What Are The Foil Characters In Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury 's novel Fahrenheit 451 delineates a society where books and quality information are censored while useless media is consumed daily by the citizens. Through the use of the character Mildred as a foil to contrast the distinct coming of age journey of the protagonist Guy Montag, Bradbury highlights the dangers of ignorance in a totalitarian society as well as the importance of critical thinking.

In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the character known as Montag is ironic. On the first page of the novel, it states “With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world,...” This shows irony because Montag is introduced to the readers as a fireman. This quote explains to us that Montag is the one shooting venomous kerosene at the world, or in other words he is the one making the fire. Montag’s wife, Mildred however does not show irony, but shows lackadaisical behavior. Mildred states "How long you figure before we save up and get the fourth wall torn out and a fourth wall-TV put in? When Mildred overdosed and was in recovery, all she cared about was getting a new parlor wall. All she does is watch tv all day. In the novel, Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury uses foreshadowing and irony to discuss the theme of burning knowledge.

Everybody has a point in life where someone reminds them of something they have long forgotten and suddenly everything make sense. In the dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury titled Fahrenheit 451, the curious, sweet girl of the name Clarisse pops the bubble that Montag lives in. Bradbury includes Clarisse in the story to act as an eye opener for Montag. She introduces him to a past where firemen put out fires instead of starting them. Clarisse remains immune to the chatter of television and instead gazes through a kaleidoscope of colors that filters out the dull views of the government. Clarisse McClellan symbolizes everything the government and society disapproves of by questioning the rules and logic of their world, enjoying nature, and not going along with what society deems socially acceptable.

Montag grows to learn to stand up for his beliefs from Clarisse, the book lady, and the hobos in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. First, Clarisse teaches Montag to stand up for his beliefs by doing it herself. This is proven when Bradbury writes, “I’m antisocial they say… It’s so strange. I’m very social indeed” (Bradbury 24). Clarisse refused to believe what society told her she was; instead, she stood up for her beliefs insisting that she was actually extremely social. By standing up for her beliefs Clarisse inspired Montag to do the same when he had t decide whether to pursue his interest in books or not. Next, the book lady shows Montag to stand up for his beliefs when the firemen came to burn her house. The book lady, “reached out…

Every single person on this Earth is currently facing a problem, whether it is life changing or minute. The novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury touches upon each type of conflict a character can face: man versus self, man versus man, and man versus society. The story follows around a fireman named Montag who realized that the he and the world around him is incredibly ignorant and censored. Three parts make up the book entitled The Hearth and the Salamander, The Sieve and the Sand, and Burning Bright. Bradbury chose to organize the book into sections because each section introduces a new form of conflict, which relates to the titles because The Hearth and the Salamander relates to two different types of people and how they view fire, The Sieve

“Gray animals peering from electric caves, faces with gray colorless eyes, gray tongues and gray thoughts looking out through the numb flesh of the face” (Bradbury 132). The people in Fahrenheit 451 are exactly as the protagonist, Montag, describes them: gray, animal, dehumanized and lifeless. Ray Bradbury has built a society in which people spend their days mindlessly watching television. Violence, bullying and murder are common, especially coming from school children, who spend their school days watching even more television. Montag is a fireman who burns books and slowly comes to understand the dehumanized and meaningless state that his society is in. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 demonstrates how dehumanization can lead to a meaningless

Imagine a world where firemen start fires instead of putting them out. Fahrenheit 451 is set in a utopian, or dystopian to us, society, where books are burned and people rarely have real social interaction. Although Fahrenheit 451 seems nowhere close to our society, we are both alike and different to their world.

Fahrenheit 451 had many different pairs of characters that had many different thoughts about certain things in life. Mildred, Montag 's wife, was very negative and only cared about herself, but Clarisse cared about other people than herself and had a positive view on the outside world. Beatty thinks that books will cause the world to end, but Montag thinks that they won 't and can help teach the world many different things. Faber and the Lost Gang both wanted to make people think that books are good again, but had two different ways of doing that.. In the book, Fahrenheit 451, there were three pairs of characters who were very different from each other and represented something or somebody in a society.

In the book Fahrenheit 451, we are introduced to two characters with two very different,

(MIP-2) From certain experiences, Montag comes to realize that he’s not actually happy with his life because he discovers that it lacks genuine, valuable, or humane relationships, eventually driving him to find the truth about his society by making him think about and question it. (SIP-A) Montag realizes from his experiences with Clarisse that his relationships in his life lack genuity, value, or humanity. (STEWE-1) From one of his first experiences with Clarisse, Montag feels something that he realizes he never felt before in his daily life. He ponders to himself, "How rarely did other people's faces take of you and throw back to your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought?" (Bradbury 8). What Montag is pondering about is how she behaved so attentive and natural towards

She was said to be an antisocial, meaning she didn’t fit in. Clarisse was a thinker, she wanted to observe things and understand why certain things happen. It is believed to think that her death was not an accident, but a murder. It also occurred to Montag that she might have been killed for having books. Montag believes that also ties into her death. The only reason Guy states that he wanted revenge for Clarisse is because she was the one who made him think. Clarisse was the person who put the idea of happiness into his mind. Before she came along, Montag was in this endless cycle of living but not living. He was looking, but he wasn’t seeing. He was breathing, but he wasn’t alive. When Clarisse died, Montag wanted to feel what she felt when she read books. When Beatty said, “‘…You think you can walk on water with your books…’” (Bradbury 111-112). Montag felt threatened by him, and he felt anger for what he had said about books. “‘…Well, the world can get by just fine without them…’” The world can get by just fine without them, without Clarisse, without anyone who decides to think differently. He wanted Beatty to feel the same thing Clarisse felt when she died. Just like Jan Zabinski did during World War II. Jan would poison the meat that was going to Nazi soldiers as a part of the rebellion to make them feel the same way the Nazi’s did. Montag wanted Beatty to feel remorse for Clarisse.

The concept of anti-intellectualism is to eliminate opportunities to acquire knowledge. In the society created by Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451, the capacity for higher level thinking is destroyed. Schools are shallow because they do not focus on higher level thinking in academics. Instead, there is a focus on recreation such as sports and television. This society burns books because their content is troublesome. The reason for this decision was because people were unable to formulate solutions to the problems that books created. They always take the easiest route resulting in their society neglecting books and the ideas inside them. Bradbury uses anti-intellectualism to demonstrate that by controlling what a society is exposed to and limiting their ideas, they will conform.

A predominate theme in Fahrenheit 451 is conformity. Bradbury utilizes the contrast between Mildred and Clarisse to compare the ideal, conforming citizen to the non-conforming outcast of society. Society believes that “books make people unhappy, they make them anti-social” (Bradbury 8). It also believes that the citizens should all be alike, equal and politically correct as to not offend “dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchant, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico” (57). Mildred conforms to these requirements, but Clarisse marches to her own drums. The theme of conformity is highlighted by the contrast of Mildred and Clarisse regarding their social interactions, their emotional well-being and their critical thinking.

After interpreting the motif technology, Bradbury starts to shift the spotlight to nature and expose technology as destructive. This shift is most precedent in fictional character Guy Montag. He had started his journey overwhelmed with technology, to the point where he couldn't even see the side of nature. Mildred starts his journey off and shows Guy just how unhappy he is and what technology has done to this society. Beatty then furthers his mentality with his constant interference and ironic knowledge about books. Yet these characters only start to further Guys quest. Fictional character Clarisse truly ignites Guys passion to reunite with nature, the healthier option. She helps him start the path and start to discover his unpleasant

Edward Eller is an assistant professor at Northeast Louisiana University1. He creates the point in “An Overview of Fahrenheit 451” by highlighting how technology is uncontrollably taking over the world, and compares it to how Mildred is devoted to technology saying, “immerses herself in the media provided for her to consume. Whenever she is not at the TV, she plugs in her earphones, always soaking up the artificial stimulus and messages someone else feeds to her,” Not only is technology taking over the world, but it is also taking over people. Technology brainwashed Mildred and the lack of social skills she contains with others is completely appropriate in her society. Mildred is so fixated with her TV family to the point where she tells Montag she wants him to put in a fourth wall-TV. This is similar to The Handmaid’s Tale, where technology is used only by the regime of Gilead. At the beginning of the novel, Offred explains her fear of being observed at all times, not only by the commander, but by everyone else in the regime. Throughout the article, the readers see that the fear of “the most complete violation of humanity would be the replacement of the human with machine in perfect conformity with the system which created it.”