Literature Review
Fahrenheit 451
A novel by Ray Bradbury
Setting
• somewhere in the U.S. in the future, sometime
after 1990 (the novel was written in the 1950s)
• violence is prevalent
• everyone is unhappy and death isn’t taken
seriously
• wars are casual
• no meaningful value is placed on family or
religion
Characters
Guy Montag is characterized as...
• the protagonist
• a total conformist, who initially conforms to the totalitarian
system in which he lives
• works as a fireman, burning the homes of “criminals” who
have books
• as receiving pleasure from his job, when in reality he is
hungry for knowledge.
• changing greatly after he meets Clarisse; wants his life to have
meaning
• a book thief; Montag has actually stolen books and hidden
them in his own home.
• a dynamic character who steadily grows and changes; by the
end of the book, he is a completely different person.
Montag continued...
•
Mildred’s husband; Montag is unsupported by Mildred; she later reports him to
the authorities
•
Faber’s friend; with Faber’s help Montag plans to reintroduce books into society;
they will plant their books in the homes of firemen and in the firehouses themselves.
•
suspicious as Beatty becomes convinced that Montag is stealing and hiding books
•
a murderer; Montag kills Beatty and escapes from the Mechanical Hound.
•
safe when he meets with the exiled intellectuals who will give him refuge
•
a survivor as war has begun and a bomb has destroyed Montag’s city.
•
determined to go back and rebuild a new society, where books and new ideas are
not only permitted, but eagerly welcomed.
Characters
Mildred is characterized as...
• Montag’s wife
•
a true conformist; she is fully shaped by the norms of society.
• meaningless; she spends her days in front of three television screens, never
having a thought of her own.
• devoid of feeling; falling into a deep sleep each night with the help of
sleeping pills and music piped into her ears; she is also indifferent about
life in general, and at one point nearly commits suicide with a sleeping pill
overdose
• truly unsupportive; she turns Montag in to the authorities.
•
fleeing the house, never to be seen again in the novel
• destroyed; Millie’s fate is ironic, is destroyed by the system she so
willingly supported.
Characters
Professor Faber is characterized as...
• an old English professor who is Montag’s support
system and an invaluable teacher in Montag’s quest
for truth.
• a friend who tells Montag that he must run away after
he kills Beatty; Faber saves Montag’s life by leading
him to the exiled intellectuals who give him
protection and hope.
Characters
Captain Beatty is characterized as...
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Montag’s boss at the firehouse and the central antagonist of the novel
as a staunch supporter of the system, never questioning its rules.
believing that books are evil over and over again.
determined that every last book will be destroyed by his firemen.
a threat to Montag; Beatty suspects Montag is hiding books
happy to destoy Montag; Beatty leads the fireman to Montag’s home and forces
him to ignite his own dwelling.
truly unhappy with his own life and ready to die; Beatty didn’t try to run or fight
back when Montag killed him with the flamethrower and believes that Beatty was
so unhappy with his life that he was ready to die.
a contradiction; although he constantly states that books are evil and directs their
burning, he also has a fascination for them, as evidenced in the many allusions and
quotes he gives from texts he has read.
a tortured man himself who easily accepts of his own death by burning at the end
of the novel; he seems to prove that he is ready to end his torment.
Characters
Clarisse is characterized as...
• a total non-conformist and the seventeen-year-old neighbor of Montag.
• atypical for society; Clarisse thinks, socializes, feels, wonders, questions,
and enjoys life.
• having old-fashioned values, dreams, and aspirations and talks about the
beauty of nature.
• unafraid to express her ideas and challenges Montag by asking him why
he is a fireman, burning books.
• a catalyst that moves Montag forward in his journey of self-realization.
Clarisse wants to know if Montag is really a happy man. As a result of her
probing questions, Montag begins to examine the ethics of his job and the
meaning of his life; he realizes that he truly needs a change.
Conflicts
• Man vs. Man
- Montag against Beatty
• Man vs. Self
- Montag against himself
- Beatty against himself
- Faber against himself
• Man vs. Society
- Montag vs. conformist society
- Clarisse vs. conformist society
Symbolism
• Light
- Light represents knowledge and
understanding
- books and information
• Darkness
- darkness represents ignorance
Themes
• Conformity
- Following the crowd can have disastrous consequences
• Books
- Books are an essential part to learning and knowledge
• Technology
- A life filled with technology strips individuals of their ability to feel
and think.