I cannot really accurately answer the question, "How does the novel reflect the history, behavior, and social issues of the time period?", about this novel because it takes place in the future. Ray Bradbury created the world of Fahrenheit 451 to show readers what society would be like if they gave in to censorship and let technology rule society. Bradbury does not give the reader a real glance into the history of how this society was made, all we know is the twisted re-telling of how firefighters came to be. There is no real social and/or behavioral issues in this time period because the people are all the same. Society is brainwashed into not having there own ideas, being very mellow, and not having mental stimulation. Therefore, no one in society could cause any issues that could upset the balance. The only issue is one of books. Most of that issue is taken care of by the firemen of the city burning the books, until Montag comes along. "Those people, their houses, and most importantly their books are eliminated through fire" (Bradbury 35). Montag questions society and is punished for it. The city holds an investigation and a chase to try and find them. People have such a short attention span, the chase was cut short, and the police just captured a unsuspecting man instead of Montag, so the television viewers could watch their scheduled shows.
The symbolic message of this novel is as simple as what can happen to society if you censor their ideas. We would not want our society today to become this world that is in Fahrenheit 451, so we pay more attention to the censoring done now. People are able to realize that censorship is bad, and attempt to stop it before it becomes to great to return from. Ray Bradbury knew that the censorship of books and ideas would be met with disastrous results, with our freedom of speech was taken away.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Del Rey Book, 1991. Print.
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