Fahrenheit 451
Facts: Fahrenheit 451 is a story by Ray Bradbury written in 1953. It is 158 pages long and is a work of dystopian fiction.
Synopsis: It is a dystopian tale that takes place in an America of thoughtless people that are mollified into submission. It represents the absence of imagination and critical thinking. The regime that controls the populace seems to think for them, but while it does seem insidious, it did not obtain power by force, but was put in place by the complacency of the people. The story focuses on the messiness of thought and feeling, the ease of choosing rationalism and materialism, and the fallout of a society that abandons what it is to be human. The main character, Guy Montag, goes on a journey of self-discovery that sees the end of the current society and the beginning of something new. By the end we explore thinking, feeling, and their boons and pitfalls.
Guy Montag: Our protagonist. He starts the novel already questioning. The major conflict of our main character is himself. When he does face physical struggles it is not the hardship of overcoming, but of committing the acts that he deals with. He is uncomfortable with original thought and struggles with its confusing nature throughout the story. He rebels against the status quo and finds himself an enemy of the state. A war levels the city, and Montag imagines many more cities being likewise destroyed. He lives beyond the tale to presumably lead the new society.
“I don’t want to change sides and just be told what to do. There’s no reason to change if I do that.” – Montag, Ray Bradbury
Mildred Montag: Our main protagonist’s wife. She represents the society. She is an empty consumer. She understands something is fundamentally wrong. She tries to overdose throughout the book. She also tries to fill the void with characters from her television and calls them her “family”. When she is confronted with books, and the knowledge they contain, she rejects them. Her fate is unknown, but Montag imagines her dying in the attack on the city.
“And besides, if Captain Beatty knew about those books-” “He might come and burn the house and the ‘family.’ That’s awful! Think of our investment. Why should I read? What for?” – Millie, Ray Bradbury
Clarisse McClellan: A young girl that acts like an inspiration and catalyst for our protagonist. She is inquisitive and is in many ways Mildreds opposite. She has conversations with her family and her uncle regales her with many wondrous ideas. She is vibrant and happy as a contrast to the empty populace. She is killed, the particulars unknown, but Montag wonders if some speeding kids are to blame. Her family moves away.
“I’m afraid of children my own age. They kill each other. Did it always used to be that way? My uncle says no.” – Clarisse, Ray Bradbury
Faber: A terrified ex-English professor. He represents a good man who did nothing to stop evil. He is cowardly and fearful. When he encounters Montag he is a font of knowledge and helps facilitate our main character’s actions. Montag also encourages him, and the two plan on rebelling in an ultimately futile way. Montag imagines that he likely survives the climax of the tale, but his fate is unknown.
“Proof of my terrible cowardice. I’ve lived alone so many years, throwing images on walls with my imagination.” – Faber, Ray Bradbury
Beatty: Our antagonist. Beatty is an intelligent character who wields his knowledge to control the populace. He has read books and openly rejects them as folly. The ideas they hold are confusing and dangerous. He knows of the time before the current state of things and finds the status quo preferable. He has the knowledge books hold, but finds it counterproductive to fun. He wants to keep the status quo. He is eventually killed by Montag.
“With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, flyers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word ‘intellectual,’ of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.” – Beatty, Ray Bradbury
Granger: Is the opposite of Faber. He is an academic, but he chose exile over cowardice. He speaks for thousands of nomads who have rejected the new normal. He awaits the day when knowledge can return. To that end he is determined to remember a text effectively becoming a book. He survives the story and helps lead Montag into the future.
“I wrote a book called The Fingers in the Glove; the Proper Relationship between the Individual and Society, and here I am!” – Granger, Ray Bradbury
The Firemen: They represent control by the state. They burn books to destroy the knowledge they contain and keep the populace empty. They think they are providing a service, and the populace relies on that service to keep their malaise at bay. They use mythical creatures, notably the pheonix, as representation.
“So many people are. Afraid of firemen, I mean. But you’re just a man, after all…” - Clarisse, Ray Bradbury
Books: The source of knowledge and the representation of suppression. Bradbury states that books were not the only receptacle of ideas. Anything that engendered original, and critical thought, could lead you to a deeper truth. Books were the easiest, and least manipulated, formula for that transference of knowledge. We are constantly presented with butterfly imagery as they burn. This suggests a sense of liberation held within, and its destruction.
“Here! Read this one. No, I take it back. Here’s the real funny one you read out loud today. Ladies, you won’t understand a word. It goes umpty-tumpty-ump. Go ahead, Guy, that page, dear.” – Mildred, Ray Bradbury
Thinking: The real enemy of Fahrenheit 451 is idiocy. The people of Fahrenheit’s society are empty materialists who fill the void inside themselves with mediocrity. The people of the society chose to abandon thinking and forming ideas. They are consumers, not creators.
“I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I am alive.” – Faber, Ray Bradbury
The Wall: The main means in the book by which the society is controlled. The “family” are virtual beings programmed to mollify the populace and deliver the state’s message of conformity. We are told there are other means, but they are not deeply explored. The hunt for Montag at the end of the book plays like an episode of reality television, but also a publicized execution that helps maintain the status quo.
“They mailed me my part this morning. I sent in some soap box tops. They write the script with one part missing. It’s a new idea. The homemaker, that’s me, is the missing part. When it comes time for the missing lines, they all look at me out of three walls and I say the lines.” – Mildred, Ray Bradbury
The Hound: A system of control. It is an agent of the state with the sole purpose of hunting down dissidents. It seems malevolent, and there is a hint to it being tampered with in the book. Montag strongly suggests someone has targeted him using the Hound.
“It doesn’t like or dislike. It just ‘functions’. It’s like a lesson in ballistics. It has a trajectory we decide for it. It follows through. It targets itself, homes itself, and cuts off. It’s only copper wires, storage batteries, and electricity.” – Beatty, Ray Bradbury
The War: We are not told who the war is against. It is a looming event through the whole story. The wives worry about their husbands, but state that death happens to other people. We are told that the society has won two atomic wars and, unlike the rest of the world, is vastly wealthy.
“Patience, Montag. Let the war turn off the ‘families.’ Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge.” - Faber, Ray Bradbury
The City: Opulent, rigid, and unthinking. We are not given much of the city’s character, and the cast seems to live in a suburb. It is destroyed during the climax of the book. It is suggested that many such cities, perhaps all, within the society are likewise destroyed.
“And across the world, thought Montag, how many other cities dead? And here in our country, how many? A hundred, a thousand?” – Montag, Ray Bradbury
The Country: Taking place in a fictional America, we are presented with a civilization on the brink of war. The nation has abandoned free thought and the citizens have chosen to be fed their lives. The majority chose this. They were not forced into it by oppression, tyranny, or force. There are outcasts who refuse to bend to the will of the majority, but they are exiles living in the wilderness. There are presumably thinkers at the top of this society, as technology has continued to advance, but the people of this America live in decadence while we are told that the rest of the world lives in poverty.
“The woman on the porch reached out with contempt to them all, and struck the kitchen match against the railing.” - Ray Bradbury
The People: The citizens of the society have evolved to the point where they find thinking harmful, but the emptiness of their lives is equally untenable. We see this most through Mildred who tries to overdose on pills regularly, but refuses to admit she does this. Her friends are automatons who often repeat what has been said. When confronted with poetry, Mrs. Phelps is brought to tears, but none of them know why. They have lost the ability to comprehend complex thought, but subconsciously they understand the meaning behind it.
“Did you hear them, did you hear these monsters talking about monsters? Oh God, the way they jabber about people and their own children and themselves and the way they talk about their husbands and the way they talk about war, dammit, I stand here and I can’t believe it!” Montag, Ray Bradbury
Media: The main vector for the delivery of the will of the government. Homes possess a ‘TV Parlor’ where the walls are screens and the images are three dimensional. You can interact with them via a script of the show, or just view. The television is considered a key feature of the home, and a necessary and important investment that is the civilizations touchstone to conformity. The character Mildred calls the characters her ‘family’, but they are not sentient. There are other forms of media, but they are equally as vapid.
“It’ll be even more fun when we can afford to have a 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.” Mildred, Ray Bradbury
Death/Life: The citizens of this society try not to contemplate life or death. They treat life as very cheap. The kids often kill one another without remorse or thought. Violence is seen as fun. Mildred’s friends remark that their husbands will go of to war soon. They are under the assumption that death always happens to other people. We are also presented with an apathy to suicide. People freely kill themselves without knowing why.
“I’ve never known any dead man killed in a war. Killed jumping off buildings, yes, like Gloria’s husband last week, but from wars? No.” - Mildred, Ray Bradbury
Fire: Through most of the book fire is considered antagonistic. The firemen use it to burn books. It cleanses and purifies the society by destroying the confusing, divisive knowledge contained within books. An old woman, maybe reminiscent of a witch, lets herself burn with her beloved books. This vexes Montag greatly. Fire is also presented as a life giver by provided light and heat for the exiles.
“It was not burning, it was warming.” - Montag thought, Ray Bradbury
The Pheonix: The imagery is used through most of the novel to represent Beatty. He wears the pheonix symbol as the Captain of the firemen in the story. However, after the bombs drop, Granger remarks the legend of the pheonix. It is a symbol of hope, rebirth, and renewal.
“But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again.” - Granger, Ray Bradbury
TLDR: The story is about the dangers of conformity and ‘fun’ as distraction. The society chooses fun over the messiness of individual thought. This creates empty people that just go about their lives like damaged automatons. Something is wrong, but the majority are not aware and the few that are have no ability to articulate their woes. There are exiles who maintain knowledge, but they are destroyed within the confines of the society if they are revealed. The brave, insightful one’s flee and become exiles.
By the end of the story the society is destroyed. The main character is presented with an opportunity to build a new one.
Personal: I enjoyed the read, and highly recommend it. The themes are clear, the main character is interesting, and the supporting characters relay the story well. It is a story of man vs. self and other as Montag comes to grips with his feelings and the forces that oppose his change. Man vs. Other is the most common, so I found it refreshing to see the main character struggle and change throughout the story. Most modern stories show growth, but few focus on it. Guy Montag has to navigate the world, and his growth leads him to become the enemy of the society. This culminates in a televised chase and execution of a proxy used to replace Montag after he escapes capture.
What were your thoughts?
