Fahrenheit 451
Background and Pertinent Information
Context
 Published in 1953
 Post-World War II era
 Nazi book burnings of the 1930s were widely published after
WWII – became a major symbol of the repression in Nazi
Germany
Context
 Television became dominant medium for mass
communication
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1946: 7,000 TV sets existed in the U.S.
1948: 148,000 sets
1950: 4.4 million sets
Television vs. books – debate over bringing television into schools
because reading level of students was dropping
 The importance of books and the freedom to read them was
a central concern of liberal-minded people during the
1950s.
Context (McCarthyism)
 McCarthy trials
 Senator Joseph McCarthy
 McCarthy made a public accusation that more than two hundred
“card-carrying” communists had infiltrated the United States
government. Incited a huge “communist scare,” which helped lead to
the Korean War and the Cold War.
 McCarthy accused many Army officials of espionage and communist
ties.
 He also focused on writers and filmmakers, creating a great debate
on artistic freedom.
Context (McCarthyism)
 Thousands of people lost their jobs as, all across America, state
legislatures and school boards mimicked McCarthy and his House on UnAmerican Activities Committee.
 Books were even pulled from library shelves, including Robin Hood, which
was deemed communist-like for suggesting stealing from the rich to give
to the poor.
 Above all, several messages became crystal clear to the average American:
Don’t criticize the United States. Don’t be different. Just conform.
 By 1953, his accusations were at their height. His hearings were held in
1954 and were the first to be publicly broadcast (ruined his reputation
and career).
Context
 Fear of robots and other technology was prevalent in the 1950s
(“mad scientist” movies compounded such fear by portraying
machines that turned on their creator).
 Mentality of hard work and following orders to get ahead was
prevalent at this time.
 Atmosphere of fear and repression left over from WWII,
development (and use) of atomic bomb, communist scare, the Cold
War, and McCarthy made it possible for government or any other
powerful group to manipulate public opinion.
Context
 Mob mentality vs. individual rationalization
 Silence of those who were intimidated and the indifference of
those who didn’t can lead to further manipulation in any time
period!
 “Written five years after the end of the Second World War at the
advent of the Korean War, Bradbury’s book evokes an intense
atmosphere of entrapment, an oppressive presence of an
unavoidable doomsday, and the unmistakable apprehension of
individuals living in fear of an authoritarian government.”
TIMELINE OF THE 1950s
1950
President Harry Truman
approves production of the
hydrogen bomb.
1951
Television first broadcast
across the country.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
are convicted and sentenced
to death for passing
information on atomic
weapons to the USSR.
TIMELINE OF THE 1950s
1952
Fashion, people and
society is very
conservative. People are
generally respectful of
each other, the
government, religion and
life.
1954
The U.S. Supreme Court
wrote in “Brown v. the Board
of Education of Topeka,
Kansas” that racial
segregation in schools was
illegal.
TIMELINE OF THE 1950s
1954
U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy begins a televised anti-communist witchhunt. This became known as “McCarthyism”. Basically, the Cold War
revolved around the fact that:
The USA was a Democratic country where people could do what they
want, become rich and have freedoms.
The Soviet Republic (USSR) was Communist, which meant people
listened to the government, lived equally and shared resources.
The United States declared Communism countries to be enemies. The
US government wanted everyone to think Communists were evil so they
spread around hate propaganda.
McCarthy accused random people he didn’t like of being Communists,
which basically ruined their lives.
TIMELINE OF THE 1950s
1956
Elvis Presley took
the music world by
storm with five #1
songs on the
Billboard Music
Chart.
Robert Noyce and
Jack Kilby invent the
microchip.
The first enclosed
mall called
Southdale opened in
Edina, Minnesota
1957
First British H-bomb
exploded at
Christmas Island.
First underground nuclear
test “Rainier” occurred at
the Nevada Test Site.
Britain’s first truly
successful thermonuclear
bomb test.
The Soviet Union
Launches the
Sputnik, the first artificial
satellite.
Censorship
 “the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may
be considered objectionable, harmful or sensitive, as determined by a censor”
 Fahrenheit 451 is a book about the dangers of censorship. Yet this book itself
has been the object of censorship. It has been banned and/or challenged in
many places across the United States.
 Ironically, Bradbury’s publishers, unknown to him, “cleaned up” or deleted
some of the language that Bradbury used in Fahrenheit 451 in order to make
the book saleable to the high school market. This edition went on the market
in 1967 and was sold for 13 years before a friend brought the changes to Ray
Bradbury’s attention. Bradbury demanded the publisher removed the edited
version immediately and replace it with the original. The publisher agreed.
Overview
 Guy Montag is a fireman who burns books in a futuristic American city. In Montag’s
world, firemen start fires rather than putting them out. The people in this society do
not read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or
have meaningful conversations. Instead, they drive very fast, watch excessive
amounts of television on wall-size sets, and listen to the radio on “Seashell Radio”
sets attached to their ears.
 Montag will meet a 17-year-old girl named Clarisse McClellan, who will open his eyes to the
emptiness of his life by enjoying those things that her society tells her not to.
 A series of strange events will unfold for Montag, causing him to question his life, his career,
and his society.
 Montag will turn to books for answers, which is strictly forbidden in his society.
Overview
 Protagonist: Guy Montag
 Antagonist: Society as a whole and, specifically, Beatty
 Narrator: Third person limited from Montag’s perspective
 Setting: Some time in the twenty-first century; two atomic wars have
taken place since 1990; in and around an unspecified American city
Bradbury’s True Predictions
TV WALLS
 Ray Bradbury explained TV screens that covered the entire
wall. Now a lot of people essentially do have TV walls with
projector screens.
Earbud Headphones
 When this novel was written huge headphones were the new
cool thing, and no thoughts of changing the size of them to fit
in someone’s ear were around, but Bradbury predicted this
revolution of headphones. In the novel the main character’s
wife always wears the headphones and ignores the life around
her much like people do today.
Interactive TV Shows
 Throughout the novel Ray Bradbury describes a large TV on
the wall, and it is interactive with the people watching it.
1953 is the year that this novel was written and it also is the
year that the first color television came out. Most TV’s at that
time didn’t have more than 5 channels yet Bradbury still saw
interactive TV shows in the future. Today shows like
American Idol ask the audience to vote for their favorite
people, making it an interactive show.
Robots
 The mechanical hound is described as a spider like robot that
shoots venom at people which obviously doesn’t exist, but
mechanical things with extremely scary capabilities do exist.
For example we now have robots that have been created and
computers that have crazy intelligence.
Mechanical Hound-
Stomach Pump
 In the novel the wife of the main character over doses on
drugs and has to get her stomach pumped by a machine
described as a snake that runs down her throat. Now that is
almost identical to the modern day stomach pump which did
not exist when this novel was written.
Radio Transceiver
 Probably the most interesting futuristic idea that Bradbury
had was a radio transceiver that fit in a person’s ear. We now
have little cell phone type things that clip around our ears
called bluetooth headsets much like Bradbury predicted.
These devices allow us to talk almost secretly to another
person and we still have both hands to complete other tasks.
It is unbelievable how Ray Bradbury predicted such an
advanced device still to this day.