Friday, April 13, 2007
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Post your comments about what the dystopian setting reveals about modern life and about how characters respond to the corrupt, flawed, inhumane setting. (For more explanation and guiding questions look below or at the hand out I have you on Friday, April 13.) Use the open response form. Your first comments based on the first 100 pages (or more) of the book are due by Wednesday April 25. (You can either post them yourself or email them to jcook@gloucester.k12.ma.us.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Setting
Fahrenheit 451 takes place in the United States, many years in the future. In this world, material objects have almost totally replaced personal interactions and intellectual thinking. This lack of individual thought is dramatized by the existence of "firemen": squads of men whose job it is to locate houses in which people are hiding books (which are forbidden) and destroy them; both the house and the books. The rational behind this destruction is that the information in books stirs up controversy and discontent, and causes people to be question the world around them. In this world, the only kind of knowledge considered acceptable is "practical" knowledge (for example, how to fix a TV).
The realistic, contemporary social problem that the setting of Fahrenheit 451 is dramatizing is the lack of enthusiasm for knowledge and intellectual enlightenment. I believe author Ray Bradbury is trying to communicate to the readers that if people forget the value of independent thinking, they are setting themselves up to be oppressed. In the book it is explained that the "banishing" of books from society was originally introduced by the public, not by some tyrannical force. Basically, the author is trying to say that lapsing into intellectual hibernation is what allows dicators/totalitarian /oppressive governments to become installed.
Characters
The main character in Fahrenheit 451 is named Guy Montag. He is a "fireman", but from very early on in the novel he is discontented with his job and, moreover, his life. The books mainly deals with his struggles, at first internal (trying to figure out why he is unhappy) and then external, as he tries to change against the brain-washed life he leads; risking his job, his marriage, and even his life.
The most important character representing the opposition to Montag's attempt to gain freedom is Beatty: Montag's boss, the head of their Fire Department. Beatty is not an inherently evil character, but he believes that ignorance is a virtue. His personality and beliefs are exaggerated (this novel is a dramatization, after all). An important event linking him to the "bad guy" role is the fact that he is willing to burn an old lady alive when she won't get out of her house which he is about to torch (the old lady ends up torching it and herself, intentionally, but Beatty was ready to do it).
There are also 2 important female characters that contrast each other very blatantly: Clarisse McClellan, Guy's young female neighbor, who has an uncanny love for nature and a very inquisitive and intelligent personality, and Mildred Montag, Guy's wife, who is completely sucked into the mindless TV culture that is the norm in their society. Guy loves both these women in different ways. Unfortunately Clarisse dies very early on in the story but she helps awaken Guy's passion for individual though and, in turn, he tries to retrieve his wife from the drug-enhanced daze she lives in.
The main characters in Fahrenheit 451 include every stage in the social problem being explored: a man who totally approves of censorship, a woman who lives unaware in ignorance, a man who is trying to escape his previous intellectual paralysis, and a young lady who manages to retain her individuality in a society that encourages ignorance and passivism. The wide range of characters really helps the reader understand the scope of the social problem.
The main themes of Fahrenheit 451 are similar to those in Margaret Atwood's the Handmaid's Tail. Both novels emphasize the importance of intelluctual freedoms through the idea of a society controlled by censorship and brain-washing. The characters in these novels seem to suffer from paralysis as well as their passive behavior. The unwillingness of characters to take action results in extreme paralysis.
In both of these novels women characters differ greatly and can be easily compared. These novels seems to include strong vocal women as well as passive and ignorant women. Both also seem to touch on relationships and passion.
These two dystopian novels share the same message, which is as stated above..."lapsing into intellectual hibernation is what allows dicators/totalitarian /oppressive governments to become installed. "
Post a Comment