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Fahrenheit 451 (1953) is a dystopian science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury. It reflects several problems the people of that time were confronted with. On the one hand the cencorship exercised in the 1950s by the US congress when - as the result of hysteric anti-communism - a board of inquiry against anti-american activities was established as well as the burnings of books carried out by the Nazis. On the other hand it reflects the horrible consequences of an explosion of a nuclear bomb.
These two subjects are very important for the literature of that time.
It is set in a world where books are banned and critical thought is discouraged; the central character, Guy Montag, is employed as a "fireman" (which, in this case, means "book burner"). 451 degrees Fahrenheit is stated as the temperature at which paper ignites and begins to burn.
See fire point.
Plot
The plot takes place some time in the future in a country whose societys main goal of living is pleasure and leisure. Because books could cause anger and because they can spoil the countrys stability its totalitarian government forbade them and turned the firebrigade into an organisation that has to burn them.
Guy Montag, the main character, works with pleasure as a fireman and he hates books like he is told by the government. He is married to Mildred. At the beginning, both agree with the governments attitudes.
But having met Clarisse McClellan, a girl living in Guys neighbourhood, his way of thinking is changed.
He does not want to burn books anymore and with the help of Faber, a retired English professor, he begins to be interested in reading. Finally he opposes against Beatty, the Captain of his firebrigade, and the whole system he is living in. Montag flees into the forest, where he joins a wandering band of intellectual rebels, who have committed books to memory. The book ends as he watches "the city" destroyed by an atomic bomb.
Analysis
For ten years Guy Montag has been working as a fireman. In these days, a firemans task is to burn books. In the governments and consequently in the societys opinion, the books containing problems and conflicting theories dispose the people to be anxious, sad or angry. Thats what the government wants to avoid because those feelings could threaten the countrys stabilty.
(see also Nevil Shute: On The Beach) This book could make people demonstrate against nuclear bombs or could turn them violent.
With the books being sources of unhappiness, the firemen are to burn and destroy them in favour of fun and pleasure which are the main goals of living in this society. The people achieve their happiness by watching TV all day long or by doing drugs.
Also Guys wife Mildred is caught by her huge TV screen with its silly shows without any sense or meaning.
With the spreading of TVs newspapers disappeared and nobody wanted them back and nobody missed them because its so easy: you dont have to think while sitting on front of the screen.
At the beginning Guy is proud of his work. He thinks it is a fine job and kerosene is nothing but perfume to him, as he says. But then he meets Clarisse McClellan when he is on his way back home from work.
Unlike Guy she pays attention to nature. The average people dont care about it anymore.
She makes him reflect on life and his work. She poses essential questions to him, like if he is happy. Thats why Guy begins to think about his situation.
Clarisse dies early in the story so shes just the stumbling-block of Guys transformation. He makes his development from a loyal servant of the states ideology to a self-confident human being with its own free will on his own.
Self-confidence and an own free will are things Guys wife Mildred has lost. All day long she sits in her parlour and watches TV on three TV walls set up around her. She seems to be happy staring at the screens but she attempts to commit suicide once. She took too many pills which actually should make her happy. As consequence of her watching TV in such an excessive way she has lost her sense for reality: She is convinced that in case of an imminent war every man will return back home in a few days. Moreover shes unable to make complete and logical sentences.
But, apart from Clarisse, there is another event that is important for Guys development. He and his firebrigade are sent to a house whose owner, an old lady, is suspected of owning books in order to burn them. She didnt want to have her treasures destroyed so she decided to be burnt with them.
In that situation Guy starts to think about the meaning of books. What in Gods name have books got that the woman wants to die for?
This is also a main aspect of Fahrenheit 451. It mystifies books. After having seen how careful Montag and Faber later touch books and how they speak about them the reader might get a new opinion about books.
Unnoticed by the other firemen Guy takes a Bible with him. And now he secretly starts reading.
After this cruel event he stayed away from work and he pretended he was ill. He wondered, if he could ever do his job again on the one hand because he saw the old lady dying on the other hand because he now esteems books.
In preceeding actions of the fire-brigade he has already stolen books he does not know why , but he has never read them. But now he turns into a real bookworm.
With him staying away from work, Beatty, the Captain of his fire-station, visits Guy. He tells him about the history of the firebrigade and the senselessness of books. In this speech the reader of the book recognizes that Beatty knows that Guy has got at least one book. Thats the first time in the story, that Beatty talks that much. You perceive that he has read a lot and that he knows his enemy. But he despises books and their readers.
In his speech he mentions in passing that once in his career every fireman wants to know what books say and if a fireman takes a book with him he has got 24 hours to bring it to the fire-house and burn it there.
Now Guy is confused. He cannot find it in his heart that he is to burn such a valuable thing. On top of it all his wife Mildred is annoyed that he has got all those books. She is scared of what could happen if the fire-brigade knew about them.
So he must be helped.
He calls Faber, a retired English professor, which he has met a year ago. Although Faber has known that Guy was a fireman, and although he has been scared, he has recited poems to Guy at that time. When he left, Faber has given his address to Guy for his file in case he decided to be angry with him.
Montag visits Faber and he tells him his problems. He does not want to turn in the Bible but he also cannot find a substitute. Furthermore, Montag does not know if Beatty knows which book he has stolen so he would recognize that Montag has got a whole library at home if he didnt bring the Bible. And finally Beatty could ask questions and find out Guys real attitude towards books. Faber gives Guy a bug with which Faber is able to hear what Beatty and Guy talk so he can advise Guy what to say. The graver decision they make is to copy books and, after hiding them in other firemens houses, to denounce them. By this they want the firebrigade to destroy itself.
When Guy arrives at the fire-house, he handed Beatty the book. Then Beatty wanted to test Guy. He quoted from books and wants to know Guys opinion about it. In the moment he wants to answer the station bell rings and they had to leave. They get on their van and when they arrive Guy recognized that it was his house.
Mildred has denounced him. When the firemen arrive she is leaving the house. She cannot live together with Guy anymore. She goes for good.
Beatty forces Guy to burn the books he has. But he does not only burn the books but also all the house. He wants to destroy all that remembers him of his previous life. When he comes out of the house Beatty annoys him badly so Montag pointed the flame-thrower at him and burns him.
Then Guy flees to Faber who recommends him to leave the city and to go to a hobo camp at the countryside where some intellectuals hide. Everyone of them has learnt a book by heart and keeps it in his mind until books will be allowed again. When Guy arrives at the camp a nuclear bomb exploded in the city he had just escaped from.
In Bradburys biography the burning of books and censorship itself were current poblems when the book was written. Just a few years ago, the nazis censored books or burned them, and now the American government does it as well. It was the beginning of the Cold War and also in Russia they censored and burned books. And thats what the book wants to criticize as well as totalitarian systems.
Theres another parallel to Russia mentioned in the text, when Beatty says: Everybody must be alike and made equal. Each man must be the image of every other. Then all are happy. This correspondes with the communistic ideology.
The other fear in the 1950s was the fear of a nuclear war. Bradbury writes several times in his book that combat aircrafts fly over the city and in the radio they say often that soon war will brake out. But nobody cares!! I think Bradbury wanted to make his readers pay attention to the current political situation.
Language
The language the book is written in is very metaphorical. Especially about fire Bradbury writes in a very figurative way.
Film and radio versions
The book, with some plot changes, was made into a film in 1966 by Franois Truffaut, with Oskar Werner as Montag. There are plans for a remake in 2005, directed by Frank Darabont.
In addition to the movie, there have been at least two BBC Radio 4 dramatisations, both of which follow the book very closely.
Influence on popular culture
The title of Bradbury's book has become a well-known byword amongst those who oppose censorship, in much the way George Orwell's 1984 has (although not to the same extent). As such, it has been alluded to in dozens of later contexts, amongst them the ACLU's 1997 whitepaper Fahrenheit 451.2: Is Cyberspace Burning? and Michael Moore's 2004 film Fahrenheit 9/11.
See also: Cinema of France, List of French language films
ISBNs
- ISBN 0606006281 (prebound, 1953)
- ISBN 0871293102 (paperback, 1986)
- ISBN 0345342968 (mass market paperback, 1987)
- ISBN 089968484X (library binding, 1990, reprint)
- ISBN 067187229X (hardcover, 1993)
- ISBN 1560549599 (audio cassette with hardcover, 1995, unabridged)
- ISBN 0345410017 (paperback, 1996)
- ISBN 0783883137 (library binding, 1997, Large Type Edition)
- ISBN 8401422825 (hardcover, 1998)
- ISBN 156137301X (hardcover, 1999)
- ISBN 1561373028 (hardcover, 1999)
- ISBN 0791059294 (hardcover, 2001)
- ISBN 0758776160 (hardcover, 2002)
- ISBN 0743247221 (hardcover, 2003)
- ISBN 0848801474 (hardcover)
- ISBN 8401422345 (hardcover)
- ISBN 3257208626 (paperback)
- ISBN 7246250102 (paperback)
External links
bg:451 градуса по Фаренхайт
de:Fahrenheit 451
fr:Fahrenheit 451
pt:Fahrenheit 451
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