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A Critical Scrutiny of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit

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A Critical Scrutiny of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN: 2319-7064 ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2019): 7.583 State’s Abuse of Technology and Its CataclysmicRepercussions in Society: A Critical Scrutiny of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 Dr. Ali Mohammadi Assistant Professor, English Language andLiteratureDepartment, Istanbul Yeni Yüzyıl University, Turkey Email: ali.mohammadi[at]yeniyuzyil.edu.tr Abstract: Fahrenheit 451 tells the story of a futuristic world in which people are constantly plugged in to various sources of entertainment. The walls of their houses are actually enormous TVs; newspapers are dead and books are illegal. It sounds like a pretty monstrous place to live. There's plenty of information, just no knowledge. There is more free time than ever, but no time to really think. Besides, there are a plethora of things that really feed people; nevertheless, real connection with other people has been shut out by rampant materialism. The result is a society that is blind to its own ignorance and being destroyed by it. This research depicted the above from a critical perspective considering the characters, plot, context and symbols. Overall, it was concluded that though appealing they might look, technology and media have been used by some seemingly democratic political systems to instil a very particular ideology and mind-set in the public which would culminate in a dystopian society however modern it may appear. Keywords: Dystopia, technology, books, ignorance, materialism 1. Introduction lives, it brings along several deleterious side effects as well. The world of literature is severely affected by these Fahrenheit 451 is an iconic representation of dystopian problems and harms of technology which have been fiction. It's a world where ignorance is bliss. War is always discussed by some contemporary writers, one of whom is on the horizon and knowledge itself is under constant attack; Ray Bradbury with his critical novel, Fahrenheit 451, in the legendary story of book burning fireman Guy Montag’s which a dystopian world has been artistically pictured. journey of enlightenment and rebellion, it is famous or infamous, depending on how you look at it, because its In the story, the main character, Guy Montag, works as a themes and ideas are still relevant today. Bradbury got the fireman in this dystopian world. It is illegal to own books idea to write Fahrenheit 451 from Adolf Hitler who burned and firemen now work to burn them instead of fighting fires books in Berlin when Bradbury was a teen. This is like they do now. Montag meets Clarisse, his thoughtful Bradbury's biggest seller unlike the author himself, it was curious next-door neighbour; someone whose natural decorated in awards. It won the American Academy of Arts questioning leads Montag to question himself and the world and Letters Award in literature in 1954 and the around him; his wife, an ignorant TV and radio addicted Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal in 1954. It woman, named Mildred overdoses on sleeping pills.Her also won the Prometheus Award for libertarian science rescue by nonchalant technicians shows right away how fiction in 1984. Bradbury continued to publish and oversee little people care for each other or think for themselves in new story collections until close to his death on June 5th this world. During a routine book-burning, Montag steals a 2012. book from a fire; the woman who owns the books, burns herself alive. Mildred tells Montag that their neighbour, His obituary in the New York Times predicted his name Clarisse, is dead and this disturbs Montag. Montag becomes would appear near the top of any list of major science fiction ill and stays home from work. Captain Beatty, his boss, writers of the 20th century. The book takes place in a world visits extolling the virtues of ignorance and bemoaning the where nuclear wars have been won by the US and in reality, past when people read and made informed political and the threat of nuclear war was hanging over America as the social choices for themselves. Montag shows his books that cold war with the Soviet Union heated up. Fahrenheit 451 he stole into Mildred. also spoke to McCarthyism; the infamous anti-communist Witch Hunt propagated by Senator Joe McCarthy and the Montag teams up with Faber, an English professor he once rise of TV an overwhelming reinforcement of noisy met in a park and talked about literature with. Firemen propaganda. Bradbury saw as a medium that could become respond to an alarm in Montag’s home. His wife turned him more calm than pro for American citizens. Fahrenheit 451 is in to firemen and she's leaving permanently as they arrive to a dystopian fiction meaning it takes place in an upside-down burn his collection to the ground. Montag is forced to burn world. One often run by totalitarianism or operation where his own home as Captain Beatty mocks him; Beatty hits technology and institutions work to subvert the people not Montag at one point and his ear radio from Faber falls out. uplift them. Beatty says they will track down the person on the other end. Montag snaps and burns Beatty alive with his Technology, undoubtedly, has been an essential part of flamethrowers. Montag then runs away joining others who modern life; yet, its effects today could be more than meet have memorized books in the hopes of writing them again. the eyes. Even though technology aims to facilitate humans’ Jets bombed the city and civilization to rubble as Montag Volume 9 Issue 9, September 2020 www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY Paper ID: SR20909163523 DOI: 10.21275/SR20909163523 826 International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN: 2319-7064 ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2019): 7.583 and his group of Book Lovers watch. Montag joins them as destroyed the public's interest in reading; individual choices they return to the city hoping to rebuild society from scratch. eclipsed by social conformity; TV is the glue of dystopian society. Dystopian fiction itself is key to the context of The novel ends on a hopeful note with this group of outcast Fahrenheit 451. Dystopia or a society gone wrong Book Lovers returning to civilization to hopefully plant the constitutes a genre within science fiction. It presents a world seeds and so the knowledge they are holding in their minds. at its worst cautionary tales that portray the negative All throughout Fahrenheit 451, critical symbols like fire, consequences of events, technologies and ideological shifts salamanders, the firemen themselves and pieces of that are initially accepted as beneficial to the characters. technology like the seashell radio characters carry in their ears and the mechanical hounds, not only provide exposition As a matter of fact, it seems as if no one sees or realizes the and illumination into the science fiction future ruled by truth on account of adopting deceptive and illusive views. dissonance, but into key themes like censorship and Despite people’s going through grief and distress, they are technology, alienation and connection individuality and ignorant of this circumstances and live in a fool’s paradise. conformity and the power of books. These are themes that In the novel, scientific discovery takes place of intimacy. will always be relevant as long as the relationship between The streets and houses are presented dark and lonely, but access to knowledge and processing it are at odds with only a girl, Clarisse, and her house have been presented power elites who have agendas based around controlling intensely vivid. It is due to the fact that Clarisse’s family are populations of manageable unthinking people rather than talking to each other rather than spending their time on the educated thoughtful ones. Fahrenheit 451 remains a huge screens just as an alienated society does. A case in frequently reprinted, critically celebrated canonical work of point is when Clarisse asserts, “Bet I know something else fiction by Ray Bradbury; a prolific American writer and a you don’t. There’s dew on the grass in the morning’’ book that is an enduring tribute to books themselves. (Bradbury 7). And “Let's talk about something else. Have you ever smelled old leaves? Don't they smell like 2. Discussion cinnamon? Here. Smell” (26). The politics of World War II shaped the writing of In this way, the protagonist, Montag, finds out that he is not Fahrenheit 451. It was written less than a decade after the aware of these natural and ordinary things until the young end of the war in 1945. Germany's Nazi regime waged a girl utters them. Thus, it can be deduced that, the folks do campaign of intense censorship that included actual book not recognize even the very simple things because they have burning and control over the media. Joseph Stalin and been brainwashed by technology. Moreover, it is mentioned Russia destroyed and censored books to control information that people use pills in order to sleep which substantiates and eliminate opposition. The concept of nuclear wars is that they are in distress, and still ignore the situation. For important to Fahrenheit 451 context; science fiction in the instance, when Montag’s wife takes a lot of sleeping pills 1950s often focused on the possibilities and aftermath of and tries to commit suicide; nonetheless, when she wakes up nuclear war. Atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Montag asks her the reason, she denies it. “I didn’t do and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. The possibility of annihilation that” she said. “Never in a billion years” (17). Although by nuclear weapons led to the cold war between the United people are unhappy and emotionally in a miserable state, States and the Soviet Union both of whom had nuclear they behave as if they are joyful and contented.
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