A Narrative Structure in a story is important in order for a story to have order and flow properly. Without a narrative structure, the meaning or purpose of a story can become lost in the reading causing the reader to become confused. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, the narrative structure is important because from the exposition to the conclusion, the reader infers that happiness is not truly gained unless the choice is theirs.
An exposition is used to inform the reader of background information about the characters and plot of a story. In Fahrenheit 451, the main character Guy Montag is a fireman. He finds joy and what he thinks is happiness, in burning any form of literature. When he sees the fires, he wants to “shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace” (19). On his way home, he meets his seventeen-year-old neighbor named Clarise, who is walking through the quiet night. They engage in relatively small talk as the walk back to their homes. As Clarise and Montag are towards the end of their walk, she asks if he ever reads any of the books he
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burns and Montag’s reply is simple, “That’s against the law!” (23). I believe that Clarise is looking for more than just an answer but more for a response where he expresses that he is curious but does not give in because he responsible for enforcing the laws. Before they part ways into their homes, Clarise asks Montag if he is happy. Clarise’s question regarding Montag’s happiness flows smoothly into the rising action-- A rising action is used to create the story line that leads to the climax.
As Montag is getting ready for bed, he begins to evaluate his own happiness and there is a great deal of symbolism in his thoughts. He moves about his room as normal but refers to his room as feeling dark and cold with no relief for the sadness he is feeling as though the only happiness he has is when he sees and feels the warm from burning books. “The room felt cold… he could not breathe…. he did not wish to open the drapes or French doors…he did not want the moon to come into the room” (28). As Clarise and Montag have more conversations throughout the story, he realizes that she is not afraid to acknowledge the world around her which intrigues him. He begins to become open minded and become curious as to why laws to censor literature is a law to begin
with.
Clarisse is Montag’s first mentor in his journey; she is the one who first opens his eyes to the world around him, as well as asking the ultimate question “Are you happy?” (7) To which Montag cried “Am I what?” He never gave whether he was actually, truly happy a real, legitimate thought in his entire life. He just woke up, ate breakfast, went to work, ate lunch, went home, ate dinner, and went to sleep; and all with a big grin fixed on his face. But now, after a bit of consideration he came to the realization that “He was not happy…. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask a...
Are you really happy? Or are you sad about something? Sad about life or money, or your job? Any of these things you can be sad of. Most likely you feel discontentment a few times a day and you still call yourself happy. These are the questions that Guy Montag asks himself in the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In this book people are thinking they are happy with their lives. This is only because life is going so fast that they think they are but really there is things to be sad about. Montag has finally met Clarisse, the one person in his society that stops to smell the roses still. She is the one that gets him thinking about how his life really is sad and he was just moving too fast to see it. He realizes that he is sad about pretty much everything in his life and that the government tries to trick the people by listening to the parlor and the seashells. This is just to distract people from actual emotions. People are always in a hurry. They have 200 foot billboards for people driving because they are driving so fast that they need more time to see the advertisement. Now I am going to show you who are happy and not happy in the book and how our society today is also unhappy.
Books are the enemy, they are evil, they are outlawed, they are burned. At least, that is how Montag feels before meeting Clarisse. The first line of the book reads, “It was a pleasure to burn” continued with, “It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed” (1). Clearly Montag enjoys his work and seems to have no remorse for what he is doing and the damage he is
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.
And everything she said made Montag start to think. While Montag and Clarisse were walking, Clarisse asked Montag “ How long is it since you were really bothered?” she said knowing he didn’t think enough to even be bothered by something. “About something important, about something real?” He heard this question and never thought about it, he reacted impulsively and thought she was crazy for asking such a question. Clarisse later asked him a very deep question and said “Are you happy?” Of course Montag said the first thing that he thought he felt, and said that yes, he was happy. but clarisse knew the truth, that he didnt know what happy was to be able to say that and thats why she asked. Even though Montag didnt think about the question then, once he enters his house he cant shake the question. When clarisse asks these questions she asks them seriously. However when Montag hears these questions he thinks they are obscure and laughs as if his answers are obvious. So clarisse asks him another brain teasing question and says “You laugh when i haven’t been funny, and you answer right off. you never stop to think what i have asked you.” This really gets into Montags head, weather he knows it, or not. And things Soon begin to change.
“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.
You take advantage of your life every day. Have you ever wondered why? You never really think about how much independence you have and how some of us treat books like they’re useless. What you don’t realize is that both of those things are the reason that we live in such a free society. If we didn’t have books and independence, we would treat death and many other important things as if it were no big deal. That is the whole point of Ray Bradbury writing this book.
In conclusion, Clarisse shares her view on life and introduces Montag to the wonders of books and knowledge. Just after talking to her a few times, Montag begins to imitate her personality and view the world as she does. Clarisse metaphorically acts as window between Montag’s old life and the life Clarisse introduces to him. After his discovery of books due to his renowned intellectual curiosity, he continues the path to awareness and wisdom.
When Montag meets Clarisse, his neighbor, he starts to notice that there is more to life than burning books. Montag states, “Last night I thought about all the kerosene I have used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of those books” (Bradbury 49). It begins to bother Montag that all he has done for the past years is burn books. He starts to rethink his whole life, and how he has been living it. Montag goes on to say, “It took some men a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life and then I come along in two minutes and boom! It is all over” (Bradbury 49) Before, Montag never cares about what he has been doing to the books, but when he begins to ignore the distractions and really think about life he starts to notice that he has been destroying some other mans work. Montag begins to think more of the world
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.
... ideas in books and understand them. Before this Montag never questioned the way he lives, he was blinded by all the distractions. The role that Clarisse plays in the book enables Montag to break free of the ignorance.
Everyone has the ability to look at where the world is today and picture what the future might hold. That’s exactly what Huxley, Orwell and Bradbury did in their futuristic novels, though exaggerating quite a bit. In Huxley’s novel Brave New World, he depicts a society where people are decanted from bottles instead of being born from mothers. George Orwell gives us a glimpse at a world where everything is regulated, even sex, in his novel 1984. Bradbury foresaw the future in the most accurate way in his novel Fahrenheit 451; writing about a future without literature to guard the people from negative feelings, just as our college campuses in America are doing by adding trigger warnings to books with possible offensive content.
His choice of becoming into an individual himself changes him into a completely different person. As the book gets closer to ending, Montag ends up meeting up with professor Faber. Professor Faber is one of the outcasts because of everything he knows. Montag asked him for help because he started to become interested in reading books. Montag explains to Faber “Nobody listens any more. I can’t talk to the walls because they’re yelling at me. I can’t talk to my wife; she listens to the walls”, Montag started to feel different from the others because society started to move him away from his old actions (Bradbury 78). Also in the beginning, Clarisse asks Montag about the smell of kerosine. This part started to foreshadow Montag as an individual and thinking for himself. Montag would be characterized as the protagonist of this novel. Clarisse’s way of thinking was the reason that mostly influenced Montag to change into an individualist. Her personality made him want to be like Clarisse.
Fahrenheit 451’s Relevance to Today Fahrenheit 451’s relevance to today can be very detailed and prophetic when we take a deep look into our American society. Although we are not living in a communist setting with extreme war waging on, we have gained technologies similar to the ones Bradbury spoke of in Fahrenheit 451 and a stubborn civilization that holds an absence of the little things we should enjoy. Bradbury sees the future of America as a dystopia, yet we still hold problematic issues without the title of disaster, as it is well hidden under our democracy today. Fahrenheit 451 is much like our world today, which includes television, the loss of free speech, and the loss of the education and use of books. Patai explains that Bradbury saw that people would soon be controlled by the television and saw it as the creators chance to “replace lived experience” (Patai 2).
Were there ever stories that seemed off or had no objective? The story can feel as if it were running off and very time consuming, that’s because the story has no strong conflict to cut off the boring and ran off parts. Conflict is a serious disagreement or argument between forces, it’s a requirement that every good story should have, due to the way conflict pushes forward the story and allow the character within the story proceed with the operation. To prove this author Rosalind Noonan who isn't a fan of conflict even states. In this quote she explains that conflict is very well needed in every story and how it propels the action further. Fahrenheit is a perfect example of a story for conflict to thrive in because of all the conflicts that