Fahrenheit 451 Historical Criticism Essay

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

This is a story of future society where all books are restricted, the government attempts to control what people read and think, and individuals are anti-social. But, this book is not only about danger of censorship, it is also about the effects of television and mass media on the reading of literature. Unlike other famous dystopian novels, this book holds out some hope. This novel will be examined by three criticisms; biological, Marxist, and psychanalytical. Historical criticism will be used to explain the sense of why the author wrote this book and to find out a little bit about his background. Psychanalytical criticism will be used to display the hidden meaning found in between the textual content. Marxist

criticism is going to compare the social classes and if there is bias through the novel based on the authors social class.
Throughout the novel, the audience will learn about the internal conflict that one of the novel's major characters, Guy Montag, goes through between staying loyal to what he does or go against that law and risk everything he ever worked for.

Each character represents a different mindset on the world going from an obedient book burner to a free-spirited teenager. Despite the idea that Bradbury places this story soon, the characters are humans and this provides the readers a connection that they can make with each one.

Ray Bradbury’s novel is about a fireman named Guy Montag. Montag’s job is the opposite of what one would think a fireman does. In the novel firemen start fire instead of putting them out. The society displayed forbids the citizens from reading books and being caught would result in a book burning. Instead of reading, the people are corrupted to think that watching a large amount of television and listening to the radio was normal. For instance, it was unusual for pedestrians to talk and have a meaningful conversation. However, for Montag his ideology about all this had changed once he met a teenager named

Clarisse.
Clarisse was more of an antagonist to the ideologies that the society placed. She saw the words that were written between the lines and she shared that with Montag. Montag more or so believed that she was very odd. She was not in the norm and that’s what Montag liked about her. She read books, walked the city like pedestrians and had meaningful conversations. Clarisse opened Montag’s mind and made him think more about was what seemed to be normal activity or were they trying to deprive the characters of something powerful. She asked him about work and why he became a fireman. But there was one question that really got him thinking which was “Are you happy?” ( ).
Marxist Criticism:
Bradbury splits the social groups into three; the proletariat, bourgeoise, and intellectuals.

The proletariat is represented by Montag, Mildred, and ordinary citizens. The bourgeoisie is represented by Beatty and the government. The intellectuals are represented by Clarisse and Faber. The intellectuals and bourgeoisie have butt heads because of their conflicting views. For instance, the intellectuals think they know better and are open-minded. This helps to see the truth behind a lot of things. Although Montag is part of the proletariat he begins to show signs of becoming an intellectual as he begins to put the pieces together and reveals the truth of the government. The bourgeoisie are very controlling towards the other groups, as this is what they thrive

off.
Throughout researching Bradbury’s past, it seems as if he was raised in a generic middle-class environment. This means his ideology is solely based off bourgeois. This allows him to obtain the knowledge an ability to comprehend events and ideas intensely. Due it this it is easy for him to comment on the battle of knowledge vs. ignorance throughout the novel.
This novel focuses on the value of books as a source of basic knowledge. This could be based off a bias point of view because the author was raised in a way that made him value purpose of knowledge. The novel aims to illustrate the destruction of books is evil. The novel frowns upon the values of ignorance, and the submission of knowledge. Throughout the entire novel, it relies on the quest that Montag must take to try to bring knowledge back into society. He must fight against the government and break rules that he never has before if needed.
Biographical Criticism:
Psychanalytical criticism:
Bradbury contributes to the use of psychoanalytical criticism by using hidden meanings. A perfect example of such hidden meanings in Fahrenheit 451 is Montag’s hands. Montag commits the crime of stealing a book; the act of even owning a book, let alone stealing it, is strictly forbidden in a futuristic society. Montag declares that “his hands had been infected;” his crime was an accidental relax that he did not mean to do. He blames his “ravenous” hands for numerous amounts of crimes within the novel. In the idea of Freud’s psychoanalytic criticism, the evident textual that Montag commits the crime of stealing the book and blaming it upon his hand was Montag’s drive thirst for knowledge and truth. This provides you the sense that the ideal of knowledge over ignorance is already overriding his sense of citizenship and obedience to the law; his hands therefore becomes a powerful symbol for his feelings of rebelliousness.
Another illustration of concealed meanings comes from the title of the second part of the book - The Sieve and The Sand. As a child, Montag attempts to earn a dime from his malicious cousin by filling a sieve, a device for screening small particles (i.e. strainer), with sand. The small grains of sand continually fall through the sieve, thus rendering young Montag unable to fill it. He realizes how pointless of a task it is and it would frustrate him to the point that he would begin to cry. In the present setting of the book, Montag is attempting to read the Book of Ecclesiastes and commit it to memory. When psychoanalyzed, there is clear meaning that the reading of the book directly correlates to his childhood memory. Like the sand falling through the sieve, the words fall out of his memory the harder he attempts to memorize the Book of Ecclesiastes. However, the meaning of this correlation is that the sand represents the truth in literature that Montag is seeking to hold on to. His mind represents the sieve, in that it seems difficult to get a hold of the truth in any permanent way. His desire to obtain the sand despite the trickiness of the task, is an indication of the overall greater meaning of the work.
A third demonstration of Bradbury’s hidden meanings is found in the climax of the story. Montag, as a fireman, whose job in the story is to burn the books, is confronted by the fire captain, Beatty, who unexpectedly has an extensive literacy knowledge base himself. Beatty gives Montag a flamethrower to personally burn the books he had stolen previously. However, Montag turns the flamethrower on him and kills him. There are dual meanings shrouded behind the central idea of Beatty’s death by fire.