The story of fireman guy montag first appeared in the fireman , a short story by ray bradbury published in galaxy science fiction in 1951. Montag 39 s story was expanded two years later, in 1953, and was published as fahrenheit 451. While the novel is most often classified as a work of science fiction, it is first and foremost a social criticism warning against the danger of censorship.

Personal Philosophy on Classroom Management Paper

Fahrenheit 451 uses the genre of science fiction, which enjoyed immense popularity at the time of the book 39 s publication, as a vehicle for his message that unchecked oppressive government irreparably damages society by limiting the creativity and freedom of its people. In particular, the dystopia motif popular in science fiction a futuristic technocratic and totalitarian society that demands order and harmony at the expense of individual rights serves the novel well. Developed in the years following world war ii, fahrenheit 451 condemns not only the anti intellectualism of the defeated nazi party in germany, but more immediately the intellectually oppressive political climate of the early 1950 39 s the heyday of mccarthyism. That such influential fictional social criticisms such as orwell 39 s animal farm 1984 and skinner 39 s walden two were published just a few short years prior to fahrenheit 451 is not coincidental.

These works reveal a very real apprehension of the danger of the us evolving into an oppressive, authoritarian society in the post wwii period. On a more personal level, bradbury used fahrenheit 451 as a vehicle through which to protest what he believed to be the invasiveness of editors who, through their strict control of the books they printed, impair writers 39 originality and creativity. Ironically, fahrenheit 45i, itself a vehicle of protest against censorship, has often been edited for foul language. Fahrenheit 451, ray bradbury 39 s most popular novel, has been reprinted scores of times since initially published in 1953.

The lessons of this american classic, the dangers of censorship and government control, have become increasingly important and the novel is as relevant today as it was when first written. Cite this page when examining fahrenheit 451 as a piece of dystopian fiction, a definition for the term dystopia is required. dystopia is often used as an antonym of utopia, a perfect world often imagined existing in the future.

Essay About Computer In Business

You may find it more helpful and also more accurate to conceive a dystopian literary tradition, a literary tradition that's created worlds containing reactions against certain ominous social trends and therefore imagines a disastrous future if these trends are not reversed. Most commonly cited as the model of a twentieth century dystopian novel is yevgeny zamiatin's we 1924 , which envisions an oppressive but stable social order accomplished only through the complete effacement of the individual. Which may more properly be called an anti utopian work rather than a dystopian work, is often cited as the precursor of george orwell's 1984 1948 , a nightmarish vision of a totalitarian world of the future, similar to one portrayed in we.

Essays About Something That Changed Your Life

we and 1984 are often cited as classic dystopian fictions, along with aldous huxley's brave new world 1932 , which, contrary to popular belief, has a somewhat different purpose and object of attack than the previously mentioned novels. Huxley's brave new world has as its target representations of a blind faith in the idea of social and technological progress. In contrast to dystopian novels like huxley's and orwell's, however, bradbury's fahrenheit 451 does not picture villainous dictators like orwell's o'brien or corrupt philosopher kings like huxley's mustapha mond , although bradbury's captain beatty shares a slight similarity to mustapha mond. The crucial difference is that bradbury's novel does not focus on a ruling elite nor does it portray a higher society, but rather, it portrays the means of oppression and regimentation through the life of an uneducated and complacent, though an ultimately honest and virtuous, working class hero montag. In contrast, orwell and huxley choose to portray the lives of petty bureaucrats winston smith and bernard marx, respectively , whose alienated lives share similarities to the literary characters of author franz kafka 1883 1924. All three imagine a technocratic social order maintained through oppression and regimentation and by the complete effacement of the individual.

Dissertation Institution Administrative

All these authors envision a populace distracted by the pursuit of explicit images, which has the effect of creating politically enervated individuals. Huxley envisions a world state in which war has been eradicated in order to achieve social stability bradbury and orwell imagine that war itself achieves the same end mdash by keeping the populace cowering in fear of an enemy attack, whether the enemy is real or not. The war maintains the status quo because any change in leaders may topple the defense structure. Orwell and bradbury imagine the political usefulness of the anesthetization of experience: all experiences become form without substance. The populace is not able to comprehend that all they do is significant and has meaning likewise, bradbury and huxley imagine the use of chemical sedatives and tranquilizers as a means of compensating for an individual's alienated existence.

Psychics on Drugs Essay

More importantly, all three authors imagine a technocratic social order accomplished through the suppression of books mdash that is, through censorship. however, despite their similarities, you can also draw a crucial distinction between these books. If the failure of the proles citizens of the lowest class workers reveals orwell's despair at the british working class political consciousness, and if mustapha mond reveals huxley's cynical view of the intellectual, guy montag's personal victory over the government system represents american optimism. This train of thought leads back to henry david thoreau, whose civil disobedience bradbury must hold in high esteem. Recall the remark by juan ramon jimenez that serves as an epigraph to fahrenheit 451. This epigraph could have easily served as thoreau's motto and is proof of bradbury's interest in individual freedom.