Nathan Higgins
Mrs. Hutsell
English 1 Honors Period 1
2/19/2014
The World of “Truth”
Why did Ray Bradbury choose the poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold? Ray Bradbury chose the poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold, because at the time when Guy Montag reads it, he is questioning his faith similarly to Matthew Arnold. Also, the poem “Dover Beach” expresses Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag’s sadness and unhappiness with the world. Lastly, this poem represents the loss of love, and hopelessness that Montag feels.
To start with, in the beginning of Fahrenheit 451 Montag is oblivious to the iniquity of his job. Soon after he becomes cognizant of the beauty of literature and begins to question his faith in life and the world around him, much akin to how Matthew Arnold questions his belief in religion when the discovery made by Charles Darwin and his Theory of Evolution. The Theory of Evolution shook Matthew Arnold’s faith because it was telling him that his beliefs were untrue because humans evolved from “monkeys”.They both face a moral dilemma in their own way through religion or life choices, ...
In Fahrenheit 451 The government does not tolerate any violations of its rules, especially reading. When Montag is caught reading he is forced into a cruel and unusual punishment by Beatty,”Not with kerosene and a match, but piecework, with a flamethrower. Your house, your clean-up.”(Bradbury 109). This retaliation of going against the government is very harsh by making Montag burn down his whole house with everything in it because he chose to read.
In every book, characters go through times where they challenge themselves. In Fahrenheit 451, a book written by Ray Bradbury in October 1953 Guy Montag faces several challenges throughout the book, just like any other character, but every event he faces changes him, his way of thinking, how he sees his surroundings, and even starts to doubt if the people closest to him are actually good people. Montag changes a lot, and his experiences and events faced lead to a new person.
In the beginning of Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is just an average citizen. He is a fireman who loves his job. Guy loved to burn books. He even states "It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things bl...
In the start of Fahrenheit 451, Montag’s thoughts are that fire is good for society. He burns books for a living, and never thought twice about doing his job. That is until he meets characters such as Clarisse, Beatty, and the academics. Montag’s understanding of the nature of fire changes as he becomes enlightened through his relationships.
Because everyone in Fahrenheit 451 is conditioned to fear knowledge and view it as hurtful, people believe that this the correct mindset, and live their lives without questioning why the government is forcing people to remain in a state of ignorance. Montag is a fireman, meaning that he burns books for a living, destroying the knowledge that is so valued in our society today. Montag is much like other firemen, doing what he was told without
Guy Montag has never questioned his job before the day he met Clarisse McClellan. FOR ONCE Montag is confronted with the idea that, he does NOT understand the whole truth about books.<WHAT DO YOU MEAN?> Montag meets Clarisse one day, as he is walking home from work, and they BEGIN A conversation. During their conversation Montag is questioned why books are illegal and why firemen burn the books. CLARISSE also asks him if he had ever read any of the books that he burned. His reply was that it is against the law. Clarisse even asks, "... long ago [did] firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?"(Fahrenheit 451, page 38) Montag replies by telling her that that is nonsense, and that "Houses have always been fireproof,..."(Fahrenheit 451, page 38) Here you can see how brainwashed and blinded the truth is for the people. Clarisse says good night to Montag, and right before she leaves she asks him, "Are you happy?"(Fahrenheit 451, page39) Before Montag can reply Clarisse is gone, and she leaves Montag pondering her question. As he tells himself that her question was nonsense, he starts to realize that he is not happy with his life.
In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by author Ray Bradbury we are taken into a place of the future where books have become outlawed, technology is at its prime, life is fast, and human interaction is scarce. The novel is seen through the eyes of middle aged man Guy Montag. A firefighter, Ray Bradbury portrays the common firefighter as a personal who creates the fire rather than extinguishing them in order to accomplish the complete annihilation of books. Throughout the book we get to understand that Montag is a fire hungry man that takes pleasure in the destruction of books. It’s not until interacting with three individuals that open Montag’s eyes helping him realize the errors of his ways. Leading Montag to change his opinion about books, and more over to a new direction in life with a mission to preserve and bring back the life once sought out in books. These three individual characters Clarisse McClellan, Faber, and Granger transformed Montag through the methods of questioning, revealing, and teaching.
In class we read the book Fahrenheit 451. The main character Montag has several qualities that change his views and decisions throughout the book. In the beginning of the story Montag was very confirmative and just went along with everything the government and didn’t really question anything but by the end of the book he was completely different. He had changed his views completely. One reason that motivated Montag to change so drastically was his curiosity. This caused him to question things and that led to some of his other qualities such as his open-mindedness. Questioning everything and talking to new people for information allowed Montag to become more open-minded and become open to more ideas. Another quality that Montag has that lead to his in change in the story was his change over time was his childhood memories.
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.
“Revealing the truth is like lighting a match. It can bring light or it can set your world on fire” (Sydney Rogers). In other words revealing the truth hurts and it can either solve things or it can make them much worse. This quote relates to Fahrenheit 451 because Montag was hiding a huge book stash, and once he revealed it to his wife, Mildred everything went downhill. Our relationships are complete opposites. There are many differences between Fahrenheit 451 and our society, they just have a different way of seeing life.
As has been noted, Bradbury and Orwell effectively send their warnings to their readers through the use of a dehumanized setting and the theme of manipulation and lies. Despite recognizing the atrocities prevalent in society, neither Montag nor Winston is able to make a large impact on society. At the end of Fahrenheit 451, Montag escapes the city to join a secret civilization living in the woods. The city is destroyed and Montag heads into an uncertain future. On the contrary, Winston is caught by the regime. They torture him and transform him so that he becomes an ardent supporter of them. Despite these different endings, both authors, through merely ink and paper, warned of, and could have helped prevented a world filled filled with hate, ignorance, and misery.
In "Brave New World", the main characters, Bernard Marx and John the Savage both slowly come to realize the faults with their societies. In "Fahrenheit 451", Guy Montag quickly discovers that things could be better in his society, because of some unfortunate events. His wife Mildred tries to commit suicide, Clarisse gets killed by a speeding car, and a woman refuses to leave her home and her books when firefighters come. These events force Montag to think about the way things are. He is forced out of his society to live with others like himself who think differently. Marx questions the lack of history that his society has. He wonders about books, banned because they did not encourage the new culture, which had no place for old things. By visiting
Ray Bradbury’s style of writing always included hidden meanings that present a central theme of the dangers of unchecked technology. Many factors in Ray Bradbury’s life had contributed to his style of writing and the themes that he wanted to present to society. Some factors that influenced Bradbury were events such as the Cold War and the writings of other writers such as Edgar Allen Poe. Bradbury’s style of writing was shaped by many factors in his life such as world events, his techniques learned from famous writers, and the progress of society. From life to death Bradbury’s world was always filled with war and government propaganda that attempted to sway the thoughts of citizens about the dangers of foreign threats (Schofelt, Cordon, “Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury: 1920-2012”). Bradbury’s writings were always influenced by the constant reminder of these governments ideology filling his ears. Bradbury’s writing was also influenced by the writings of other writers such as Edgar Allen Poe. His inspiration as a child began with Poe and was forever changed by his style of gothic writing and the morals that Poe always presented to his readers ("Planetary Pariahs: Bradbury and the Influence of Edgar Allan Poe."). Bradbury’s best known works were considered science fiction and always presented a story of the dangers of unchecked technology (Mataconis "Ray Bradbury And The Real Lesson Of Fahrenheit 451."). All these factor into how Bradbury would style his writing and the major themes he presents to his readers.
In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the primary conflict is an internal battle that Guy Montag has versus himself. He struggles by questioning his own thoughts on whether he is doing the right thing as a firefighter. Montag served proudly as a firefighter for ten years burning books without questioning whether or not it was morally right. Instead, he thought that he was doing his civic duty for his society. After having many conversations with his neighbor Clarisse, Montag became more thoughtful about his life and his society. This aspect of the novel contributed to Montag coming to the realization of his internal conflict he had within himself. He realized that he was not happy with the way he lived his life, to include his marriage.
Guy Montag is a fireman who is greatly influenced in Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451. The job of a fireman in this futuristic society is to burn down houses with books in them. Montag has always enjoyed his job, that is until Clarisse McClellan comes along. Clarisse is seventeen and crazy. At least, this is what her uncle, whom she gets many of her ideas about the world from, describes her as. Clarisse and Montag befriend each other quickly, and Clarisse's impact on Montag is enormous. Clarisse comes into Montag's life, and immediately begins to question his relationship with his wife, his career, and his happiness. Also, Clarisse shows Montag how to appreciate the simple things in life. She teaches him to care about other people and their feelings. By the end of the novel, we can see that Montag is forever changed by Clarisse.