Fahrenheit 451 #1

Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 in the year 1953, a year where there was very little technology available to the majority of people. Most families did not even have a television. The novel is almost entirely about how technology and censorship took away books and therefore changed society. Ray Bradbury had these ideas about what the future could be like. Unlike George Orwell's 1984, this novel is not dated making it still have an impact to society years after it was written. Bradbury knew and predicted even back then how much of an impact television and technology have on society. "In the average American household, just like Guy Montag's house, there are more T.V.'s then people." (Green 2:49). The author had a really good grasp on understanding that technology would become so important. You can, from the turnout of the novel, think that the author thought that if our society became so dependent on technology it would ruin us. The author obviously really loves and respects books, (I mean he is an author), and hates to see books censored and condensed. He says in the Coda about an anthology with 400 short stories, "Every story, slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story" (Bradbury 176). He can see the fact that we are shortening and shortening these works of literature, and soon there will be nothing left.

Fahrenheit 451 is written from the perspective of Guy Montag. It is a third person limited narration. Guy is a firefighter who begins to question the purpose of his job after meeting a strange seventeen year old girl, Clarisse and an old professor who also has books. He steals a copy of the Bible at an old woman's house while he is on the job to burn all of her books and her house. From there, his curiosity grows and he immerses himself in the world of books and has to live with the consequences.

 Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Del Rey Book, 1991. Print.

 Green, John. "Feeling More Alive: Fahrenheit 451's The Hearth and the Salamander." Video blog post. Youtube. N.p., 10 July 2012. Web. 16 July 2012.