
Bradbury chose to use the main and dynamic character to be the one who is realizing the true nature of what censorship is doing to the society to open the eyes of Americans. Everything that happens in the novel is a metaphor alerting readers of the future Bradbury is worried about. There are multiple examples throughout the story that support the negative connotation of censorship. Bradbury uses “metaphorical agonies”(Eller 171) in this world to depict a probable future if trusting the government censorship continues.
Seed, David. "The Flight from the Good Life: "Farenheit 451" in the context of Postwar American Dystopias." Journal of American Studies 28.2 (1994): 225-240.
Fahrenheit 451’s relevance to today can be very detailed and prophetic when we take a deep look into our American society. Although we are not living in a communist setting with extreme war waging on, we have gained technologies similar to the ones Bradbury spoke of in Fahrenheit 451 and a stubborn civilization that holds an absence on the little things we should enjoy. Bradbury sees the future of America as a dystopia, yet we still hold problematic issues without the title of disaster, as it is well hidden under our Democracy today. Fahrenheit 451 is much like our world today which includes television, the loss of free speech, and the loss of the education and use of books.
Eller, E. Edward. “Fahrenheit 451.” 1998. Exploring Novels. Ed. Ray Bradbury. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 3-4
Johnson, Wayne L Essay on: "Fahrenheit 451" Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol.1. Detroit: Gale1997.pg 156-57
The 1950 and 60s were a time of the “red scare/communism”, anything which sounded like opposition to the government or frowned upon anything which basically sounded "out of the ordinary/ unusual" was branded communist and this was shown in this movie. One would think that film writers would not be under much scrutiny, but many were called communists for their portrayals of what was
Dualities are the most elementary of comparisons, and are the easiest for the mind to comprehend in that total opposites are brought to attention. These opposites subconsciously provide one with a deeper insight of the material and consciously entertain. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, many dualisms are included both within Montag and in the outside world that provide 180 degree flip-side views, giving the book further depth and inner meaning.
5. Mackey, Erin Shelby, (ed. “Fahrenheit 451, Themes.” Gradsaver, 16 October 2005 web. 16 February 2011.
Hoskinson, Kevin. “The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451: Ray Bradbury’s Cold War Novels.” Extrapolation (Kent State University Press). 36.4 (1995): 350-351. Literary Reference Center. Web. 2 March 2011.
...ut it really doesn’t matter whom you put on the list, For none of them be missed— They’d none of ‘em be missed!" This was a burden for some of the people carrying out the missions of the committee, but to the high-ranking politicians, the fear and injustice was a victory. To them anything to stop the spread of Communism, for whatever reason or agenda they had, was good. The end of Communism was a wonderful way to gain both business and votes. It was not just the high-ranking politicians that praised the committee’s actions; "friendly" movie stars were tripping over one another to commend the committee. Among these actors were Ronald Regan, George Murphy, Robert Montgomery, and Adolph Menjou. They "donned the mantle of the anti Communist warriors". Some people went to great lengths to make the committee happy. There wasn’t much that the "friendly" actors would not do, not to get "blacklisted". Roy Brewer spoke for three hours about the "reds". Walt Disney revealed a "ploy by the left-wing Screen Cartoonists Guild to subvert Mickey mouse into a Marxist rat". The movie
One of the most prominent themes throughout the book Fahrenheit 451 is the lack of human communication and social relationships. Ray Bradbury, who is the author of the novel, Fahrenheit 451, emphasizes the poor or almost non-existent relationships between many of the characters in the novel. The dilapidation of human contact in this work makes the reader notice an idea that Bradbury is trying to get across. This idea is that human communication is important and can be even considered necessary, even though our technology continues to advance.
Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction book that still reflects to our current world. Bradbury does a nice job predicting what the world would be like in the future; the future for his time period and for ours as well. The society Bradbury describes is, in many ways, like the one we are living in now.
"McCarthyism and "The Great Fear" Framing the Climate of Cold War America." Joseph McCarthy as the Epithet of an Era. n. page. Print. Secondary.
Fahrenheit 451 is a well-written book that tells a story of a dream world and one man who wakes up from that dream. Montag, the protagonist of the story, brings home a book of poetry one day and begins to read the poem Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold to his wife and her guests. Many critics think that Bradbury picked this poem because it paralleled life in his book. The poem Dover Beach can be compared to Fahrenheit 451 because both pieces of writing talk about themes of true love, fantasy and allover hopelessness.