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In the world of Fahrenheit 451 (1953), technology rules over a society that is constantly looking at screens, listening through earbuds, and zooming around in ever-faster cars and trains. Vague threats of war are looming in the background, but, as war is so commonplace, they are widely ignored. After years of various groups being offended by the differing beliefs presented in books, the government decides to ban them. Owning books is illegal, and citizens are encouraged to report others who disobey. Aside from a few subversives, most people accept these changes, and books are kept mostly out of sight and mind.
What would happen to society if reading was illegal? How much technology is too much? Ray Bradbury examines these questions through the eyes of the protagonist of this classic science fiction novel, Guy Montag.
Subversive – an adjective describing someone or something that goes against the status quo by challenging or changing established institutions, beliefs, and/or systems.
Burning books, pixabay.
Fahrenheit 451: Summary
The narrative revolves around the life of its protagonist, Guy Montag, the latest in a multi-generational family of firefighters. Firefighters act as cultural guardians; they are employed to burn illegal stashes of books and carry out their duties with self-righteous vigor. On the surface, Montag is a self-confident representative of an oppressive and violent government. Yet, lately, he has been hiding books in the air ducts of his house, and when his mind wanders, he tends to think poetic thoughts.
When Montag meets the girl next door, his world is knocked off-kilter as she opens his eyes to nature and questions his authority to erase ideas. He begins to look forward to her daily challenges – but then, believed to have been run over by a car, she is gone. The vacuum she leaves in Montag's life magnifies his dissatisfaction with his empty marriage and the shallowness of the world in which he lives. After his job exposes him to the scene of an unnamed woman who sets herself and her books on fire, he finds himself no longer able to pretend he is "happy" (Part 1).
Montag gives in to his urge to read and decides that society needs books because they are what it lacks. He plans to undermine the credibility of the firefighters, enlisting the reluctant help of an ex-professor. However, Montag's spiritual awakening outpaces his rationality, and he ends up a fugitive after turning his flamethrower on his manipulative boss and mindless co-workers. He escapes to the country and finds a group of people who are waiting for the destruction of war to create a safe moment for them to reintroduce books to their city. They refer to themselves as "dust jackets" (Part 3) because each of them has memorized a book to reproduce when the time is right or to pass on to the next generation. Previously, Montag had found himself instinctively wanting to memorize passages from the Bible he had taken from the unnamed woman's house, though he fears he failed to do so. The circumstances under which he arrived and his desire to mentally preserve The Book of Ecclesiastes lead the group to believe Montag belongs with them.
The government televises their search for Montag and, to hide the fact that Montag escaped, they capture an innocent man and call him Montag. War is formally declared for unknown reasons and, when bombs destroy the city, Montag and his newfound friends see it as the opportunity they've been hoping for and begin their long walk back to the city to rebuild society.
Fahrenheit 451: Analysis
Fahrenheit 451 is an example of dystopian fiction. It is also classified as s cience fiction because, when it was published in 1953, it was considered futuristic as it described significant technological advancements.
Dystopian: dystopian is the opposite of "utopian" as it describes an imagined society that has come about as a consequence of humanity going down the "wrong path." Dystopian societies, or dystopias, are often signified by societal problems such as destitution, inequality, injustice, and disconnectedness.
Main Characters
Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in response to the increasing popularity of television. Therefore, the characters reflect their place in a world in which people no longer read books because television so easily entertains them.
Guy Montag
Guy Montag follows an organized routine down to the very last moment when he knows exactly how to grab the fire pole and avoid injury. No reason is given as to when or why he started stealing books from scenes, but Clarisse senses there is more to him than just being a fireman. He defensively clings to his loveless marriage, and his emotional response to discovering his wife's nearly lifeless body after her suicide attempt appears hysterical in comparison to the casual body language of the technicians sent to revive her – and his wife's refusal to acknowledge it happened at all. He feels trapped in a world that denies reality.
Mildred "Millie" Montag
Millie prefers to be numb. The day after the unnamed woman burns herself, Montag realizes he can't remember where he met Millie. He asks her, and she doesn't remember either. Montag is troubled, but Millie laughs about it. She is fully immersed in their lack of culture and unable to bring to life the words her husband reads to her due to her complete lack of imagination. She refers to the people in the television shows she watches as "family" (Part 1). She is American consumerism personified.
Captain Beatty
Captain Beatty is Montag's supervisor. He is well-read and able to quote from memory but uses his knowledge to enforce the government line that books cause unhappiness because they contradict each other. As Montag begins to resist Beatty's influence, Beatty mocks Montag's attempts to learn. In Part Two, under the guise of describing a dream Beatty had about a debate between Montag and himself, Beatty rapid-fires segments of opposing ideas and laughs as Montag becomes visibly upset, saying, "[w]hat traitors books can be! You think they're backing you up and they turn on you. Others can use them, too."
Faber
Faber was a professor before books were banned. Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 when details of the Holocaust were still fresh, and the question of how something like that could happen still lingered. Most people would like to believe that they would be a Montag, heroically awakening from a brainwashed mind to help save the day. Faber, on the other hand, is representative of the people who stand idly by watching atrocity affect other people, keeping their heads down to avoid trouble. Faber feels ashamed that he is not doing more but doesn't snap out of his inaction until Montag begins ripping pages out of a Bible in front of him.
The Mechanical Hound
The Mechanical Hound is a piece of machinery used to hunt down anyone suspected of owning books, however, it is personified to seem as alive as any other character in the novel. The Hound is as relentless as the technology and government that have created and now control it.
Clarisse McClellan
Clarisse is Montag's young neighbor who helps to initiate his changing outlook. While alive, she was an outsider that the government keeps tabs on because she didn't "want to know how a thing [is] done, but why" (Part 1).
Structure
Bradbury structured Fahrenheit 451 into the three major parts that are typical of a classic hero's journey in mythology as defined by scholar Joseph Campbell: d eparture, initiation, and return.3
Departure: "The Hearth and the Salamander"
In the hero's departure, the hero of the tale (in this case, Montag) is challenged to act. Montag can either continue his humdrum existence or break the law to own and read books. His choice to visit Faber confirms his growing suspicion that society is languishing due to the banning of books. This decision places him on the path of knowledge and human connection.
Initiation: "The Sieve and the Sand"
During the initiation segment of their journey, the hero's chosen path is blocked by obstacles they must overcome. When Montag overhears a shallow conversation between his wife and her friends, it tests his growth, but he rises to the challenge and openly recites poetry, even defying his comrade, Faber, who advises Montag against this. As Captain Beatty represents the government, Montag's instinctual burning of him signals a point of no return to the status quo.
Return: "Burning Bright"
If the hero overcomes their challenges, they are transformed and must return to their starting point to complete the journey cycle. Montag is able to evade capture by the Hounds and the government, as he is protected by nature and the river carries him away. He meets the dust jackets who acknowledge Montag's journey as one they have taken themselves. They offer him a liquid concoction that changes his chemical scent, leaving him undetectable by the Hounds. The government finalizes the erasure of Montag's former self when they capture the innocent man in his place. Montag is a new man, "back from the dead" (Part 3). After the city is bombed, he remembers where he met his wife and begins to recite lines of Ecclesiastes to himself as his group walks toward the city.
Point of View
Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in the third person limited narrator point of view, meaning the story only gives access to Montag's thoughts and feelings. For the most part, the reader sees the world through Montag's eyes so the only thing the reader knows about the other characters is what Montag perceives. This point of view focuses the reader's attention on Montag's changing relationship with books and the world around him, reflecting the novel's praise of books and their potential to save the world. As Granger, a dust jacket man, points out in Part Three, "You can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened, and why the world blew up under them." The reader watches as Montag moves through the stages of his hero's journey at his own pace, eventually gaining a new, deeper perspective on reality.
Fahrenheit 451: Themes
Let us take a look at the themes in Fahrenheit
Censorship
The government in Fahrenheit 451 represents the result of movements like McCarthyism that were taking place outside the novel's fictional world. As Beatty lectures Montag on the history of the firemen and why books are banned, he repeats the talking points of any totalitarian ruler. Beatty justifies censorship, blaming the citizens themselves for books being banned, saying, "[t]echnology, mass exploitation, and minority pressures carried the trick, thank God. Today, thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time" (Part 1).
In "Coda," an essay Bradbury wrote to accompany Fahrenheit 451, he stated: "There is more than one way to burn a book, and the world is full of people running about with lit matches." In the essay, he decries the modern tendency to appease audiences and argues that censoring books is a slippery slope away from burning them.1
Humankind's Need for Connection
One of the catalysts of Montag's journey is his realization that he has no genuine relationship with any of the people in his life. After Montag sees the unnamed woman's deep bond with her books, a desire for such a connection is sparked within him – especially when he realizes the lack of intimacy he has with his wife. His discussion with Faber fine-tunes this idea; Faber explains that these issues not only stem from the missing books, but from the three things books supplied that are now lacking in their society, including an examination of life's gritty details, "time to think" (Part 2), and the "right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two [things]" (Part 2). According to Faber, "The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are" (Part 2) and, most importantly, keep us feeling humble as we examine the world around us.
Value of Knowledge
Montag's journey is not only driven by a hunger for connection but also a hunger for knowledge. His conversations with Clarisse and Faber invite Montag to study parts of himself and his world that he had previously devalued, such as his critical thinking skills and the taste of rain. He becomes aware that immediate stimulation rather than meaningful experiences surround him, and he begins to wonder what his life would be like if he dug below the surface of his reality.
Catalyst: someone or something that causes a reaction.
Censorship: A man tries to remove hands away from his mouth to speak, pixabay.
Fahrenheit 451: Symbolism
The symbolism used in Fahrenheit includes the following
T echnology
Technology has taken over in Fahrenheit 451 and works as a symbol of the characters' isolation from each other and the world around them. Mildred Montag learning to read lips so that she doesn't have to disconnect her earbuds and hear what Montag says to her, and the train's arrival stopping Montag from thinking about his interactions with Clarisse, are both examples of this isolation.
Nature
Nature represents possibility in Fahrenheit 451. Clarisse's love of nature opens Montag's eyes to the physical world surrounding him. When Montag emerges from the river into the countryside, he is given the potential to create change by joining the Book People he finds there.
Fire
Fire operates as both a destructive and creative symbol in Fahrenheit 451. On the one hand, depth and knowledge are absent from Montag's world because the government sanctions the burning of all books. On the other hand, the dust jacket group gathers around a fire for comfort as they connect with Montag and discuss their beliefs. The fiery bombs destroy the city, but it opens a path for Montag and the dust jacket group to try to share their knowledge with the city.
Fahrenheit 451 - Key Takeaways
- Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian science fiction novel written by Ray Bradbury published in 1953 in response to current events, such as the Holocaust and technological development.
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Fahrenheit 451 is divided into three parts that mirror the three main categories of a classic hero's journey in mythology: Departure, Initiation, and Return.
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Themes in Fahrenheit 451 include censorship, humankind's need for connection, and the value of knowledge.
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Some of the symbols used in Fahrenheit 451 are technology, nature, and fire.
1 Bradbury, Ray. "Coda." Fahrenheit 451. 1979.
2Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, 1949.
Source: https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english-literature/american-literature/fahrenheit-451/