fahrenheit
451
INTRO
JOURNAL 1
Title and Author: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Genre: Science Fiction
Historical Context: Published in 1953.
Protagonists:
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Guy Montag, a 30 year old fireman. He is the main character in the story.
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Clarisse McClellan, Guy's 16 (almost 17) year-old neighbor. Guy sees her as unusual, as she is always out in the world, thinking and observing.
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Faber, an old professor who had books and helped Montag for part of the story. He created the "green bullet" listening device (like a bluetooth headset).
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Granger, a fugitive Guy meets at the end of the story. He offers Guy help as he is now running from the law as well.
Antagonists:
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Captain Beatty, Guy's fire captain. He turns on Guy and tries to arrest him after making him burn his (Guy's) own books. He is murdered by Guy in the end.
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Mildred, Guy's wife. She may not seem like an antagonist at first, but she was the one who made the call to the fire department and turned Guy in, resulting in his attempted arrest and the murder of Captain Beatty.
Plot Summary: Guy Montag, who began his journey as a regular fireman, had his life change when he met Clarisse McClellan. She was the only person Guy had met who questioned things and did not just accept things because it was just "how it was done". Clarisse's death and the murder of an old woman protecting her books changed Guy completely. He began staying home sick from work, stealing books, and questioning the world around him. He met an old professor named Faber who missed books just as much as Guy wanted to learn about them. By the time Guy had stolen a whole collection of books, his wife, Mildred, was getting tired of it and his boss, Captain Beatty was getting suspicious. After Guy read poetry out loud to Mildred's friends, Mildred put in a call to the fire department and reported the books. She then left town. Guy was forced to burn his own house to the ground and was going to be arrested, but then anger overcame him and he burned Captain Beatty alive. The authorities sent the mechanical hound (an actual robot dog) to hunt Guy down and find him, as he was now a fugitive murderer. He stopped at Faber's house to get clothes and to say goodbye before making his way down the river. He escaped the city and went far enough to find a group of people, who were all old book lovers and fugitives, and stayed with them. They all watched the news to discover that Guy had successfully thrown the search parties off of his trail and watched the wrong man, an innocent man, get murdered by the mechanical hound. Nobody watching could tell if it was really Guy or not. The group of fugitives took Guy in and promised to help him. He thought about saving the book he was thinking of for when the group reached the city, then the book ended.
Key Themes: Understanding (Guy understands that people need to think and observe to survive), changing fire (fire can change and be helpful and not harmful, much like Guy)
Significant Literary Elements: Symbolism (451 - the temperature paper burns/the badges on the fireman's helmet and jacket/the title of the book, counting - big changes in character or plot points marked by countdown or count up, phoenix - at the end of the book, the phoenix is explained - Guy Montag is the phoenix [burned and then reborn]), metaphors (used to compare fire, Guy, and other main aspects in the text like the salamander), zoomorphism (book pages as butterflies, a fire hose as a snake), and imagery (extremely detailed images of fire, feelings, surroundings, and thoughts)
JOURNAL 2
Part One of Fahrenheit 451 is called "The Hearth and the Salamander". The reader quickly discovers that the salamander is orange and it is on a patch the main character, Guy Montag, wears. In only the first 30 or so pages, the story was filled with figurative language and compelling dialogue.
There were metaphors, zoomorphism, imagery, and symbolism. The number 451 is found in the title and on Guy's "fireman" uniform. On the title page of the book, it is explained that 451° Fahrenheit is the temperature at which books burn. The firemen in this story do not stop fires - they start them. Their job is to burn books because, in this world, reading is illegal. The firefighters wearing the number 451 symbolizes what they have to do for their job and is seen at many places in the book. There was a metaphor comparing Guy's hands to those of "some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning". The author even zoomporhized a "fire hose" (flamethrower) as a snake. The rampant figurative language in this book makes it a very interesting read. It keeps the reader hooked on what is going on at all times. Even in the first 30 pages of the book, I was already intrigued and ready to sit down and read the whole thing all at once. The language devices used paint a very clear picture of the setting, character's emotions, and entire scenes.
There was a lot of dialogue that I found very interesting. The first line in the book was "It was a pleasure to burn" (Bradbury 1). The reader just jumps directly into the story and attention is grabbed with all the figurative language Bradbury uses. There are a lot of connected ideas expressed through both figurative language and dialogue as well as the main character's thoughts. In the very beginning of the story, Guy talks about the smile he gets when he is burning books. Later on, he says that he "felt his smile fade away" (Bradbury 12). Guy also tells his neighbor, Clarisse McClellan, that she thinks "too many things" (Bradbury 8). At the fire station, Guy becomes worried that the mechanical hound (a literal robot dog) does not like him. His coworkers tell him to stop worrying. At one point, Clarisse tells Guy that he is not like the other fireman. She asked him to look at the moon, and he did, where other firemen would not have done the same. The dialogue accompanied with the incredible figurative language of this book make it very interesting. My favorite line from this section was dialogue between Guy and Mildred. "Does it have a happy ending?" "I haven't read that far." (Bradbury 22).
JOURNAL 3
Dynamic Character Change:
In only the first part of the book, the main character Guy Montag has changed a lot. In this story, thinking really is not something people do often. Guy was alarmed and confused about how much Clarisse was thinking. He even told her that she thought too much. However, not too much later, Guy began thinking a lot himself. He was up almost all night, thinking about things Clarisse had said, his wife, and other things. He even focused on the clock ticking. The "one, two, three" tick of the clock was repeated often, most likely for emphasis.
Guy began questioning things in his life, too, especially his job. He focused on Clarisse telling him about the old fireman. Apparently, in this future world, fireman only start fires, not stop them. Guy brought this information to the other firemen at his station. They did not question their careers like Guy was doing. They told him that he was being ridiculous and that it was a lie. Often when Guy brought up a point that he was thinking about, his team would tell him that what he thought was incorrect or stupid. Every time he said something that was not the norm, he would get ridiculed for it.
It was Clarisse who started Guy thinking about all these new ideas. She told him how things used to be, usually through stories about her uncle. She talked about how people go extremely fast on the highway and do not get to observe anything. Her uncle went slowly on the highway (about 40 mph) and was jailed for two years - which Guy did not find surprising. He immediately spoke about the law and how that was very illegal. Guy kept thinking, though. He thought about how Clarisse observes everything and how she has real conversations with people while he and many others do not.
The most important change in thought for Guy, however, was when he stole a book. He felt like he was doing something wrong while he was burning a woman's books when he had never felt like that before. He read a line of a book - something he had done once before - and then stole a book to read it later. He ignored the law that claims reading is illegal and ignored his duties as a fireman. These actions demonstrate huge character development. Guy went from being a law-abiding, not thinking, model fireman to being a person who thinks, feels, and reads.
JOURNAL 4
The Meaning and Purposes Behind Things
In the futuristic world of Fahrenheit 451, everyone does what they are supposed to without any protest or question. Nobody wonders why there are bombers in the sky 24/7 or why reading is illegal. It just is. If something is law, that is just the way it goes. Nobody wonders why. Guy Montag was just another one of the mindless people, wandering the streets, doing just what he was supposed to do. Then one day, he met Clarisse. Her stream-of-consciousness way of speaking started to get Guy to question. Guy meeting Clarisse led to him staying home sick from work and stealing books. He even got his wife, Mildred, to start thinking and questioning. Guy, who was a normal, law-abiding citizen who was just doing his job, turned into someone who stashed books away in vents. By the time he revealed his book collecting problem to his wife, he probably had about a hundred books.
Guy convinced Mildred to start reading all the books he stole. Mildred started off with a closed mind, not willing to try and read. She wondered why people would want to read - Captain Beatty said that books were full of nothing but just empty words. The Captain said that books had no meaning. However, Guy, who was basically a new man at this point, no longer believed him. He began wondering why.
When Guy and Mildred started reading, they read the same pages over and over again in order to understand them. Mildred had still believed Captain Beatty. She did not understand the thought process Guy was experiencing. His character and way of being had completely changed. Guy questioned everything. This world he and Mildred live in is at war. He spoke about bombers in the sky, atomic wars, and how the rest of the world is starving while he and everyone around him is well fed. He began to wonder if books were illegal because they would show people the truth about the world and offer them a way out of the sheltered world they were living in. He thought maybe books would help people not make the same mistakes over and over again, and maybe that was why they are illegal and hidden from everyone. For the first time, Guy was not just one in a crowd of hundreds. He had joined Clarisse in the mindset that there might be a reason behind things. Instead of wondering why Clarisse wanted to know the purpose of things, he now wanted to know the reasoning, too. What Clarisse said stuck with him. All her comments, questions, and observations broke Guy out of his old mindset and into a new one. His character development was only just beginning.
"We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something's missing." - Guy Montag, pg 89.
This passage immediately stood out to me while I was reading. For me, it related back to the idea that Fahrenheit 451 predicted the future. People have incredible inventions today. Television, e-readers, tablets, cell phones, and many other new devices can keep people occupied and bring them happiness. People can just whip out headphones and plug them in whenever they want to listen to music. The seashells in this novel closely resemble earphones today. Everyone today has basically everything a person could want so that they would be entertained. However, just as in Guy Montag's world, we are not happy.
Ray Bradbury not only predicted some of the technology we use today with Fahrenheit 451 but also people's attitudes today. In the futuristic world of this book, nobody speaks to each other. Everyone is either focused on the giant TVs in the parlor that directly address the owner of the house or they are off driving at insanely high speeds. People in that world rely heavily on technology - just as many do today. People in that world could not understand why anyone would just want to sit down and have a conversation. Nobody speaks or observes anything around them. Everyone is basically checked out from society. People do not have any reason to interact, so they just don't.
In today's society, everyone is so heavily reliant on technology that some people cannot even interact with others. Cell phones are used as crutches in social situations. Some people have social anxiety that is so severe that they need to have their phone on them at all times to escape people. In cities, people walk up and down sidewalks with headphones in. Whether they are listening to music or having a phone conversation, they are checked out. Nobody pays attention to the other people while walking down the street. They see, but do not observe. This is just like the novel. The characters tune out the outside world using their seashells, just as we do with our headphones. With all this technology at our fingertips, we do not converse, speak, or observe. We have all this amazing technology that is supposed to keep us connected to the world while in reality, it separates us. We should be happy with these objects, but we are not. Amazing advances in science and technology have been made, but are people happy about it? Well, most are not. Even with the devices, people still act like they are miserable. Bradbury may have predicted the future of this country in more ways than one.
"We all have our harps to play. And it's up to you now to know with which ear you'll listen."
-Faber, page 118
JOURNAL 5
JOURNAL 6
"It was not burning. It was warming." page 158.
This quote, from the last part of Fahrenheit 451, is symbolic. It is describing fire - however, it can also be interpreted as being about Guy himself. He has become a new person with a new purpose, like this fire. He no longer burned things and hurt them. Guy Montag went from burning people alive to being a real person who tried to interact with others and observe the world around him. That fire was not burning either, it was warming - it was not hostile.
Burning and warming have very different connotations. The word "burning" usually comes with a very negative connotation. It implies pain, destruction, and loss. People's houses burn down. Houses burning down cause homelessness and loss of important items. Burns leave scars and pain. However, "warming" has a positive connotation. People become warm with happiness, warm themselves when they are cold, and love being warm. Guy went from being a strict, negative, person, to someone who wanted to learn and observe and change. Guy did not burn people alive anymore. He did not burn books. Instead, he ran from the burning and sought warming instead.
Guy relates to fire in more ways than one. Not only did he change like the fire he lit in the above passage, but he is trying not to be put out. At this point in the book, Guy is being hunted. He was going to be arrested for book possession, but he murdered his captain and is now a fugitive and guilty of murder. That harsh, mean person that Guy once was had changed, though. Like the fire, he warmed up to the world. He wanted to see and understand what was happening in the world he lived in and why. He had warmed up to new ideas and ways of thinking. The previously close-minded and cold Guy Montag became open-minded and was warming up to the world. Instead of being destructive, he was a warm person, much like that fire.
The fact that the word warming was italicized was also very important. It implies that the fire "warming" was not expected. This passage was one of Guy's thoughts. Guy thinking this demonstrates the sudden realization of change. That same change happened in Guy himself, which no reader would have expected. That change from a destructive attitude to a warm and open attitude was displayed through this symbolic fire.
FINAL
Book/Movie Comparison
The movie was actually very different from the book. Clarisse was not a 17 year-old girl, she was in her 20s or 30s in the movie. It seemed like she was interested in Guy (whose first name was never mentioned throughout the movie). She also told him about the "book people", also known as the men that saved Guy at the end of the book. While it was the same concept, there was much more emphasis on them in the movie than in the book. Nobody knew about them in the book - Guy did not know about them until he met them. Clarisse also seemed to replace Faber in the movie. There was no mention of him. It was almost as if the movie version of Clarisse was a combination of Faber and Clarisse.
Other changes included the change of Mildred's name to "Linda". I did not really understand why the name change was needed. There really seemed no purpose for it. Although, I do understand a little - when I hear the name "Mildred" I think of a shrill 1950's housewife. When I hear the name "Linda", however, I think of a mom quite like the one on the Brady Bunch (even though her name is Carol). But the name was not the only thing the movie changed about Mildred. The movie made it seem like they were in a very happy, healthy relationship, while the book had them portrayed as basically strangers. Also, instead of having the heart transplant be early on in the story like in the book, it happened about halfway through the movie. The chronology was a little off in the movie.
However, with all the changes, the story was still the same for the most part. Most of the characters were like how they were described in the book. Guy still burned Captain Beatty alive, but did not get his leg run over by a car. Also, the mechanical hound was not in the movie. Instead of using the hound to "kill Montag", they used a helicopter with guns. This may have been because the movie came out in 1966 and the technology to make a mechanical hound was not invented yet. It was still an important part of the book, though. So was Faber and the green bullet. There was no sabotage, no green bullet, no Bible, and no Faber at all in the movie. He was part of the reason Guy could safely escape the authorities, but because they combined his character with Clarisse, I guess they did not need to portray him in the movie. Besides the changes, though, I though the movie was pretty good. My favorite part was when one of the "book people" said he was The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.
Personal Reflection:
I thoroughly enjoyed Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. It was not hard to read and it was an interesting story that took many turns which I did not expect. Even some of the basic parts of the book were surprising. Firemen that burned houses instead of putting out fires? I was not expecting that. Reading that books were banned from society was strange, too. Of course there were some ancient cultures who supported book burning (hence why there is no Library of Alexandria), but one would not have expected that in a futuristic society. This book was a different kind of "dystopian" novel. It was not something someone would see in The Hunger Games but closely resembled our society today. The technology was a particularly close aspect of this book. Flat screen TVs, bluetooth headsets, and earphones are common things seen today. I know I have a flat screen
TV in my living room and headphones in my bag at all times - it was just strange to read about them roughly 40 or 50 years before they were actually invented. I knew of the idea about Fahrenheit 451 predicting the future before I read it, which made it interesting to try to find all the technology that was correspondent with what we have today. I also really liked the characters and story overall. Guy was an interesting character - he had a complete change of character in the story. It was interesting to see him change so much in such a little amount of time. I also liked Clarisse a lot, but I was not expecting her to die not even halfway through the book. She was so different from everyone else in the book and reading she got hit by a car was almost shocking. The whole world of Fahrenheit 451 had aspects that were very similar to life today. Guy mentioned how everyone in his region was rich or "comfortable" while the rest of the world remains poor and hungry, which is kind of like today. The technology was also something we have now. The way people acted in the book was the most important similarity with today in my eyes. I thought it was strange how everyone seemed like strangers in the book because everyone was always absorbed in their technology. As I'm writing this, I'm listening to music while typing on a computer and not interacting with the people around me. I don't even know some of their names. I see other people doing the same thing, so maybe Bradbury wasn't so far off in his description of how people acted in this futuristic world. While this book was an easy read, it had a good story that kept me interested. It was very thought provoking, too, and I'm happy I got the chance to read it. It made me wonder what else Ray Bradbury may have predicted in his time.