The Deeper Meaning of Allusions An allusion is a reference to a famous person, place, or historical event. Ray Bradbury wrote the book, Fahrenheit 451, which is filled with all sorts of allusions . The book is about people living in a dystopia where it is a crime to read books. If you are caught reading a book your house will be burnt down by the firemen. Which is ironic because firemen usually put out fires rather than start them. Since the government has so much power over the citizens, they have no knowledge other than the facts they are told in school. Their society has become brainwashed ,and act like robots. The people have no feelings , but that will soon change with help from the book people. To provide deeper meaning Bradbury includes …show more content…
many allusions throughout his book. The Phoenix, a myth from the Egyptians was used in Fahrenheit 451 as an allusion.. The Phoenix is also known as the bird of sun. The Phoenix is “reborn” from it’s previous figure.. This bird lives for about 500 years until it starts to become very weak and has to fly back to the area where it became immortal. When this bird flies back and faces the sun, once again, it burst into flames and turns to ash. From the gray ashes a bird rises, same as the bird before but refreshed. Bradbury used this allusion in his book to describe what is going to become of the city. . The main character, Montag, was a content fireman before he met this girl by the name Clarisse. She made Montag begin to question what was actually happening in the society.. This was what the government was trying to prevent people from doing. Soon Montag does rebell and commits murder. While wanted for his crimes, Montag ran to the railroad tracks where he stumbled upon some fellow people who were known as the “book people”.. As they set off together they witness the destruction of the city, and watch it turn to ash . The author states,"Phoenix...There was a silly damn bird called a phoenix back before Christ, every few hundred years he built a pyre and burnt himself up...But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over again, but we've got one damn thing the phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did"(Bradbury 163). This allusion to the phoenix shows that the book people are going to bring the city up from its ashes like the phoenix did when it was reborn. The new faces of society are going to create a society that is tolerant towards books, and encourages people to question. . The Cheshire Cat is an animal that can disappear at will, and leave his giant grin behind.
. The Cheshire cat is famous in the book, and movie of Alice and Wonderland. Bradbury used this allusion in his writing to explain the emotion of the people. The author states,"Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles came through the front door and vanished into the volcano's mouth with martinis in their hands. Montag stopped eating. They were like a monstrous crystal chandelier tinkling in a thousand chimes, he saw their Cheshire Cat smiles burning through the walls of the house, and now they were screaming at each other above the din"(Bradbury 93). This reference to the Cheshire Cat is to explain to the fake grins on Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps faces. The people of this society, like Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps, they have fake emotions. The government was taking away their power to read and think about what is going on around them and themselves, their society does not know how to feel or care for other people. All they know how to do is play with their technology and be oblivious to the people and events that are happening around them. The government wants complete control over the people and the best way to do that is to take their ability to think for themselves ,and how they feel on some
subjects. A great wrestler who was defeated by wise thinking, this legend is known as Hercules and Antaeus. Antaeus is a giant wrestler whose strength is restored every time he touches the ground. Hercules was challenged by Antaeus to a wrestling match. After countless tries of failure, Hercules finally figured out Antaeus’s source of energy. He held Antaeus above the ground and squeezed him to death. The book states, “Do you know the legend of Hercules and Antaeus, the giant wrestler, whose strength was incredible so long as he stood firmly on the ground? But when he was held, rootless, in midair, by Hercules, he perished easily. If there isn't something in that legend for us today, in this city, in our time, then I am completely insane” (Bradbury 83). Bradbury used this allusion in his book to show how the people are dying from their lack of knowledge. The people are Antaeus because they, the people, are being held from quality of information, and leisure time to think(Bradbury 84) which is killing them. The ground represents the book people and how they are trying to restore the people's “strength”, but the government(Hercules) is holding them above ground. Without knowledge people know nothing and do not learn from their mistakes. This caused many problems with the people, the way they act towards others, and to themselves. Although allusions may seem of concern to only a small group of people, it should in fact concern anyone who cares. In Fahrenheit 451 the government has complete control over the the way people act. In this society the people have lost their power to read, think, and ask why. Without these simple things you lose yourself. Without books a part of you dies, the part where you care and make decisions for yourself. In the book the people do not marry for love, or vote for the candidates with the best intentions for their country. To these people it does not depend on views it depends on looks. With these type of people you lack the factor of well thinking or any thinking at all. You cannot let the government have complete control over you like a puppet on a string. You are allowed to express how you feel, and ask question when you do not understand. Books are a key to this situation. They show people how to care, think, and ask why. Without something as simple as books a part of the people are lost and cannot be found until they can access it.
What do you believe? Would you sacrifice everything you’ve ever had to just read a book? Montag, the main character of Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, learns to realize that there is more to living then staring at a screen. Guy Montag is initially a fireman who is tasked with burning books. However, he becomes disenchanted with the idea that books should be destroyed, flees his society, and joins a movement to preserve the content of books. Montag changes over a course of events, while finding his true self and helping others.
Ray Bradbury points out many thinks in this novel some obvious some not so clear. He encourages readers to think deep and keep an open mind. Ray Bradbury wrote a short story that appeared in Galaxy science fiction in 1950, which later became the novel Fahrenheit 451 in 1953. This novel takes place in a dystopian society where books are illegal and firemen start fires.
The theme of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 can be viewed from several different angles. First and foremost, Bradbury's novel gives an anti-censorship message. Bradbury understood censorship to be a natural outcropping of an overly tolerant society. Once one group objects to something someone has written, that book is modified and censorship begins. Soon, another minority group objects to something else in the book, and it is again edited until eventually the book is banned altogether. In Bradbury's novel, society has evolved to such an extreme that all literature is illegal to possess. No longer can books be read, not only because they might offend someone, but because books raise questions that often lead to revolutions and even anarchy. The intellectual thinking that arises from reading books can often be dangerous, and the government doesn't want to put up with this danger. Yet this philosophy, according to Bradbury, completely ignores the benefits of knowledge. Yes, knowledge can cause disharmony, but in many ways, knowledge of the past, which is recorded in books, can prevent man from making similar mistakes in the present and future.
This meme connects directly to the book “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. This meme shows that reading will get you burned. This meme takes place in a futuristic setting with the same society as the people in “Fahrenheit 451” and that is why I added the Fahrenheit 113 part, because electronic devices start to shut down at 113 degrees Fahrenheit. This meme also shows what the government is trying to convey to the society. In the novel, books are considered bad, Clarisse says, “‘do you ever read any of the books you burn?’ He laughed. ‘ That's against the law’”(5). When asked if he has ever read a book, Montag laughingly replied that it is against the law to read books. This shows the the government has been telling the citizens that reading is bad and against the law, and brainwashing them, and this is the same in the meme, showing that you will be burned if you are reading the text when Montag is going to burn a house it says, “ the woman knelt among the books … ‘you know the law,’ says Beatty… ‘the whole house is going up’” (36-37).
In Federalist 10 James Madison argued that while factions are inevitable, they might have interests adverse to the rights of other citizens. Madison’s solution was the implementation of a Democratic form of government. He felt that majority rule would not eliminate factions, but it would not allow them to be as powerful as they were. With majority rule this would force all parties affiliate and all social classes from the rich white to the poor minorities to work together and for everyone’s opinion and views to be heard.
Allusion is defined as a figure of speech that alludes to popular, or well-known literature, event, setting, or person. (Jason Lineberger, Allusion in Literature) In ancient Greek mythology, Phaethon was the demigod son of Apollo who took on more responsibility than he was ready for-eventually forging his own downfall. Within the piece, the speaker tells his son the story of Apollo and Phaethon, tying ancient mythology to the present day. Similar to the way Phaethon believed he held the responsibility to drive the sun chariot in the archaic myths, the speaker’s son boasts the same mindset- believing he could drive the car; however, the speaker believes his son will follow the same path as Phaethon and fail in his attempts to drive the car. To illustrate this idea, the speaker begins by introducing Apollo and Phaethon’s parent-child relationship: “Apollo through the heavens rode/ In glinting gold attire/… His darling son was Phaethon, / Who begged to have a try.” (Lines 1, 2, 7, 8) The father, is the one in charge, carrying more responsibility and has to “… [hold the horses] to their frantic course” (line 5). Subsequently, the son is the one who wishes to carry more responsibility than
Allusion is when the author inputs other literature characters or stories into a comedic situation. The two thieves are out for cold hard cash, and decide their “victim [would be] the only child of a prominent citizen named Ebenezer Dorset,” (Henry, pg.1) from the Southern Alabama town. After kidnapping Ebenezer’s son, the father responds
The “Allegory of the Cave” and Fahrenheit 451, both display the difficulty of a prisoner. If the prisoners in the Allegory of the Cave receive the chance for freedom, they will not take it. Instead, the prisoners fear any form of reality that lies beyond their seats, and prefer to stay in the cave. If they do become free, instead of leaving their world, they will, “turn away and run back to the things he could make out, and would take the truth of the matter to be that these things are clearer than what he was being shown.” The prisoners, accustomed to their routine of sitting and staring at a wall, liked watching shadows pass by every day. They would rather stay staring at the wall than undergo enlightenment, one of the scariest experiences
Light, especially fire, and darkness are significantly reoccurring themes in Fahrenheit 451. Guy Montag, the main character, is a fireman, but in this futuristic world the job description of a fireman is to start fires wherever books are found; instead of putting them out. Montag takes a journey from a literary darkness to a knowledgeable light. This journey can be compared to the short story Allegory of the Cave by Plato, in which a prisoner experiences a similar journey. An example of light, in reference to knowledge, occurs just after Montag meets Clarisse for the first time. "When they reached her house all its lights were blazing" (9). Since Montag had rarely seen that many house lights on, I interpreted those lines as saying "that house is full of knowledge and enlightenment; not like the rest of the houses around here which are always dark." Clarisse went on to explain to Montag that her mother, father, and uncle were just sitting around and talking. This was also something that wasn't very commonplace in the city. Fire is an important element of symbolism in Fahrenheit 451. Fire consumes minds, spirits, men, ideas, and books. Fire plays two very different roles in this book. The role of a destructive, devouring, and life ending force, and the role of a nourishing flame.
The North Korean government is known as authoritarian socialist; one-man dictatorship. North Korea could be considered a start of a dystopia. Dystopia is a community or society where people are unhappy and usually not treated fairly. This relates how Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 shows the readers how a lost of connections with people and think for themselves can lead to a corrupt and violent society known as a dystopia.
An allusion is defined as a brief or unexplained reference to a person, place, or thing of historical or literary significance. Near the novel’s end, the author utilizes allusion, writing “There’s a quiz in English class. It’s Tess of d’Urbervilles, which I’ve read. I think Rhiannon does well.” The main protagonist, A, has been moving around from school to school his entire life.
In the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, there are many themes, symbols, and motifs that are found throughout the novel. For my journal response, I have chosen to discuss nature as a prevalent symbol in the book. The main character, Montag, lives in a society where technology is overwhelmingly popular, and nature is regarded as an unpredictable variable that should be avoided. Technology is used to repress the citizens, but the oppression is disguised as entertainment, like the TV parlour. On the opposite end of the spectrum, nature is viewed as boring and dull, but it is a way to escape the brainwashing that technology brings. People who enjoy nature are deemed insane and are forced to go into therapy. Clarisse says “My psychiatrist wants to know why I go out and hike around in the forests and watch the birds and collect butterflies,” (Bradbury 23) which shows she is a threat to the control that the government has put upon the people by enjoying nature.
Allusion, or a passing reference to something in the Bible, history, or literature, is used in the play as a way of letting the reader and audience gain depth into the story and overall it helps the actors get the meaning they are trying to convey across to the audience.
In the book, Fahrenheit 451,written by Ray Bradbury, he had put in literary devices to help readers understand what is going on throughout the context of the story. The literary devices used in the book were imagery and personification. These literary devices will help shows how technology ruins personal relationships.
The Cheshire Cat was introduced in chapter six, “pig and pepper” at the duchess’s house. Looking at the evidence presented by Lewis Carroll, it points to the Cheshire cat being compared to God himself. The Cheshire cat is one of if not the only character in the book that can have an intellectual conversation with Alice that doesn’t end up with Alice or anyone else getting offended; Alice even grows to consider the Cheshire cat a friend and thinks of it as the only person she has to talk to. This Cheshire cat also possesses some strange abilities that not even Alice can completely comprehend. The Cheshire cat can be anywhere it wants to be by vanishing and re appearing and also he seems to have knowledge about everything that goes on in Wonderland, the main example being that the Cheshire cat is the only character that know that everyone on Wonderland is mad; everyone else in wonderland sees the world and their actions as normal. When Alice was looking for an escape from the Queen at the croquet game, she looked up to the sky for answers, and like how people in the bible look up for answers from God, it is the Cheshire cat that answers to