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Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'

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Authors lives are frequently narrated in their works. For example, a lot of Ray Bradbury’s life experiences can be seen in his novels. This is obvious in his most famous novel about the effects of the world with a lack of books. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury’s experiences in a time when war took up the majority of conversation are reflected in his work which focuses on individual thought and expression. Author Ray Bradbury’s life strongly influenced his work. Bradbury was born August 22, 1920, the son of Leonard and Ester Bradbury in Waukegan, Illinois (Touponce). In 1938, he published his first story in a club magazine at the end of his high school career, which was also the end of his formal education (Touponce). His first …show more content…

He is a “fireman” who is very invested in his job at the beginning. As Montag is setting a library on fire inside of a house, he stares at the house and “He wanted above all , like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house” (Bradbury 33). When Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451, “If you “followed orders, you would succeed” was the conventional wisdom (“Fahrenheit 451,” Novels). Montag’s wife tends to sit in front of a television all day and it has created a delusional fantasy, showing the dangers of modern technology. In the novel, his wife states, “It’s really fun. It’ll be even more fun when we can afford to have the fourth wall installed. How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a fourth wall-TV put in? It’s only two thousand dollars” (Bradbury 50). At this point, the only thing important to her was the television and the cost did not even seem to phase her anymore. Television became a big development for schools and were used more because “...it was becoming apparent that the children’s reading levels were dropping” (“Fahrenheit 451,” Novels). The firemen in the novel set fire to libraries by force rather than putting fires out because books are illegal. At one point in the novel, the firemen went to house and a dispute went on between Montag and …show more content…

“Essay on Fahrenheit 451.” Novels for Students, Gale, 1997, pp. 150-153. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=6&docId=GALE%7CCX2591400017&docType=Character+overview%2C+Critical+essay%2C+Work+overview%2C+Biography%2C+Plot+summary&sort=RELEVANCE&contentSegment=&prodId=GVRL&contentSet=GALE%7CCX2591400017&searchId=R1&userGroupName=pl3059&inPS=true#Historical_Context
“Fahrenheit 451.” Novels for Students, edited by Diane Telgen, vol. 1, Gale, 1997, 138-150.
Levy, Michael M. “Fahrenheit 451.” Beacham’s Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction, edited by Kirk H. Beetz, vol. 3, Beacham Publishing Group, 1996, pp. 1313-1316.
Touponce, William F. “Bradbury, Ray 1920--.” American Writers, Supplement 4, edited by A. Walton Litz and Molly Weigel, vol. 1, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1996. pp. 101-118. Gale Virtual Reference Library,

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