Can you imagine living in a world where forbidden is, Books to read?
In Fahrenheit 451, firefighter Guy Montag lives in a bleak and fictional society in the United States. However, his job as a firefighter is not to extinguish fires, but to ignite them. For example, in the world of Fahrenheit 451, firefighters set fire to the homes of people who own books as punishment. Written by Ray Bradbury in 1953 dystopia uses the name «Fahrenheit 451» to refer to the temperature that book paper needs to burn, namely 451 Fahrenheit (approx. 233 °C).
One dystopia is a story set in the future and depicting a social order that is frightening and undesirable. The dystopia is the opposite of a utopia that shows a beautiful future. If you want to know more about dystopia and utopia, check out the explanation «Utopia and Dystopia».
Characters and their characterization in «Fahrenheit 451»
The main character in «Fahrenheit 451» is Guy Montag. Besides him, there are several other important characters.
Guy Monday
Guy Monday is the main character from «Fahrenheit 451». He is 30 years old and by profession firefighter. Not the typical one you might imagine, though. In Fahrenheit 451, firefighters are tasked with burning books and starting fires rather than putting out fires.
- likes his job at first, but begins to question it as the novel progresses
- the relationship with his wife Mildred is more distant
- goes through a development in the course of the novel and begins to question the rules of the government
Mildred («Millie») Monday
Mildred is the Wife by Guy Montag. She always tries to conform to the ideal of society. Mildred adheres to all guidelines and does not question any of these rules. She barely remembers the beginnings of her relationship with her husband and is very fond of him indifferent. For example, she wants to report him for possession of books.
- is indifferent to what is happening within society
- makes two suicide attempts
Clarisse McClellan
Clarisse is the 17-year-old neighbor’s daughter of the Montag family. it is very curious and extrovert. Your conversations with Montag make him start questioning things.
- is marginalized in society because of their personality
- is killed in a car accident
Captain Beatty
Captain Beattythe Monday boss, is a clever and perceptive man. He used to love books and owned many, but now he despises anyone who owns books.
- manipulative, articulate, authoritarian and perceptive
- is the antagonist of the novel
One antagonist is an opponent or a villain in a novel and thus the opponent of the protagonist, who takes on a kind of heroic role.
Other less important characters in «Fahrenheit 451» are Professor Farber, Mrs. Phelps and Mrs. Bowles, who are friends of Mildred Montag, and Granger, the leader of the BookPeople.
Summary and content of «Fahrenheit 451»
«Fahrenheit 451» takes place in a non-real world society in the future of the United States, where reading and owning books are banned and where a fictitious nuclear war is being waged. As punishment, the books and the owners’ houses are burned by the so-called firefighters. Firefighters as you know them no longer exist because the houses can no longer burn due to a plastic coating.
The protagonist of «Fahrenheit 451» is just such a firefighter and his name is Guy Montag.
A nuclear war is a war waged with so-called nuclear weapons (nuclear bombs). In the worst case, such a war could mean the annihilation of humanity and all other life forms on earth.
Books have simply become uninteresting in «Fahrenheit 451» due to technological progress, so that nobody reads them anymore. They are even feared by people because they can trigger genuine feelings that people in society do not want.
The novel is in three chapters divided.
- «The Hearth and the Salamander»
- «The Sieve and the Sand»
- «Burning Bright»
«The Hearth and the Salamander» – Chapter 1
Guy Montag comes from the work home when he meets Clarisse, his neighbors’ daughter. They strike up a conversation and Clarisse asks him if he happy is. Guy realizes he has to answer the question with a no.
Coming in the front door, Guy finds his wife Mildred trying to get along with sleeping pills to take life. He calls 911 and saves his wife’s life. Mildred doesn’t remember it the next morning.
One day, Guy and his fellow firefighters get the job of burning down an elderly woman’s house because she owns books. However, the woman does not want to leave her house and ultimately sets herself on fire. Monday it still manages one of the books, one Bibleto save and take home unnoticed.
When he comes home, he realizes that neither he nor his wife can remember how they met. Montag notes that he has a loveless marriage leads. When he asks about Clarisse, whom he hasn’t seen in a while, Mildred tells him that the girl was run over four days ago and the family then moved away.
The next morning, Montag talks to his boss, Captain Beatty. He mentions in passing that one of the firefighters took a book from a house that was going to be burned. If the book within 24 hours is burned, nobody has to find out who took it. Because Beatty already has it suspicionthat Montag took the book with him. He gets scared and decides to tell his wife about the book. Mildred gets nervous and wants her husband to read the book destroyed.
«The Hearth and the Salamander» means something like «The hearth and the salamander». The hearth symbolizes life in one household. The salamander is the logo of Montag’s workplace. Thus, the chapter figuratively deals with Monday’s life at home and at work and allows the reader an introduction to the everyday life of the main character.
«The Sieve and the Sand» – Chapter 2
Mildred argues with Montag about the books he hid. He took several books with him from work over time. When Montag realizes he can’t change Mildred’s mind about books, he seeks out former English professor Faber, who owns many books. Faber and Montag talk about them meaning from books for the society.
At home, Montag tries to talk about books with Mildred and her friends, but they seem uninterested and want one instead tv show follow up. monday starts poems reading from a stolen book, which upsets the friends so much that they leave the house.
At work, Montag learns that a new house because of book ownership must be burned down. It turns out that the house in question Monday house is.
The title of the chapter translates as «The sieve and the sand«. In this chapter, Montag tells how, as a child, he once tried in vain to fill a sieve with sand. The sand symbolizes the knowledge Montag would like to have about books. But since his brain is like a sieve, he cannot manage it to grasp the knowledge.
«Burning Bright» (Chapter 3)
Guy Montag has to burn down his own house. Montag learns that his wife and her friends revealed to Beatty that Montag stole the Bible.
Captain Beatty wants to understand Montag’s actions and questions him. Montag doesn’t answer him, and Beatty gets angry and hits him. Montag fights back by saying the flamethrower, which he is supposed to use to demolish his house, aimed at his boss. Captain Beatty dies in the process.
Montag then leaves town and flees to Professor Faber, who advises him to go there Refugee camp for academics visit. The academics there call themselves Bok people and hide from the police in the refugee camp.
On the run, Monday will be from a mechanical dog pursued who has been searching for him since Captain Beatty was killed. In a forest on the outskirts of town, Montag eventually finds the academics’ refugee camp, run by a man named Granger. Granger gives him a device that makes it impossible for the mechanical dog to find him.
mechanical dogs are used in «Fahrenheit 451» by the police and fire department to book owners or criminals pursue and to kill. The dog kills its victims by administering a mixture of painkillers that enter the victim’s body through a needle attached to the dog’s head. Since the dog has over 10,0000 different olfactory complexes, it is very reliable when tracking criminals and book owners.
A few days after Montag disappeared from his hometown, the city bombed. Except for Faber, who fled on a bus days earlier, everyone dies. Granger declared Monday that the city as a Phoenix must first perish before it can be rebuilt. That’s why they plan Bok people the town rebuildin which books should be allowed in the future.
The chapter «Burning Bright» means «bright Burn» and indicates the city that erupts in blazing fire in this chapter. The name of the chapter also stands for Montag’s former life, the society and its ideals, which are burned by the atomic bombs.
This chapter also deals with the myth of Phoenix. The phoenix is a mythical bird that turns to ashes at the end of its life. The phoenix comes back to life from the same ashes and is thus an immortal being. In a figurative sense, the phoenix also reflects the fate of the city here. The city must first burn before something new and better can rise from its ashes.
Analysis of «Fahrenheit 451»
«Fahrenheit 451» is used by a personal teller in the third person told. The narrator follows Guy Montag throughout the story, objectively describing the society Montag lives in, as well as his feelings and thoughts.
To learn more about narrative perspectives, see the Point of View explanation. There you will find everything you need to know about the different narrative perspectives and their special features.
Central themes & motifs in «Fahrenheit 451»
censorship and technology determine the life of society in «Fahrenheit 451». They are central themes alongside culture loss, dystopia and utopiathat are addressed.
censorship
In «Fahrenheit 451» books are banned, which leads to a kind of censorship in society. The possession of books is even punishable.
Censorship is the state’s active control of information and how it can reach the public. When a state practices censorship, it controls, for example, what is allowed to appear in the newspaper and what is not.
Captain…