preview

What are some of the key ideas and messages presented in the novel,

Better Essays

What are some of the key ideas and messages presented in the novel,
Fahrenheit 451? Explain your answer with examples and quotations.

What are some of the key messages and ideas presented in the novella,
Fahrenheit 451? Explain your answer with detailed examples and quotations. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian, science fiction novel, which is written through the perspective of Bradbury’s protagonist,
Guy Montag. Fahrenheit 451 was initially published in 1953; however it is set in the twenty fourth century in a conformist society, where literature is illegal. Throughout Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury conveys some very important messages and ideas. Among these are; censorship, the influence of technology, individual …show more content…

The first factor is the ever increasing popularity of entertainment and mass media. Bradbury believed that the existence of technology gradually would make books obsolete. Beatty explains this to Montag, “Speed up the film, Montag quick…Digests-digests-digests.
Politics! One column, two sentences, a headline.(p.55)” The second factor is implied in Fahrenheit 451 as being the most important factor that led to book banning, which is “minorities” and special interest group’s objections to the content of the books. Beatty also explains this to Montag, “Don’t step on the toes of the dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists,
Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans,
Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico.(p.57)”

Bradbury positions his readers, through the role that censorship plays in Fahrenheit 451, to see what can happen if a government is allowed to take total control. Through his extremist point of view, Bradbury conveys a message to the readers, explaining the consequences of censorship. For example, the government in Fahrenheit 451 has taken control and demanded that books be given the harshest measure of censorship; by methodical destruction through burning. According to
Montag, the firemen’s official slogan is, “Monday burn Millay,
Wednesday Whitman, Friday Fauckner. (p.8)” The radical humor of this
quotation

Get Access