Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a novel about a government-based society

who are all brainwashed into believing in a utopian civilization. Guy Montag is the main

character in this novel. He and hundreds of other people believed in a utopian society

because he himself was a firefighter. A fireman’s job was to start fires instead of

stopping them . In the future, books were known as bad and shameful and if anyone had

possession of a book whether it was in their house or in another person's house, then the

house was to be burned. A fireman’s job was to burn any resources containing knowledge

into ashes because the government didn’t want there society to challenge them in any

way. The government of the society lied to its people about books and manipulated them

into believing that the books are the only source of unhappiness and destruction within

the society. In this novel Bradbury shows how the government misleads its people by

replacing humanitarianism with technology and by creating a censored and bookless

society which led Montag to rebel against the government. All of the chapters will show

and explain how Montag went from looking at his society through utopian eyes and

realizing his whole world has been a dystopian one all along.

In this chapter of The Hearth & The Salamander, Bradbury

introduces most of the characters . He begins when Montag meets a girl named Clarisse.

She was his next-door neighbor. Clarisse is classified as an odd person. She always asked

him questions that forced him to think about the things he had taken for granted. Clarisse

is an example of a Motif. She is a recurring image and description that always pops into

Montag’s head. He always remembers Clarisse as the girl who opened his eyes from a

utopian society into a dystopian society. Another example of a Motif is Light , Fire, And

darkness are all recurring themes. The next example of light, in reference to knowledge,

happens just after Montag meets Clarisse for the first time. "When they reached her

house all its lights were blazing"(pg.13 ). That quote was interpreted as those lines saying

that house is full of knowledge and enlightenment; not like the rest of the houses around

there neighborhood.

Bradbury is also an author who incorporates symbolism into his book. Bradbury's

use of symbolism

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