Fahrenheit 451

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the novel. For other uses, see Fahrenheit 451 (disambiguation).

**Title** **Fahrenheit 451**
First edition cover
Author	Ray Bradbury
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Dystopian novel
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Released	1953
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	208 pp
ISBN	ISBN 978-0-7432-4722-1 (Hardcover)

Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian soft science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury that was published in 1953.

It is set in a society where censorship is prevalent, and moronic citizens learn only from television. Most books are banned and critical thought is suppressed. The central character, Guy Montag, is employed as a "fireman" (which, in this case, means "book burner"). 451 degrees Fahrenheit is stated as "the temperature at which book-paper catches fire, and burns …". It was originally published as a shorter novella, The Fireman, in the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction. A film adaptation, by François Truffaut, was released in 1966, and another is anticipated. In addition to the movies, there have been at least two BBC Radio 4 dramatizations, both of which follow the book very closely.

The novel reflects several major concerns of the time of its writing: what Bradbury has called "the thought-destroying force" of censorship in the 1950s, the book-burnings in Nazi Germany starting in 1933, Stalin's suppression of authors and books in the Soviet Union, and the horrible consequences of the explosion of a nuclear weapon. "I meant all kinds of tyrannies anywhere in the world at any time, right, left, or middle", Bradbury has said.^[1]

One particularly ironic circumstance is that, unbeknownst to Bradbury, his publisher released a censored edition in 1967 that eliminated the words "damn" and "hell" for distribution to schools. Later editions with all words restored include a "Coda" from the author describing this event and further thoughts on censorship and "well-meaning" revisionism.

Bradbury has written that the entirety of his novel was written in the basement of the UCLA library on a pay typewriter. His original intention in writing Fahrenheit 451 was to show his great love for books and libraries. He has often referred to Montag as an allusion to himself.

On the alienation of people by media, Bradbury said:

“

In writing the short novel Fahrenheit 451 I thought I was describing a world that might evolve in four or five decades. But only a few weeks ago, in Beverly Hills one night, a husband and wife passed me, walking their dog. I stood staring after them, absolutely stunned. The woman held in one hand a small cigarette-package-sized radio, its antenna quivering. From this sprang tiny copper wires which ended in a dainty cone plugged into her right ear. There she was, oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries, sleep-walking, helped up and down curbs by a husband who might just as well not have been there. This was not fiction.^[2]

”

1 Plot summary
2 Themes in Fahrenheit 451
3 Characters in Fahrenheit 451
4 Allusions and references in other works
5 Printings
6 Notes
7 Further reading
8 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Fahrenheit 451 takes place in an unspecified future time, possibly in the 21st or 22nd century, in a hedonistic and rabidly anti-intellectual America that has completely abandoned self-control and bans the possession of books. People are now only entertained by in-ear radio and an interactive form of television. The protagonist, Guy Montag, is a fireman, certain that his job—burning books, and the houses that hold them, and persecuting those who own them, is the right thing to do.

It is by chance that one night he meets a girl called Clarisse McClellan, whose free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit cause him to question his life, his ideals, and his own perceived happiness. One night, after he learns that Clarisse has been killed in an accident, the fire station receives a call to arms. They are brought to the house of an old lady. While ransacking the house, Montag accidentally reads a line: "Once upon a time..." This prompts him to steal a book. The woman then refuses to leave her house and her books, and sacrifices herself. This disturbs Montag greatly.

Later, he is visited by his fire Chief (see below) Cpt. Beatty, who tells him the "reasons" behind his job. How it was society, in its search for happiness, that suppressed books; how the government simply took the opportunity given to it. Montag asks Beatty what would happen if he had taken a book. Beatty says all firemen do it at one time or another. Montag argues with his wife, showing his growing disgust for her and for his society.

It is soon revealed that Montag has hidden dozens of books in the house, and he tries to read them, but becomes frustrated that the words seem to simply fall away. He then remembers a man he met before: Faber, a former English professor. Montag seeks Faber's help, and together they hatch a plot to slowly bring down the firemen's industry.

Montag returns to the fire house and gives Beatty a book. During a card game, Beatty tells Montag he had a dream about him, and relates the literary argument he says they had in his dream. He quotes many books and shows a thorough knowledge of literature, but he uses that knowledge to defend the firemen's role. Then there is yet another call to arms, and Beatty theatrically leads the crew to Montag's own home. He reveals that he knew all along of Montag's books, and charges Montag himself to destroy the house solo. Montag goes to work, but is not content only to destroy the books. He burns the televisions and other emblems of his ignorant past life. He then kills Beatty and two other firemen, a crime that makes him an enemy of the state.

He flees to Faber's house, with a futuristic hound and helicopters in pursuit. Faber tells him of vagabond book-lovers in the countryside. Then Montag, having washed off his scent in a local river, floats downstream and meets such a group—mostly older men—who, to Montag's astonishment, have memorized entire books, to be preserved orally until books are allowed again. They themselves burn the books they read to prevent them from being discovered; the true books are safely stored in their minds. The group leader, Granger, discusses the legendary phoenix and its endless cycle of long life, death in flames, and rebirth; he says the phoenix must be some relation of mankind.

At this point an international war begins, and Montag watches helplessly as the jets fly over the city and drop their bombs. His wife, Mildred, is killed in the explosions. It is implied that the bombs are nuclear. Montag and the homeless people return to the city to help rebuild their society in the manner of the phoenix, hoping that humanity will learn from its mistakes and do better this time.

[edit] Themes in Fahrenheit 451

Individual Vs. Society
Importance of Literature
Value of entertainment over family, relationships and individually motivated lives
Propaganda
Censorship
Knowledge Vs. Ignorance
Life and Death
Animal Imagery
Technology
Paradoxes
Religion

[edit] Characters in Fahrenheit 451

Guy Montag is the protagonist and fireman (see above) whose metamorphosis is illustrated throughout the book and who presents the dystopia through the eyes of a loyal worker to it, a man in conflict about it, and one resolved to be free of it. Bradbury notes in his afterword that he noticed, after the book was published, that Montag is the name of a paper company. Guy Montag is also the opposite of "Girl Friday" (from a movie about newspaper reporters) - 'Montag' meaning 'Monday' in German.
Faber is the former English professor who represents those who know what is being done is wrong, but are too fearful to act. Bradbury notes in his coda that Faber is part of the name of a German manufacturer of pencils, Faber-Castell. 'Faber' is also a Latin word meaning 'maker'.
Mildred Montag is Montag's wife, who tries to hide her own emptiness and fear of questioning her surroundings or herself with meaningless chatter and a constant barrage of television. She constantly tries to reach the glorified state of happiness, but is inwardly miserable. Mildred even makes an attempt at suicide early on in the book by overdosing on sleeping pills. She is used symbolically as the opposite of Clarisse McClellan. She is known as Linda Montag in the 1966 film.
Clarisse McClellan displays every trait Mildred does not. She is outgoing, naturally cheerful, unorthodox, and intuitive. She serves as the wake-up call for Guy Montag, by posing the question “why?” to him. She is unpopular among peers, and disliked by teachers for (as she puts it) asking why instead of how, and focusing on nature rather than technology. Montag always regards her as odd until she goes missing; the book gives no definitive explanation. But it is said that Captain Beatty and Mildred know that Clarisse has been killed by a car.
Captain Beatty is Montag's boss and the fire chief. Once an avid reader himself, he is disgusted with the idea of books and detests how they all contradict and refute each other. In a scene removed by Bradbury, he invited Guy to his house where he shows him walls of books which he leaves to molder on their shelves. He tries to entice Guy back into the book-burning business, but is burnt alive by Montag when he underestimates Montag's resolve. Guy later realizes that Beatty might have wanted to die and provoked Guy until he did it. He is the symbolic opposite of Granger.
Granger is the leader of a group of wandering intellectual exiles, who memorize books so they will be saved. Where Beatty destroys, he creates; where Beatty uses fire for the purpose of burning, he uses it for the purpose of warming. His acceptance of Montag is considered the final step in Montag's metamorphosis, from embracing Beatty's ultimate value (happiness and complacency), to embracing his value (love of knowledge).
Mechanical Hound The mechanical hound exists in the original book but not in the film. It is an emotionless, mechanical killing machine that can be programmed to seek out and destroy free thinkers, hunting them down by scent; the hound is blind to anything but the destruction for which it is programmed. Bradbury notes in his afterword that the hound is "my robot clone of A. Conan Doyle's great Baskerville beast," referring to the famous Sherlock Holmes mystery The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Mildred's friends (Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps) Mildred's friends represent the average citizens in the numbed society that is described throughout the novel. They are examples of the people in this society who are not happy, but do not think they are unhappy. When they are introduced to literature, which symbolizes the pain and joy that has been censored from them, Mrs. Phelps is overwhelmed by the rush of emotion that she has not felt before.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Allusions and references in other works

50th Anniversary Edition cover

The title of Bradbury's book has become a well-known byword amongst those who oppose censorship, in much the way George Orwell's 1984 has (although not to the same extent). As such, it has been alluded to many times, including in the ACLU's 1997 white paper Fahrenheit 451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning? and Michael Moore's 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Bradbury objected to the latter's allusion to his work, claiming that Moore "stole my title and changed the numbers without ever asking me for permission.".^[3] However, others were quick to point out that Bradbury himself lifted titles and lines from other authors verbatim, including Walt Whitman's I Sing the Body Electric, a poem from his Leaves of Grass collection.

Artist Micah Wright used the theme "Hand all books to your local fireman for safe disposal" overlaid on a 1940s fireman propaganda poster.

Hungarian poet György Faludy includes the lines in the opening stanza of his 1983 poem "Learn by Heart This Poem of Mine": "Learn by heart this poem of mine, / Books only last a little time, / And this one will be borrowed, scarred, [...] / Or slowly brown and self-combust, / When climbing Fahrenheit has got / To 451, for that's how hot / it will be when your town burns down. / Learn by heart this poem of mine."^[4]

The theme and plot of the movie Equilibrium, starring Christian Bale, Sean Bean and Dominic Purcell, draws heavily from Fahrenheit 451 (as well as 1984 and Brave New World).

Guy Montag, a flamethrower-wielding hero in the real-time strategy game StarCraft, is named after Montag.

Dozens of other references to the novel occur in television, music, and video games.

[edit] Printings

In United States:

First Edition - prebound, October 1953
Second Printing - paperback, April 1991

In Canada:

First Edition - February 1963
Seventh Printing - October 1972

[edit] Notes

^ Bradbury, Ray (2004). Conversations with Ray Bradbury. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 19. ISBN 978-1-57806-641-4.
^ Quoted by Kingsley Amis in New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction (1960).
^ SFGate.com (2004), “Author seeks apology from Michael Moore”, retrieved 2006-10-03
^ Gyorgy (George) Faludy. John Robert Colombo, ed. Learn by Heart This Poem of Mine: Sixty Poems and One Speech, Hounslow Press, 1983, ISBN 978-0-88882-060-0. Online version hosted by opendemocracy.net