Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury 451 degrees Fahrenheit Th

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Fahrenheit 451

• By Ray Bradbury

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451 degrees Fahrenheit

• The temperature at which paper catches fire . . .

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What is F451?

• Social Criticism dangers of suppressing thought.
• Science fiction dangers of an oppressive
  government.
• Dystopia Opposite of utopia.
• Ironically, F451 a message against censorship
  has often been censored.
• Since 1951 consistently ranked in top 100 works
  of American Literature.

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Who are the Firemen?
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Similarities with our society

• High tech, somewhat violent, busy, fast-paced.
• Clarisse notices how fast people drive
• If you showed a driver a green blur,
  hed say, thats grass! A pink blur, a rose
  garden! My uncle drove slowly once. He drove
  40 miles an hour and they jailed him for two
  days.

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Similarities . . . continued

• Clarisse also notices how violent young people
  are
• Six of my friends have been shot in the last
  year alone. Ten of them died in car wrecks. Im
  afraid of them and they dont like me because Im
  afraid.
• Clarisses story highlights how careless we are
  of others, especially those who choose to be
  different.

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Connections to Today

• Today, the FBI has a Library Awareness Program
  that recruits librarians to monitor suspicious
  library users and report their reading habits to
  the FBI.
• The Patriot Act (established after September 11,
  2001) allows the FBI to investigate suspicious
  activity.

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Predictions Bradbury made that are somewhat true
today

• Live television broadcasts of police pursuits
  (aided by helicopter-mounted cameras and
  supplemented by voice-over commentary by
  announcers)
• "Seashell radios" closely resemble portable audio
  players.
• Superficial topics on TV

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Predictions

• Objectionable books have been burned
  (literally!) and symbolically burned (banned or
  challenged) in the United States.
• Anti-depressant pills common and
  commercialized.
• Abortion becomes a form of birth control.
• Political Correctness.
• Front porches and parks are becoming less common
  due to urbanization and lack of space and use.

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F451 and Technology

• Dangers of technology and mass entertainment,
  over ideas and independent thought.
• In F451, society has abandoned books in favor of
  hollow entertainment and instant gratification.
• During the time Bradbury wrote this book,
  American television was filled with cookie-cutter
  sitcoms, predictable westerns and dramas, and
  game shows. It was a diversion only.
• The writer T.S. Eliot said
• Television permits millions of people to laugh
  at the same joke, but everyone still feels
  lonely.

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Symbolism

• Books represent ideas. What if we permit books
  to be removed from our society?
• The Salamander can endure fire without buring.
  Symbolic of Montag.
• The Phoenix mythological bird that can never
  truly die. Symbolizes rebirth and destruction by
  fire and the cyclical nature of things.
• Firemen wear the Phoenix on their uniforms.

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Contradictions (dualism)

• Fire and books have both good and negative
  meanings.
• For example by day, Montag burns books, but he
  is guilty of secretly reading novels.
• Fire has two conflicting properties it destroys
  dangerous possessions but it also preserves
  people (providing heat and light)

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Main Characters

• Montag The protagonist. A fireman.
• Mildred Shallow and not intellectual.
  Represents what Montag now despises.
• Clarisse Mildreds foil.
• Captain Beatty Antagonist.
• The Hound Technology gone too far.
• The Old Woman Martyr. Her final act gets
  Montag thinking.

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What is Science Fiction?

• Impact of science on society (or individuals).
• Often plausible
• Political commentary.
• A common theme is an ultra-restrictive form of
  government, making people and their ideas
  essentially useless.
• Post-WWII
• Fear of Atomic War

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Science Fiction

• Science Fiction in the 1950s Movies and Books
• The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury a story of
  what happens when tattoos come alive while the
  host body is asleep
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding a
  cautionary story about civilization run amok
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers

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Key Theme Censorship

• Books are burned because they present ideas,
  which might trigger discontent.
• In this novel, it is not the government that
  began censoring, it was the people themselves.
  People were discontent, so the government removed
  the sources of their unhappiness. The government
  gave them other things to think about.
• According to Beatty Remember, the firemen are
  rarely necessary. The public itself stopped
  reading of its own accord . . .

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Censorship of this novel

• The book was originally published in 1953, but
  published a special edition in 1967 for high
  school students.
• The book has been frequently challenged by school
  districts. A challenge is an attempt to remove
  or restrict materials.
• Censorship reflects a societys lack of
  confidence in itself. Justice Potter Stewart
  (1970s)

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Censorship TodayOther frequently challenged
books

• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Harry Potter (the entire series)
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Anne Frank the diary of a young girl by Anne
  Frank