In a world where the government has complete control and the people are told what to think, rebels exists. There are the people who are not afraid to think differently from what they should believe. These people that resist and defy are recognized not only by their societies as an outcast but as a threat by the government. The protagonists’, Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and Ray Montag in Fahrenheit 45, are such revolutionaries. Both of these characters have different reasons for rebellion and resistance, but their character traits go hand-in-hand with one another.
Author of The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins, was born in 1962 in Connecticut. She was the daughter of an Air Force Pilot and her family had to move several times throughout
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her childhood. She proved herself to be a very talented writer early on in her life by becoming a children’s television show writer and in 2008 her first book was published, The Hunger Games. For Collins, The Hunger Games and her other books touched on the very subjects that her own father often discussed with her. "If we introduce kids to these ideas earlier, we could get a dialogue about war going earlier and possibly it would lead to more solutions," she says. "I just feel it isn't discussed, not the way it should be. I think that's because it's uncomfortable for people. It's not pleasant to talk about. I know from my experience that we are quite capable of understanding things and processing them at an early age” (“Suzanne Collins”). With this insight and way of the thinking, she created the fictional, dangerous world of Panem. Katniss Everdeen is the female heroine in Collins’ trilogy and she is quickly introduced as an independent and brave young woman. Katniss has very strong opinions towards the Capitol. When she volunteers as a replacement for her younger sister, she is thrown into the Capitol’s games. It does not take long for Katniss to realize all the corruption that goes on and once she is literally in the games, she fights for herself and her fellow District 12 ally, Peeta. The society sees Katniss as their secret weapon for the start of a rebellion.
The sincerity and dedication she shows sets the stage for the revolution to come. Katniss also shows signs of defiance from the beginning of the novel by hunting outside the District 12 boundaries. Another act of defiance being the fact that Katniss volunteers to replace her sister in the games. These are the sort of incidents that grasp the Capitol’s attention and the same incidents occur in Fahrenheit 451.
Ray Bradbury was an American fantasy and horror author who rejected being categorized as a science fiction author, claiming that his work was based on the fantastical and unreal. Bradbury won the Pulitzer in 2004, and is one of the most celebrated authors of the 21st century. He died in Los Angeles on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91. He is remembered for several popular works, including The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes. His best known novel is Fahrenheit 451, a dystopian study of future American society in which critical thought is
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outlawed. Bradbury's best-known work, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953, became an instant classic for its exploration of themes of censorship and conformity. In 2007, Bradbury himself disputed that censorship was the main theme of Fahrenheit 451, instead explaining the book as a story about how television drives away interest in reading: "Television gives you the dates of Napoleon, but not who he was” (“Ray Bradbury Douglas”). The main character in this classic work, Guy Montag, is the start of a new era in his society. Guy Montag is a 30-year-old firefighter in the 24th century.
In this dreadful and oppressive setting, people race "jet cars" down the roads as a way of terminating stress, "parlor walls" are large screens in every home used dually for entertainment and governmental propaganda, and houses have been fireproofed, therefore making the job of firemen obsolete. However, firemen have been given a new job; they are book burners and the official censors of the state. As a fireman, Guy Montag’s job is to destroy every book he comes in contact with and the place in which he finds those books. Books are not to be read; they are to be demolished without question.
When Montag meets Clarisse McClellan, his new bubbly teenage neighbor, he begins to question whether he really is happy. Clarisse gives Montag enlightenment; she questions him not only about his own personal happiness but also about his occupation and the fact that he knows little about history. At the same time, she gives insight to the reader how the government has severely limited the knowledge and truth about history
(Hiner). Guy Montag starts to think of the reasoning behind the book-burning. He even keeps a stash of books in his own house. This secret could get him fired from his job and, even worse, it could kill him and his wife. His curiosity gets the best of him and he starts to explore the history of the books he is supposed to be burning. This curiosity is just as serious as actually having the books and could get Guy into severe trouble. The risk of exploring is interpreted as defiance against what his job and society demand.
Firstly, Montag is influenced by Clarisse McClellan because she is the first person he has met that is not like the rest of the society. Clarisse is a young 17 year old girl that Montag quickly becomes very fond of. Clarisse influences Montag by the way she questioned Montag, the way she admires nature, and her death. Clarisse first influenced Montag by the way she began questioning him often. Her questions would make him think for himself unlike the rest of society. “Then she seemed to remember something and came back to look at him with wonder and curiosity. “Are you happy?” she said. “Am I what?” he cried. But she was gone- running in the moonlight” (Bradbury, 10). Clarisse was one of the only people that Montag had ever met that had ever asked him that. This question that she asked him influenced him because he thinks about, and Montag asks himself tha...
Both protagonists in Fahrenheit 451 and Anthem fight to encourage the advancement of learning in society. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Montag eventually diverges from the path of the general public once he realizes that
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.
He realizes that he is limited to his knowledge and freedom by his government and he doesn’t want that for himself anymore. Bradbury symbolizes this when Montag says to Mildred, “ ‘There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stand in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.’ ” (48). During this quote Montag begins to question his society, and why he burns books. He becomes eager to know why they have certain rules and hopes to find the answers in books. Montag’s curiosity also is established when he says, “ ‘I’ve heard rumors; the world is starving, but we’re well fed. Is it true the world works hard and we play? Is that why we’re hated so much? I’ve heard rumors about hate, too, once in a long while, over the years. Do you know why? I don’t that’s sure. Maybe the books can get us half out of the cave. The just might stop us from making the same damn insane mistakes! I don’t hear those idiot bastards in your parlor talking about it. God, Millie, don’t you see? An hour a day, two hours, with these books and maybe…’” (70). This displays that Montag is starting to open his eyes to the truth about the world around him. Montag is starting to question authority and the “true facts” that his government gives his society. Montag is becoming empowered and beginning to think for
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...
Fahrenheit 451 and the Hunger Games are both intertwined with a futuristic version of human entertainment and a society absent of religion. Both societies are subjected to gruesome and brutal activities as a form of enjoyment. The desire for a thrill and an adrenaline rush dominates the minds of most people. In Fahrenheit 451, it’s very likely that many people succumb to their deaths from accidents but can easily replaced by members of the parlor family who they accept as their own. In the same way, The Hunger Games consists of exactly what the title suggests. They are annual games, which include starving and murder and serve as society’s primary source of entertainment. Most people don’t enjoy watching the games but, the Capitol forces the districts to watch for it believes they are a good source of entertainment. Seeing how the Hunger Games are basically murdering each other until the last child is standing, it relates closely with the kind of entertainment that the society of Fahrenheit 451 provides with the adrenaline and thrill of the same kind. The people in Fahrenheit 451 like their source of entertainment in the way they approach it but the instances of conformity remains the same. This is unlike that of the people of the districts in The Hunger Games. There is indeed a difference between the two societies yet, in the Hunger Games there is less time for many because so many people are working toward survival, while in Fahrenheit 451, entertainment is something that people do daily. The existence of adrenaline entertainment is similar in both societies. Yet they differ in whether or not the people actually like the entertainment.
“We shall either find what we are seeking, or free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we do not know.” ― Mary Renault. In many dystopian texts and films, there would always be a person who rebels and looks for change, like Jonas in the Giver,. In Pleasantville and Fahrenheit 451, the main characters are living in a dystopia and they rebel in diverse ways for a change.
... 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.
Guy Montag, usually referred to as “Montag,” is a third generation fireman in the world of Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury 42). His world is a place where firemen start fires rather than putting them out; until the start of the book he does not question anything he is told (Bradbury 15). Montag goes through a series of events that cause him to doubt what he has always known. He learns that not all people are what his society finds normal, and when a woman is burned alive he feels that he needs to know more about what these books are all about (Bradbury 16, 35). As these events unfold before him, Guy becomes more and more intrigued with the books. He becomes so intrigued that he steals a book from the woman’s house before they burn it, which is later revealed that he has been doing for a while (Bradbury 34, 53). Throughout all this Montag finds that he is quite unhappy with his life, but he does not kn...
Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, is based in a futuristic time where technology rules our everyday lives and books are viewed as a bad thing because it brews free thought. Although today’s technological advances haven’t caught up with Bradbury’s F451, there is a very real danger that society might end up relying on technology at the price of intellectual development. Fahrenheit 451 is based in a futuristic time period and takes place in a large American City on the Eastern Coast. The futuristic world in which Bradbury describes is chilling, a future where all known books are burned by so called "firemen." Our main character in Fahrenheit 451 is a fireman known as Guy Montag, he has the visual characteristics of the average fireman, he is tall and dark-haired, but there is one thing which separates him from the rest of his colleagues. He secretly loves books.
In conclusion, Bradbury uses irony throughout Fahrenheit 451 to convey more information on important themes in the novel. This is effective because it shows that a society will learn to practice what it preaches and accidentally hurt itself or others its citizens don’t have the freedom to explore their emotions and their capabilities. Also, it is possible that Bradbury used a line of dialogue by Clarisse to mock how McCarthy was causing people to live in fear of being arrested or accused of being a communist. Lastly, Bradbury uses Mildred as a character to have an example of the many deficiencies that could be caused by a controlling government with too many things that are censored. This shows that Bradbury knew how to use irony to make his ideas make more sense and to help emphasize the main themes of Fahrenheit 451.
The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451 are both great examples of dystopian fiction. A dystopia is a fictional world that takes place in the future that is supposed to be perceived as a perfect society, but it’s actually the opposite. Other things that a dystopian society might display are citizens both living in a dehumanized state and feeling like they’re constantly watched by a higher power. Dystopias are places where society is backwards or unfair, and they are usually are controlled by the government, technology, or a particular religion. The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451 are both in the dystopian fiction genre because the societies within them show the traits of a dystopia. Both of them also have characters that go against the flow of the normal world.
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
In the novel Fahrenheit 451, it can give a powerful message for readers since it connects to our world
Montag is influenced by Clarisse a lot. And, her impact on him is tremendous. She questions his whole life, teaches him to appreciate the simple things, and to care about other people and their feelings. “You're peculiar, you're aggravating, yet you're easy to forgive..”(Bradbury 23) Through all Clarisse's questioning, Montag knows that she is trying to help him. Because of her help and impact on him, Montag is changed forever.