Fahrenheit 451 – Background Info
Fahrenheit 451 | Author Biography
Born on the 22nd of August. 1920, in Waukegan. Illinois, Raymond Douglas Bradbury spent
his childhood in this small town located north of Chicago. Many of his stories are set in towns
similar to Waukegan. As a young child he was exposed to the horror movies of the period,
such as The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Like Montag in
Fahrenheit 451, the heroes of these stories are social outcasts. Many of the themes found in
Fahrenheit 451 are related to Bradbury's early exposure to books by an aunt and his regular
trips to the Waukegan Public Library with his brother. His family moved to Los Angeles in
1934, and Bradbury completed his education at Los Angeles High School, graduating in
1938. He began writing stories at the age of fifteen, and in 1937 he joined the Los Angeles
Science Fiction League. In 1938 he published his first short story, "Hollerbochen's Dilemma."
During the 1940s, Bradbury wrote for pulp magazines such as Weird Tales and Amazing
Stories. His first collection of short stories, Dark Carnival, was published in 1947. Even these
early fantasy stories reveal elements of Bradbury's concern for the value of human
imagination.
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Ray Bradbury
When The Martian Chronicles was published in 1950, Bradbury was hailed as a sophisticated
science fiction writer. While it is a collection of related stories set on Mars, critics often
discuss the book as a novel. Bradbury uses the framework of the settling of Mars to present
issues like censorship, technology, racism, and nuclear war. The book has been praised for
its allegorical treatment of important social issues. Other collections of stories by Bradbury
that have received critical attention are The Illustrated Man, published in 1951, and I Sing the
Body Electric!, published in 1969. His other novels include Something Wicked This Way
Comes (1962) and Dandelion Wine (1957). Many of his stories have been televised on
shows like The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and the Ray Bradbury Theater. The
sheer volume of Bradbury's science fiction writing guarantees his importance in that genre.
Fahrenheit 451 remains one of his best known works. The human values he explores in that
work and his many other writings also assures his place among the other noted writers of
dystopias, or works that suggest negative futures where humanity is oppressed.
Bradbury married Marguerite Susan McClure in 1947, and they had four daughters. Among
his numerous literary awards are the O. Henry Prize in 1947 and 1948 and a PEN Body of
Work Award in 1985. Many of his stories have also been adapted to the theater and received
drama awards. Besides short stories and novels, Bradbury has written for the theater,
television, and film—including a noted adaptation of Herman Melville's Moby Dick for director
John Huston—and has written more than a dozen volumes of poetry and many nonfiction
essays, and has edited several collected stories by other writers.
Historical Context
Book Burnings
Bradbury had a number of recent historical events on which to base
Fahrenheit 451 when he wrote the book in the early 1950s. The book burnings of the Nazi
regime in Germany during the 1930s had been widely shown after World War II. These book
burnings became a major symbol of the repression that followed in Nazi Germany. The
importance of books and the freedom to read them was a central concern of liberal-minded
people during the 1950s. As the Senate hearings of Joseph McCarthy began to focus on
writers and film makers, the question of artistic freedom troubled many people and became
the subject of debate. It was within this context of artistic repression that Bradbury expanded
his story "The Fireman" into a full-length novel. The fact that the book was reprinted fortyeight times over a twenty-five-year period after its publication is indicative of the fact that
Bradbury hit a vital nerve center of public consciousness. Unlike many of the characters in
Fahrenheit 451, the American reading public ultimately rejected the idea of thought control
that was present during the McCarthy hearings.
Censorship
While Americans are guaranteed free speech and a free press in the Bill of Rights to the
Constitution, a history of censorship has nevertheless existed in this country. Censorship was
at times allowed and even enforced by the United States government. In the early years of
film making, censorship was allowed on the grounds that movies were entertainment and not
an expression of free speech. Senator Joseph McCarthy's hearings into the political
background of artists led to the "blackballing" of several prominent Hollywood writers during
the 1950s. While the Supreme Court decision allowing censorship of films was overturned in
1952, strict regulation of film content persisted into the 1960s. Today, the attempt to censor
artistic products comes mainly from organized pressure groups. Ironically, Bradbury's
publishers, unknown to him, bowdlerized Fahrenheit 451—that is, "cleaned up" or deleted
some of the language that Bradbury used—in order to make the book saleable to the high
school market. Since the advent of films, television, and the internet, efforts to limit access by
children to certain types of material in these media has persisted to this day. The general
method has been to have producers of these media rate the programs and place the burden
of responsibility on parents to censor what children see in the movies, watch on television, or
have access to on computers.
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A Nazi book-burning during the 1930s.
Political Repression and Conformity
Besides the repression that took place during the
Nazi regime in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s, similar political repression and
dictatorship had been taking place in the Soviet Union. After World War II Western Europe
and the United States entered into what has been called the Cold War—a struggle pitting the
ideals of democracy and communism against each other—with the Soviet Union. Frequent
reports of Soviet repression of writers and censorship of books were in the news. In his
dystopian novel 1984 George Orwell had satirized what he called "big brother," a government
figure who was always watching the public. Orwell also used two-way television to illustrate
how the new technology could be used against the public. Bradbury presents television in
Fahrenheit 451 as a drug that stupefies its viewers. Much of the pressure to conform in the
United States during the Cold War was derived from the holdover of a wartime psychology
that was strong during World War II. The mobilization during the war spilled over into the
postwar era. As the United States and Europe went through a period of rebuilding domestic
markets, the Cold War also stimulated a military economy. Opportunities for advancement
abounded. Jobs were plentiful and people were encouraged to "work hard and get ahead."
The image of the "organization man" was prevalent. If you "followed orders, you would
succeed" was the conventional wisdom of the day. This attitude is reflected in Bradbury's
portrayal of Montag in the opening scenes of Fahrenheit 451.
Technology
From the early days of television in the 1950s, when every American scrambled to have one
in the home, to this day, watching television has competed with reading books. In the 1950s,
schools began to use television in the classroom because it was becoming apparent that
children's reading levels were dropping. Bradbury, who had been nurtured as a child on
books, used this in his novel to show how literature was being reduced to the simplest, most
general terms. "Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; there's your
intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more," Captain Beatty tells Montag and his
wife when he tries to rationalize the work of the firemen.
More than any other aspect of the technological revolution that has taken place since World
War II, none has had a greater impact than the development of the atomic bomb and atomic
energy. During the 1950s and up until the fall of the Soviet Union, the fear of nuclear war was
a real threat in the minds of people. The fear of damage from nuclear waste remains an
environmental threat. The fear that destructive atomic power might fall into the hands of
terrorists is also an issue that compels political discourse and action. It is within an
atmosphere of fear that repression can flourish. In Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury recreates the
atmosphere of fear and repression that prevailed when he was writing the book.
Another technological advance that Bradbury deals with in his book is the development of
robots. In the Mechanical Hound he presents a robot that is more powerful than a human
being in its ability to "sniff out" its prey. This representation reflects a commonly held view
that the nature of robots is to be feared because they do not possess human qualities and
might even be able to take control over human beings. Many science-fiction "mad scientist"
movies of the 1950s capitalized on this fear by portraying monstrous creatures created by
misused technology as well as technology itself revolting against its creators. This fear of
technology was pervasive during the 1950s.
Fahrenheit 451 | Critical Overview
Reception to Fahrenheit 451 has been mixed. While praising the book for its effective prose
style and handling of important social issues, several aspects of the work have been
criticized. Obscure references, such as those to the Phoenix myth and the sixteenth-century
martyr Master Ridley, have been faulted for being inappropriate for general readers.
References such as these and the novel's emphasis on the value of literature over that of
mass culture have also led to attacks on Bradbury for being an elitist. Another area of
criticism is that the author pits intellectuals against ordinary people. The book people,
represented mostly by scholars, will save humanity, while ordinary people like Mildred
contribute to the degradation of society by falling victim to social conformity.
In spite of these criticisms, many analysts find a great deal to praise in the book. John
Colmer, in an essay in Coleridge to Catch-22, is struck by Bradbury's ability to convey horror.
Bradbury is successful "in creating the horror of mechanized anti-culture," Colmer believes.
"The burning scenes have intense power and the pursuit of Montag by the Mechanical Hound
… is in the best tradition of Gothic pursuit; mysterious, but relentless," the critic adds. Colmer,
though, is one of the critics who finds Bradbury's allusions to culture forced and sentimental.
"Bradbury cannot rely on his readers picking up his allusions. He … explain[s] laboriously."
He continues: "A writer who has to explain all his allusions and symbols for the benefit of
lowbrow readers is at a considerable disadvantage." Colmer does find the message of
Fahrenheit 451 important, that "books create diversity and harmony," he explains. As a result
the novel "is an intensely serious work of popular Science Fiction."
A major area of praise for Bradbury's work is his style. In his essay in Ray Bradbury, David
Mogen claims that Fahrenheit 451 and the collection The Martian Chronicles are "destined to
survive as Bradbury's best-known and most influential creations, the most sustained
expressions of his essentially lyrical treatment of science-fiction conventions." While Mogen
acknowledges the criticism of sentimentality and vagueness in Fahrenheit 451, he maintains
that the work "remains one of the most eloquent science-fiction satires, a vivid warning about
mistaking" mindless happiness for progress. Mogen also praises Bradbury for his ability to
use the fireman as a central metaphor in the story.
In discussing the development of Montag in his essay Ray Bradbury, Wayne Johnson finds
that the premise of a fireman starting rather than putting out fires is "farfetched." Johnson
adds, however, that Bradbury "keeps such a tight focus on the developing awareness of
fireman, Guy Montag, that we can successfully overlook the improbability of his occupation."
Johnson praises Bradbury for maintaining "a certain detachment in the book, so that basic
themes … can be developed and explored without becoming either too realistic or too
allegorical."
The thematic elements in Fahrenheit 451 have received much praise. "Bradbury's rage
against censorship and book burning reached its fullest and most eloquent expression …
when he expanded 'The Fireman' to novel length," says George Guffey in an essay in
Coordinates: Placing Science Fiction and Fantasy. Gary K. Wolfe, in his essay on Bradbury
in the Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography, praises Fahrenheit 451 as a
"passionate attack on censorship … equally an attack on the growing power of mass culture,
particularly television … which consistently falls prey to the demands of special interest
groups." Wolfe observes that the "new culture" of the book people "seems to care as little for
the individual as the mass culture from which Montag has escaped," but "the new society
allows for a multiplicity of viewpoints and hence holds out some hope for the eventual revival
of the human imagination." It is the glimmer of hope that Bradbury presents which has
earned him the label of optimist. "Bradbury's novel does risk lapsing at the very close into a
vague optimism," writes Donald Watt in his discussion of Fahrenheit 451 as a dystopia (a
work presenting a dehumanized society) in Ray Bradbury.
Among the highest praise Bradbury has achieved for his work is the recognition of his stylistic
excellence. "On the whole, Fahrenheit 451 comes out as a distinctive contribution to the
speculative literature of our times, because in its multiple variations … it demonstrates that
dystopian fiction need not exclude the subtlety of poetry," comments Donald Watt. "Bradbury
is above all a humanist … ," says Wolfe. "Whatever the final assessment of Bradbury's later
work, his historical importance both in popularizing science fiction and making it respectable
cannot be denied," Wolfe writes in Twentieth Century Science-Fiction Writers.