Fahrenheit 451 Juxtaposition Analysis

“You can’t ever have my books!” yelled a woman before she set herself on fire. This beautifully crafted statement demonstrates how well of a dystopian novel Ray Bradbury was able to compose. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Bradbury extensively utilizes imagery and juxtaposition to help create his vision of a dystopian society. Bradbury uses imagery throughout to such an extent that the reader can perfectly imagine what his vision was. When Bradbury also employs the use of juxtaposition in conjunction with imagery, he shows just how different the world he envisioned with Fahrenheit 451 is from the world that exists today. This shows that Bradbury was successful in creating a dystopian novel.

A key characteristic of a successful dystopian novel is creating the illusion of happiness. The author must use imagery to aid the reader in this illusion, while also leading the reader to know that life isn’t as it should be. Near the beginning of the novel, Bradbury writes that the houses are only burned at

This chase’s purpose, at a basic level, is to catch Montag, as he is now a public criminal. The true purpose of this chase is deeper, it is designed to convince the populace that the police are doing their jobs by catching fugitives like Montag. However, the ending to the chase tells a different story. They catch and kill “Montag” using the hound, however, they do not kill “Montag.” The police actually kill an innocent man while telling the public that they actually kill Montag, to save face. The killing shows that this society is flawed and corrupt, proving them to be a dystopia. If the police had caught the real Montag like they portray, the society may not be classified as a dystopia, but that wouldn’t follow Bradbury’s vision. The police are focused more on entertaining these viewers’ attention spans than they are about keeping these same viewers