Literal Meaning In Fahrenheit 451

Different pieces of literature use literal meanings or interpretive meanings to convey a message. The allegory Animal Farm by George Orwell uses interpretive meaning to tell a message about communistic governments. On the contrary, The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels uses literal meaning to tell how communism works. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury utilizes both literal and interpretive writing to convey a message about totalitarian governments. Animal Farm by Orwell, The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels, and Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury utilize literal or interpretive meaning in order tell about totalitarian governments. Before deducing the meaning of literal and interpretive meaning, one must define the two terms.

In Fahrenheit 451, Clarisse simply asks Montag “Are you happy?” Upon thinking, Montag realizes that he does not feel happy. Alternatively, he understands that his happiness acts as a facade that the government forced him to believe (7-9). On face value, Clarisse asking Montag if he feels happy seems simple. However, the lack of books and prevalence of the parlor walls manipulate Montag’s thoughts. Initially, Montag only listened to what people and the government told him without thought. Clarisse changed his mindset completely. Montag now understands that the government brainwashes him, and Clarisse can see that Montag does not feel truly happy. Bradbury uses levels of interpretive meaning to convey this message. The reader needs to think to understand how all of those factors link. Granger says “And some day we’ll remember so much that we’ll build that biggest goddam steamshovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in and cover it up. Come on now, we’re going to go build a mirror factory first and put out nothing but mirrors for the next year and take a long look in them (157).” Granger reveals in this excerpt that he intends to end the government’s brainwashing. The biggest grave of all time refers to Granger killing the idea of the government corrupting everybody. The reader shouldn’t take building a mirror factory literally in this context. Instead, the mirror factory represents making people take a look at themselves. Granger wants people to look at what the world has become. The society contains corruption and individuals do not exist. If the people look at how the world actually works, then the people will do a complete overhaul of the corrupt system. In Animal Farm, an allegory of the Bolshevik Revolution, the animals created seven commandments. Throughout the book, the government breaks all seven commandments. The