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What Is Fahrenheit 451 A Social Satire

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Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953 by Ballantine Books, rose to fame quickly and surely as a grandfather of the dystopian genre. A year after its release, Greg Conklin of Galaxy Science Fiction named the novel, “among the great works of the imagination written in English in the last decade or more” (Conklin). The Chicago Sunday Tribune 's August Derleth called it "a shockingly savage prophetic view of one possible future way of life," while honoring Bradbury in sight of his "brilliant imagination" (Derleth). In spite of its praise, even sixty-two years after its release, the novel remains highly controversial. P. Schuyler Miller of Astounding Science Fiction described the book as “one of Bradbury 's bitter, almost hysterical diatribes” (Miller). Furthermore, the New York Times called it a "virulent hatred for many aspects of present-day culture” (Nothing But TV). Because of its uncreative plot, dull characters, lazy development, and ill-considered message, the novel fails to make its mark as the thoughtful piece of social commentary it was intended to be.

Fahrenheit 451 is set in a futuristic society where the apathetic population is so diverse that all groups are minorities, people often refer to television characters as “family”, and firemen burn books. When the protagonist of the novel - a white, middle-aged, male, boring firefighter, Guy Montag, meets the feverishly unrealistic and one-dimensional Clarisse McClellan, his world begins to change. Through an

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