Fahrenheit 451 Theme Analysis

587 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Fahrenheit 451 whole novel essay on character

In the novel Fahrenheit 451 all the characters play a critical role to the theme. The theme of the novel is to do things your own way, to not follow the rules but instead to make your own and live life. In the novel the rules or laws of the society are very different compared to ours, in the novel you are prohibited to have any sort of literature or any other type of educational tools. Their government controls everything including how they live, there is just about no freedom for anyone. Now there are characters who follow the laws and live like robots programmed by the government, but there are others who think and read and break the laws to live their life their way. So I will tell you about each type of character and then you can see how they tie to the theme. Mildred is Montag's zombie like wife who is obsessed with her paradigm of reality and life. She is usually sitting in front of the TVs at the parlor and shows only little emotion or expressions towards anything other than her television shows. Montag has grown apart from society …show more content…

Now there's no hope of bringing them together among the two. The first time we meet Mildred, she attempted suicide. Although she claims that her "family" (the three talking walls which interact with her) keep her happy, it is easy to see she is suffering some form of depression. One of her favorite things to do is to "take out the beetle", or drive their car at insane speeds, and even killing whatever animals happen to get in the way. She almost never listens to Montag, usually keeping a Seashell radio in her ear, even when sleeping or driving. She represents the unmotivated portion of the society. She doesn't care about war or books, unless it is for her entertainment. She is so numb, she doesn't even know that all her shows are the same. She also doesn't even know she tried to kill herself, which is insane and show how bad her problems

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Fahrenheit 451 And The Lottery

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 leads from an average beginning by introducing a new world for readers to become enveloped in, followed by the protagonist’s descent into not conforming to society’s rules, then the story spirals out of control and leaves readers speechless by the actions taken by the main character and the government of this society. This structure reinforces the author’s main point of how knowledge is a powerful entity that would force anyone to break censorship on a society.

    Read More

  • Mildred In 'Fahrenheit 451'

    316 Words  | 1 Pages

    Mildred is not just self-centered, she is also unfeeling. For example she forgot to tell Montag that clarisse had died, and didn’t seem fazed at all. She is also robotic. When captain Beatty came to talk to Montag, Montag had asked her to leave the room. She did angrily, but she still did as she was told.

    Read More

  • Juxtaposition In Fahrenheit 451

    601 Words  | 2 Pages

    Beatty’s speech explains why Mildred acts the way she does, which had started to become a mystery for Montag, She acts in ways that are robotic, or self-centered, or unfeeling. Beatty’s speech explains the reason

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mildred is a stereotypical character who only knows what the government and other people tell her. "And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios

    Read More

  • Theme Analysis of Fahrenheit 451

    432 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Fahrenheit 451 Literary Analysis

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Remember when we had to actually do things back in 2015, when people barely had technology and everyday life was so difficult and different? When people read and thought and had passions, dreams, loves, and happiness?” This is what the people of the book Fahrenheit 451 were thinking, well that is if they thought at all or even remembered what life used to be like before society was changed.

    Read More

  • Mildred Is A Bad Wife In Fahrenheit 451

    405 Words  | 1 Pages

    The third reason why Mildred is a bad wife if because she doesn’t have a heart. Everyone feels the lost if someone you know died. Montag just realized that he’s been killing people for the wrong reason. People whose only offense is reading books, and killing an innocent soul is no different than being a murderer. She doesn’t care that people died. She doesn’t give a crap that her husband is a murderer. “She means nothing to me!” are the exact words that she used because she only cares about herself.

    Read More

  • Fahrenheit 451 Analysis

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Censorship In Fahrenheit 451

    1219 Words  | 3 Pages

    Montag defines, “her face was like a snow-covered island upon which rain might fall, but it felt no rain; over which clouds might pass their moving shadows, but she felt no shadow” (13). Montag is describing how Mildred appears to him every day. This quotation proves that without books and knowledge (guidance) people in the society are unhappy, but they believe technology such as “parlor families” have the ability to keep them happy. Mildred symbolizes her society. This quotation supports depression in the society because the story clearly shows that the people are not pleased. Evidence is the fact that Mildred tried to commit suicide. If she were happy with her life and their society she would not have thought about committing suicide. “You took all the pills in your bottle last night” (19). Books not being a part of the society created a society in which everything is bad, a frightening place in the world. Mildred’s society is a dystopian society where everyone who does not have knowledge is suffering depression, they are devastating. Another example that proves that citizens in the society are depressed is when Montag feels that Captain Beatty wanted to die because he did not even try to move and purposely let Montag kill him. Evidence for the text is “he lay where he had fallen and sobbed, his legs folded, his face pressed blindly to

    Read More

  • Fahrenheit 451 Analysis

    857 Words  | 2 Pages

    To start, the novel Fahrenheit 451 describes the fictional futuristic world in which our main protagonist Guy Montag resides. Montag is a fireman, but not your typical fireman. In fact, firemen we see in our society are the ones, who risk their lives trying to extinguish fires; however, in the novel firemen are not such individuals, what our society think of firemen is unheard of by the citizens of this futuristic American country. Instead firemen burn books. They erase knowledge. They obliterate the books of thinkers, dreamers, and storytellers. They destroy books that often describe the deepest thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Great works such as Shakespeare and Plato, for example, are illegal and firemen work to eradicate them. In the society where Guy Montag lives, knowledge is erased and replaced with ignorance. This society also resembles our world, a world where ignorance is promoted, and should not be replacing knowledge. This novel was written by Ray Bradbury, He wrote other novels such as the Martian chronicles, the illustrated man, Dandelion wine, and something wicked this way comes, as well as hundreds of short stories, he also wrote for the theater, cinema, and TV. In this essay three arguments will be made to prove this point. First the government use firemen to get rid of books because they are afraid people will rebel, they use preventative measures like censorship to hide from the public the truth, the government promotes ignorance to make it easier for them to control their citizens. Because the government makes books illegal, they make people suppress feelings and also makes them miserable without them knowing.

    Read More

  • Fahrenheit 451 Conformity Essay

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    She does not express her views of the world since she spends her days watching and “communicating” with the parlor walls. Because of this, she is very forgetful of personal events and careless of others. Bradbury 40, Montag thinks back to when he and Mildred first met. “The first time we met, where was it and when?” “Why it was at-” She stopped. “I don't know,” she said. Also in Bradbury 49, Mildred states, “..let me alone. I didn't do anything,” as Montag shares his book conflict. This shows how Mildred lacks in thinking and considering the feelings of others. Therefore, she is the opposing side of the theme of the

    Read More

  • Mildred Montag's Representation Of Women In Fahrenheit 451

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    Amidst the after war facade of happiness the conventional 1950s woman was created. As exemplified by the writings of Fahrenheit 451 the feminist approach undervalues women. Mildred Montag, a conventional wife in the story is parallel to the ideal woman that was portrayed on television during the 1950s. This is mostly the reason because of the time at which the story was written. Mildred fits this stereotype because she is naive, and expressions the frustrations of a woman at this time. Feminist Literary Theory exposes negative attitudes towards women and exposing the undervaluing of women in literature.

    Read More

  • Happiness Explored in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    Of all characters, Bradbury uses Mildred Montag to effectively portray the idea that the majority of society has taken happiness as a refuge in nothing but passive, addictive entertainment. She immediately reveals her character early in the book, by saying, “My family is people. They tell me things: I laugh. They laugh! And the colors!” (73). Mildred is describing her parlors, or gigantic wall televisions, in this quote. Visual technological entertainment is so important in her life that she refers them to as “family,” implying the television characters as her loved ones. By immersing herself in an imaginary world, Mildred finds herself able to relate to fake characters and plots, giving her a phony sense of security. This is necessary for her to achieve her shallow happiness, or senseless plain fun, as she lifelessly watches other people in her walls with a senseless mind. Her family in real life only consists of Guy Montag, her husband, whom she has no fond feelings about. Montag is so frustrated with Mildred because of her inability to express feelings for ...

    Read More

  • Freedom Of Speech In Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    Guy Montag’s wife, Mildred, is the epitome of conformity. She almost killed herself but still claimed to be happy because that was how society had told her to act. Clarisse and Mildred are complete opposites. As written in Novels for Students Vol. 1, “Clarisse is shown in contrast to Montag’s wife, who totally accepts the values of the society, even when it is harmful to her health. Clarisse does not like the social activities that most people in the society like” (Novels for Students 142). Mildred acts represents most of the members of society by conforming and supporting society’s views. Clarisse, as well as Montag, was not pleased with the way society was. They both resisted conformity by asserting their views. Montag felt especially constrained by his society and the conformity it fostered. This motivated him to resist it and find others who shared his views, such as Faber and

    Read More

  • Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

    568 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fahrenheit 451 involves such characters as Guy Montag, Mildred Montag, Captain Beatty, and Clarisse McClellan. Fahrenheit presents the firemen as the tools of censorship and illegal books. Since books rarely exist in their society they look not to things of intellectual worth, but to things with physical and non-thinking pleasure. As the people become zombies to television and the "four walls," which is a form of television in their society they become resistant to change. They like everything to happen neatly and predictably, just like the television shows. Mildred, Montag's wife, becomes totally dependent upon the "four walls" to not only bring her entertainment throughout the day, but to be a source of consistency. The programs on the television are extremely unintelligent and Montag's question why Mi...

    Read More

More about Fahrenheit 451 Theme Analysis

Open Document