Theme Of Alienation In Fahrenheit 451

People often think that aspects of society today cannot be compared to the societies of the past because modern societies are so much farther advanced than even sixty years ago. Authors often use literary elements, like symbolism and characterization, to convey how similar two time periods can be, even if the periods are really decades apart. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag is a firefighter who ends up on the run in a society where books have been banned after learning the truth about books and the knowledge books hold. While Montag is on the run in order to pursue what he believes is right, he finds other men like him who were outcast by the government and by society as well. Critics like Diane Telegan, Wayne L. Johnson, and

“In scene after scene, Montag becomes emotionally alienated from his work, his wife, and the people he works with. As this alienation increases, he reaches out to books and to the people who value them. His escape from the city to the refuge of the book people offers hope” (144). Although Montag is alienated by other characters and his coworkers, Bradbury uses characterization and symbolism more frequently to display this the dystopian society throughout Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury uses symbolism and characterization in Fahrenheit 451 to convey his fear for the future through Montag’s storyline. Towards the beginning of the novel, a fellow fireman, Beatty, states, “‘Nineteenth-century man with his horses, dogs, carts, slow motion. Then, in the twentieth century, speed up your camera. Books are shorter. Condensations. Digests, Tabloids. Everything boils down to the gag, the snap ending’” (52). This quote shows that the American society Montag and the others live in is farther ahead technologically than the United States was when Bradbury wrote this. Beatty helps to symbolize the majority of the society in the book who are content with their “snap ending”. The people in the book are symbols for different aspects of what Bradbury believes in and how over time America will change, and he makes this more apparent through his

Works Cited

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Simon Schuster, 2012.

“Fahrenheit 451.” Novels for Students, edited by Diane Telgen, vol. 1, Gale, 1997, pp. 138-157. Gale Virtual Reference Library, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX2591400017/GVRL?u=belltwp&sid=GVRL&xid=57cc3a40. Accessed 7 Mar. 2018.

Johnson, Wayne L. “Machineries of Joy and Sorrow.” EXPLORING Novels, Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ2101201953/SUIC?u=belltwp&xid=9b88895e. Accessed 7 Mar. 2018.

Johnson, Wayne L. “Machineries of Joy and Sorrow.” EXPLORING Novels, Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ2111200570/SUIC?u=belltwp&xid=dee2d149. Accessed 7 Mar. 2018.

Johnson, Wayne L. “Machineries of Joy and Sorrow.” EXPLORING Novels, Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ2111200574/SUIC?u=belltwp&xid=23f7c28d. Accessed 7 Mar. 2018.

McGiveron, Rafeeq O. “’To Build a Mirror Factory’: The Mirror and Self-Examination in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.” North Salem Schools, 1998, teachers.northsalemschools.org/Asset/User/JLongobardi/English/F451/mirror_factory.pdf. Accessed 12