Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
United States

Characters:

Montag; protagonist of the story, works as a “fireman” whose job is to burn books in a futuristic society.
Mildred; wife of Montag, reminds us what the average person is like.
Clarisse; considered odd in society, doesn’t have many friends, appreciates nature, opens Montags eyes to the world.
Beatty; antagonist of the story, head fireman, knows more about books than anyone else.
Mechanical Hound; represents the power of the government and their manipulative use of technology.
Faber; serves as Montags mentor, an older version of Montag
Granger; former author, encourages Montag to remember books and try to understand the importance of them.

Setting:

The location of the book is not

He learns that his wife turned him in for being in possession of books. Montag then confronts Beatty and decides he must kill him in order to save himself. (It’s the climax because Montag the protagonist kills Beatty the antagonist)

-Resolution

When the city is bombed by fighter jets and Montag and the others have a chance to rebuild a new civilization.

Major Themes:

Technology can isolate people and inhibit sharing of ideas and emotion; In the book technology stops Mildred from expressing her emotions. She is always obsessed with her television shows and doesn’t acknowledge the fact that she attempted to commit suicide, and doesn’t express her true feelings.

Mindless pleasure-seeking and materialism may be devastating to a society; In the book since most people are blinded by what’s going on in the world around them they refuse to accept that the government is corrupt.

Symbols:

-Fire: Fire symbolizes the burning books and how Clarisse reminds Montag of a candle light, flickering with

"...every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we're doing the same thing, over and over, but we've got one damn thing the Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did." - Granger. He claims that one thing that makes mankind and a phoenix different is mankind will learn from its mistakes unlike a phoenix.

-Centrifuge: Beatty compares mankind to a substance in a centrifuge throwing itself around until it breaks or falls apart. Beatty says, "Stand back from the centrifuge" meaning not to get involved.

Irony/Satire:

When Montag is introduced as a fireman, this is ironic because firemen are thought to put out fires and not start them.

Mildred calls the parlor her family but she will not call Montag her husband.

“If a problem gets too burdensome, then into the furnace with it.” - Captain Beatty. This is ironic because Montag burns Beatty to death with a flamethrower.

Significance in the title of the work:

The title represents the temperature that paper burns at.

Author’s techniques:

An example of foreshadowing in the book is when Montag is talking with his wife and he looks up at the air-conditioning vent for a prolonged period of time, later in the book we find out that he has been hiding books in the air-conditioning