Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury as a protest novel.

Marta Minujín, The Parthenon of Books 1983

In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a diverse plethora of social and political points are explored. Ranging from the exploration of the bond between humans and the natural world, access to education and the relevance of literature within 21^st century society. The futuristic setting of the ‘24^th century’, instantaneously has connotations to other dystopian texts akin to George Orwell’s 1984 that correspondingly dissects totalitarian government’s employment of restricting literature as a method of control. The act burning of books has been seen in many real-world regimes such as Hitler’s Nazi Germany and recently a fire-proofed copy of Margret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale was produced in response to the increasing censorship and the rise of book-banning in US schools. Bradbury presents a timeless text investigating the role of literature in society and the human condition.

Bradbury exemplifies the power of the written word. The written word and books have an ironic place in the extract as Fahrenheit 451 itself becomes a literary mouthpiece for Bradbury’s personal ideological standpoint. Bradbury also creates a reference to the ‘old fairy tales’ of the Brothers Grimm through the traditional literary phrase ‘once upon a time’. The power of storytelling is show through the verb ‘glanced’ when describing the length of time Montag spent reading the book. Thus, highlighting the potency for stories to be retained in the brain after only a passive ‘glance’. The verbally illustrative tone is furthered through the language used by Bradbury and the phonetic qualities of the passage. Bradbury uses a sematic field of plosive alliteration, ‘faces’, ‘fires’, ‘flushed’, ‘burning black’ and the sibilance ‘silent scream’. This results in the creation of emphasis on the aesthetic aural qualities of the English language and the beauty of literary techniques. This very style of language rebels against the anti-literary ‘repressive state’ creating a dramatically ironic and satirical tone. This decorative language style of proper English is something that at current is being threatened by the digital convergence of society and the increasing popularity of social media highlighting the relevancy and universality of Bradbury’s message.

Guy Montag gains an allegorical presence in the extract representing the suppression of the human spirit. Montag is immediately characterised as ‘question[ing]’ and ‘wonder[ous]’, two inherent human traits. The curiosity of human’s can be biologically linked back to Stone Ages and this concept is reinforced by many philosophers such as Guy Locke in his Tabula Rasa theory. Acting on human nature creates pockets of individuality to arise- a key area of suppression for totalitarian governments. Bradbury illustrates this through the semantic field of questions and interrogatives running his speech, ‘what happened to him?’, ‘guilt? what guilt was that?’. The concept of ‘imagination’ is also explored by Bradbury who may have been influenced by the Romantic poets view of imagination such as William Blake. His acknowledgement of the subversion of the ‘Firemen’s’ occupation shows the natural intelligence he possesses and consciousness, another human trait suppressed by regimes explored by Karl Marx. The character of Clarisse McClellan and her ‘mysterious dissapar[ance]’ stands as a cautionary omen towards of Montag in his pursuit for the truth. Montag also expresses great levels of empathy, ‘how it would feel… to have Firemen burn our houses and our books’. The restriction of human connectivity and unity is prevented by the bourgeoises to thwart the possibility of revolution. Bradbury here may be reinforcing a Marxist ideology by exploring the dichotomy between groups within the power superstructure of society.

Throughout the extract, Bradbury emphasises “man’s” link to the natural world. Bradbury emphases the removal of the ‘men[‘s]’ identity and creates anthropomorphic image. The impersonal collective term ‘men’ echo’s the dystopian genre convention of the deduction of identity enforced by totalitarian governments, akin to the Handmaid’s in Atwood’s Gilead. Their identity becomes interlinked with the natural world, ‘fiery face’, ‘charcoal hair’ ‘soot-coloured brows’ ‘ash-smeared cheeks’. The dark colour imagery of the men physical appearance extends to the setting as well. Bradbury interlinks this with the pathetic fallacy ‘black morning sky’ and ‘night wind’ communicating the doomed state of existence for Montag. Bradbury creates a binary opposite between hot and cold, ‘cool wind’, ‘chilling’, ‘burning’, ‘flames’ which emerges the reader into Montag’s world through the synesthetic qualities. The natural allusions of ‘thunderheads’ and the alliterated exclamative ‘mighty metal thunder!’ produces a powerful and vengeful representation of the natural world.  The dynamic verb ‘flurry of snow’ further reinforces this defensive attitude of nature. The eco-critical discourse that emerges in the extract still has strong relevancy as the USA produced 4.9 billion metric tons of CO₂ in 2021. Through Bradbury placing a focus on ‘fire’ and ‘burning’ in the extract human’s destructive treatment of the natural world and our anthropocentrism is exhibited and condemned.

Captain Beatty emphasizes the dominance of the state. As Montag represents the proletariats of society, Beatty simultaneously symbolizes the bourgeoises at the top of the superstructure. The invasive verbs ‘touching’ and ‘exploring’ exaggerate the omnipresence of the government reinforcing social theorist Jeremy Bentham’s “panopticon theory”.  The metaphorical ‘card game’ has a tone of duality, Montag is playing a ‘game’ with Captain Beatty on a physical and political level. Captain Beatty speech is often grammatically incorrect ‘We haven’t any books’ and ‘you got some?’ highlighting his disregard for education further reinforced through his title of ‘Captain’ showing his proprietorship of power. Bradbury pairs the interrogative ‘What kind of talk is that?’ with the exclamative ‘Once upon a time!’ to create an authoritive tone. The Firemen’s ‘rulebook’ has a dictatorial tone created through the ordinal determiners ‘1,2,3,4,5’ and the concise style of speech ‘Burn Everything’. The act of them ‘draw[ing] forth their rule-books’ is deeply ironic and shows the hypocrisy of institutions. The semantic field of numerical language ‘four’, ‘two hundred times’, ‘million’ contrast the illustrative language of books which the Firemen destroy. Bradbury summaries the omnipresence of the ‘government’ through Beatty’s perception of futility of rebellion; ‘Any man’s insane who thinks he can fool the government and us’.

Bradbury creates a traditional dystopian novel conforming to genre conventions fitting alongside great texts like 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale. The extract enlightens readers to changes they can make towards having higher levels of sustainability, education and awareness. Fahrenheit 451 is a noteworthy didactic novel, delivering a vivid and striking insight into Bradbury’s perspective on the necessity for political consciousness throughout the development of society.