Introduction to Fahrenheit 451
Dystopian Novel
 A dystopia is a society characterized by a focus on
mass poverty, squalor, suffering, or oppression. It is
the opposite of utopia (ideal).
 Dystopian novels show a future that is horrible and
degraded due to choices made by mankind.
 Dystopian novels usually extrapolate elements of
contemporary society and are read by many as
political warnings.
 Speculative fiction –speculates on the future based
on current society
Historical Context
 Ray Bradbury – an award winning science fiction writer
 Born August 22, 1920 and died June 5, 2012
 The novel began as a short story in 1951 and was finally published in
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1953
Reflects many issues from Bradbury’s lifetime
Post-World War II era - Fashion, people and society are very
conservative. People are generally respectful of each other, the
government, religion, and life.
Nazi book burnings of the 1930s were widely published after WWII –
became a major symbol of the repression in Nazi Germany
The novel was written a time when the world was threatened by
nuclear war, new technologies were emerging and the world was
getting smaller.
Impending Danger
 As the 1950s and the Cold War progressed Ray Bradbury
saw the government taking a great deal of power over
the people and this worried him.
 Ray Bradbury saw the world changing quickly and
dangerously and this is why he wrote Fahrenheit 451 – to
warn people of what would happen if society continued
down what he believed was a dangerous path….
The emergence of television
 Television became dominant
medium for mass
communication
 1946: 7,000 TV sets existed in
“The remarkable thing about TV is
that it permits several million people
to laugh at the same joke and still I
feel lonely.” T.S. Eliot
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 liberalminded people during the
1950s.
Historical Context - McCarthyism
 Senator Joseph McCarthy made public accusation that Communists had
infiltrated the ranks of government, military, literary, and film
industries. Helped lead to Cold War and Korean War.
 Thousands of people lost their jobs as, all across America, state
legislatures and school boards mimicked McCarthy and his House
on Un-American 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).
Historical Context - Society
 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.
 Movies, books, television shows, people’s opinions, works of
art, and other expressions of speech were all censored by
the government and other groups.
The Setting
 It is the 24th century.
Books are considered
dangerous and illegal.
Nobody is allowed to
own them. Most people
are happy being plugged
into their technology,
where they do not have
to think too hard. All
books that are found are
burned by firemen.
Symbols
 Fire
 Phoenix
 The first part of the book
 Bird from ancient myth
is titled “The Earth and the
Salamander.” The fire
salamander can walk
through fire unharmed.
 Books are burned and ideas
are “burned from” the
minds of the people.
 Lives for 500 years and
then perches on a nest of
spices, singing until
sunlight ignites its body
and it is engulfed in flame
 A new phoenix “rises” from
the ashes
Themes
 Censorship – books are
burned because they
trigger discontent and
thought.
 Society – chilling aspect of
the novel is the people
themselves want the books
burned
 Conformity vs.
Individuality
 Freedom of speech and the
consequences of losing it
 The importance of
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remembering and
understanding history
Apathy and Passivity
Alienation and Loneliness
Change and
Transformation
Technology -Machines as
helpers to humans vs.
Machines as hindrances
or enemies
Bradbury’s view on technology
 The novel depicts how demanding and oddly isolating technology
can be.
 We have “friends” we have never seen on Facebook, cars with
internet access, tablets and smart phones to occupy our time
anywhere we go, emails and text messages instead of face-to-face
or even voice-to-voice telephone conversations, television instead
of books, movies instead of conversation, and we always seem to
want more.
 In the novel, people have abandoned books, conversation, and
nature in favor of hollow entertainment and instant gratification.
Fast cars, loud music, and a barrage of advertisements create a life
of so much stimulation, no one has time for individual thought.
Was Bradbury Right?
 Perhaps the events in Fahrenheit 451 are not too far away.
 From 1973 until the late 1980s, the FBI conducted a secret
surveillance program within America's unclassified scientific
libraries, including both public and university libraries. That
program, known as the Library Awareness Program, had
two goals:
 To restrict access by foreign nationals, particularly Soviet and
East Europeans, to unclassified scientific information;
 To recruit librarians to report on any "foreigners" using
America's unclassified scientific libraries
Are we headed for Fahrenheit 451?
 60 years after the novel was published:
 33% of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of
their lives
 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year
 57% of new books are not read to completion
 42% of college graduates never read another book after college
 70% of US adults have not been to a bookstore in the last five years
HOWEVER – there are over 17,000 radio stations and over 2,000 TV
stations in America today
 In a 65 year life span, the average person will spend 9 years watching
TV
 The average child sees 20,000 commercials per year
 The average American child watches over 19 hours of TV per week