The Setting Of Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury

The setting of the novel, Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, is set in a large nameless city approximately in the year 2053. This novel was written in a dark and depressing mood. One example of this is when Beatty gets burned to death with a flamethrower. Another example is when a daughter like figure to the main protagonist supposedly gets hit by a car and killed. This event is supposed because the main character never believed it was an accidental hit and run. This novel has three main characters Montag, Beatty and Faber. Even though there are many characters in this novel, the main protagonist is Montag. Montag is a fireman for the city in which he lives. In this novel however, firemen do not put out fires they start them, setting ablaze

Montag’s adventure begins when he meets Faber in the park. While walking along in the park one day Montag noticed an older gentleman perched on a park bench, his name was Faber. That is the moment when the seed was planted that later grew into his love for books. Montag and Faber talked a lot about books that day, it does not specify exactly how long they talked but Montag did not report Faber, which is against the law. Although this event happens before the book starts it is still one of the most integral parts of this novel. The next major plot point is when Montag started to read. Montag started reading because he thought it would fill the gap that had formed in his life. This is when one of his main struggles is formed. Montag started to go to war with himself about whether or not he should read. This is also when he flashes back to meeting Faber in the park all that time ago. This is when Montag goes to Faber's house and they start to devise a plan. This plan was to sneak into firefighter’s houses and place books in them, then call in tips so they would collapse from the inside out. Which leads to the third plot point, when Montag starts to run. When Beatty discovers Faber and threatens to turn them both into the police, Montag is forced to kill him. Montag kills Beatty by burning him alive with a flamethrower. This

This first arises when Montag starts to read, because he still must burn books in his job as a fireman. His internal struggle begins when Montag realizes that if he burns them the books could be lost forever. The quote “Quick with the kerosene” (pg 34), shows that society is against owning and reading books. However, Montag has already grown to love to read books and has many stashed away in his home. Once the firehouse gets a tip that Montag has books in his house, society, in the form of the government, forces him to burn down his own home. In this novel, no one, not even the firemen are not permitted to read. The government has banned the reading of all books because society believes that reading leads to opinions and too many opinions is bad for the people. The next conflict is stated in this quote “The innocent man stood bewildered, a cigarette burning in his hand” (pg 143). This quote is describing an innocent man right before the mechanical hound kills him on live television. The police lost Montag during his escape, therefore they murdered the innocent man because he vaguely matched Montag’s description. They knew that society could not take it if Montag remained a fugitive remained on the loose.

The main conflict of man vs society was never resolved in the novel. The first example of this is when Montag burned Beatty. This was not resolved because Montag escaped and was able to elude the police and avoid capture forcing