Fahrenheit 451 can be connected to history on many occasions. The most evident parallel is the direct comparison of the controlling government and the dictating government of, North Korea. In this novel, books are totally illegal, no exceptions. People that are caught with books have no choice but to let their house be burned and spend time in prison. Books are illegal for the simple fact that the government wants their people to stay uneducated. This way, the people are ignorant and happy and there are no reasons for them to rebel or start riots. This same method is used by the supreme leaders of North Korea. These dictators don’t give their people the leisure of reading anything they want; instead, citizens of North Korea can only read books that their former leader, Kim Jong Un wrote. This prohibits North Koreans from becoming curious about the world outside of their tiny cities. …show more content…
Moreover, this dystopian novel also includes a bandwagon mentality.
Citizens in Fahrenheit 451 follow along with the idea that books are worthless and life is better off without them. The controlling government makes a life without knowledge seem like luxury. During Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Germans, used propaganda to compell the people of Germany into believing that Jewish people were the reason that Germany had lost World War 1. Adolf Hitler created an army of Germans, the Nazis, that anilated the Jew population. Furthermore, another common thread between Nazi Germany and Fahrenheit 451 is the lack of self worth; people’s lives didn’t amount to anything in these dystopian
societies. Ray Bradbury’s intention for writing this novel was to openly express his feelings towards future technology through dystopias and cruel circumstances. Throughout the book, Bradbury shows how new technology is drowning out all knowledge left behind from books. Various examples from this book show that Bradbury wanted the readers to know his fear that one day, technology will eliminate books forever. One example of this would be the parlor walls. Throughout the novel, Bradbury shows how many problems these walls unleash between Montag and Mildred. In addition, Bradbury wanted his readers to be able to fully grasp how if felt to live in a society where ignorance is bliss and people are obliviously happy. To conclude, the writing style of Ray Bradbury is what made his novel so unigue. The way that he went into detail really clenched the reader’s attention. He made the reader actually feel how his characters were feeling. One clear example was when Guy was on the subway on the way to Faber’s house, and he was trying to read and memorize a part of the bible. Montag had a hard time focusing on the words he was reading while an advertisement kept replaying over the subway speakers, “Denham's Dentifrice”. Bradbury switches Montag’s thinking perspective countless times to make the reader just as confused as Montag was. Although the detail was incredibly well, Bradbury took too long to get his point across to the readers, ultimately losing their interest to continue reading the book with the same enthusiasm as they did in the beginning. Moreover, Bradbury’s ending to the book probably took lots of people by surprise. Ending with a cliffhanger allows his readers to think about the story more in depth, and unintentionally make their own ending to his novel. Although Ray Bradbury is gone, his works are never to be forgotten.
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.
In Fahrenheit 451, the residents were not happy in the society they were confined to. The government there made them believe they were happy because they had no sense of feelings and if they did they would have been killed, sent to the psychiatrist who would then prescribe them pills, and just thought of as a threat. The word “intellectual” was seen as a swear word, so from that you can see what type of society the people were living in. In general, the residents of Fahrenheit 451 were not happy at all and were the victims of media and entertainment.
Not all rules are always agreed on by every individual. Oftentimes people tend to keep to themselves about their differentiating views, but others fight for what they believe in. In order to make any type of progress for a specific cause, effort and determination needs to be put into a person’s every attempt towards a positive development. Individuals who rebel against an authoritarian society are often faced with the challenges to fight for what they believe in in order to make a change.
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.
Fahrenheit 451 is a book that takes place in the future. In a society that has been modernized to a lack of knowledge, there is one key factor that plays a role in ,not only the book, but to the reason these people are so oblivious to life. The reason is simply that their knowledge, and all information of history and reality was cut off at the source.
In Fahrenheit 451, the residents were not happy in the society they were confined to. The government there made them believe they were happy because they had no sense of feelings and if they did they would have been killed, sent to the psychiatrist who would then prescribe them pills, and just thought of as a threat. Intellectual was deemed as a curse word in the Fahrenheit society because they were afraid of their citizens opposing the laws and regulation of society. From that you can see what type of society the people were living in. In general, the residents of Fahrenheit 451 were not happy at all and were the victims of media and entertainment.
Fahrenheit 451 is about the United States turned narcissistic. The government has eliminated all things that will or could cause thinking. They think by doing this people will be happy. Honestly they are even more miserable without books or good movies then they are with those things. They are controlling all thoughts, anyone with hidden books is arrested and all books are burned they are destroying all history by doing this. If people cannot be happy for what they have and they always think negatively then that is their problem it should not be reason enough to take every thought away from everyone or even the choices. Nobody should have wall sized televisions in their house that is ridiculous and unnecessary. Characters in Fahrenheit
There are many similarities and differences between WWII Germany and fahrenheit 451. The book burnings in nazi Germany and in fahrenheit 451 is crazy similar. They both have crazy leaders With all the similarities theirs burning books and limiting knowledge in an advanced society there government wants to control knowledge so they stay in power and there’s not a smart enough to overthrow the government. they burn books is a similarity they also outlaw books. But just as there are similarities in this book and in nazi germany there are differences. Like they don’t burn down the houses they just burn the books in germany. People weren't allowed to have or read books and if they did have books they would have to be burned by firemen.Rumors of
Books are outlawed and burned. People are being taken away for owning them. The government has made these laws. THis is the society that Montag lives in. He has figured it out and wants to fix his society, but first he has to eliminate the biggest problem. That problem is the government control.
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury is a futuristic novel, taking the reader to a time where books and thinking are outlawed. In a time dreadful FOR those who want to better themselves by thinking, and by reading, BECAUSE READING IS OUTLAWED. Books and ideas are burned, books are burned physically, where as ideas are burned from the mind. Bradbury uses literary devices( I ONLY SEE ONE DEVICE!) such as symbolism, but it is the idea (WHAT IDEA?) he wants to convey that makes this novel so devastating. Bradbury warns us of what may happen if we stop expressing our ideas, and let people take away our books, and thoughts. Bradbury notices what has been going on in the world, with regards to censorship THROUGH book burning in Germany and McCarthyism in America.
Often, dystopian novels are written by an author to convey a world that doesn’t exist, but criticizes aspects of the present that could lead to this future. Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in 1951 but discusses issues that have only increased over time. The encompassing issue that leads to the dystopic nature of this novel is censorship of books. The government creates a world in which it is illegal to have any books. Firemen are enforcers of this law by being the ones to burn the books and burn the buildings where the books were found. By censoring the knowledge found in books, the government attempts to rid the society of corruption caused by “the lies” books are filled with in hopes the people will never question. In Fahrenheit 451, censorship is a paradox.
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).
1984 demonstrates a dystopian society in Oceania by presenting a relentless dictator, Big Brother, who uses his power to control the minds of his people and to ensure that his power never exhausts. Aspects of 1984 are evidently established in components of society in North Korea. With both of these society’s under a dictator’s rule, there are many similarities that are distinguished between the two. Orwell’s 1984 becomes parallel to the world of dystopia in North Korea by illustrating a nation that remains isolated under an almighty ruler.
This leads to the need to alter history. In 1984, everything from newspapers to books were changed to make it seem like Big Brother has always been in charge and doing what was right for the people of Oceania. On the other hand, in Fahrenheit 451 books and newspaper were not allowed in order to keep people desensitized to what really went on before their time and to keep them from thinking too much. Television screens were also used to control information by only allowing people to see what they approved and making people so hooked to them that they would fill the walls of an entire room with them and refer to them as the
In the book Fahrenheit 451 the theme is a society/world that revolves around being basically brain washed or programmed because of the lack of people not thinking for themselves concerning the loss of knowledge, and imagination from books that don't exist to them. In such stories as the Kurt Vonnegut's "You have insulted me letter" also involving censorship to better society from vulgarity and from certain aspects of life that could be seen as disruptive to day to day society which leads to censorship of language and books. Both stories deal with censorship and by that society is destructed in a certain way by the loss of knowledge from books.