Considered one of the great dystopian novels of our time, Fahrenheit 451 was written by Ray Bradbury and published in 1953. It’s set in a nightmarish future with book-burning firemen who set fires, rather than extinguish them. Imagine screaming jets laden with bombs, a population choking on its own sense of meaninglessness, and lots and lots of metaphor. Inventive and unique, while also calling up a few too many similarities to modern times for comfort– Fahrenheit 451 is a Classic, capital C, for a reason.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• World War II ended only a few years before Fahrenheit 451 was written and its influence is clear.
  • Obvious references to Nazi book burnings
  • Traumatic recent memory of the atom bomb
  • Additionally, the threat of more warfare continued with the Cold War. The tone around war is BLEAK, in other words.
• McCarthy Era
  • A period of intense anti-communist suspicion and persecution in the United States during the late 1940s and 1950s. Investigations and hearings were headed by Senator Joseph McCarthy, hence the name McCarthyism.
  • Anyone accused of being communist, often with little evidence, was at risk of political persecution and repression.
  • Lot of neighbors turning on neighbors in both the McCarthy Era and Fahrenheit 451, to say nothing of the increased level of surveillance and the general distrust of anything different.
• Elements of 1950s lifestyle
  • Teenage drag racing
  • The bored 50s housewife
  • A rise of Sci-Fi books and movies reflecting fear of robots, technology, and nuclear warfare.
  • Check, check, and check!

A FEW ACCURATE PREDICTIONS BY BRADBURY

• Flat-screen TV
• Interactive media
• Widespread use of headphones, like the “seashells”
• ATMs, in the form of a bank which is open all night with a robot teller
• Increased government surveillance via technology
• Dare I add the decline of deep reading?

A FEW THEMES TO CONSIDER

• Censorship (Ironic, as the book itself is a commonly banned book.) 
• Individual self-expression vs. conformity/order
• Violence and self-destruction
• Mindless pleasure seeking and materialism (see also: Dangers of technology; Lure of distraction)
• Books. Of course!

(See here for a more complete discussion of themes as they relate to characters.)

USEFUL LITERARY TERMS

• Allusion: A literary device in which a text makes reference to a related work, author, historical figure, political or cultural event. . . the list goes on. There are PLENTY in Fahrenheit 451.
  • Teachers, why not introduce this term as well as the text itself with a first day activity?
• Dystopia: An imagined (sometimes post-apocalyptic) world or society in which there is great suffering or injustice. Themes like totalitarianism and dehumanization often factor prominently.
• Foil: A literary device in which one character contrasts another (often the protagonist). Side by side, the difference between them is all the more apparent, which allows the author to explore themes and message around that characteristic. Consider . . .
  • Clarisse and Mildred
  • Beatty and Faber
  • Montag and any of these characters
• Limited narration: The narrator is not all knowing, and the gaps in his or her knowledge amplifies either the novel’s suspense and/or (as is the case in Fahrenheit 451) the character’s/society’s faulty worldview, which is of interest to the author.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• What do humans really want from life: comfort or fulfillment? What does “happiness” even look like?
• What is the link between happiness and self-awareness?
• How does one fix a broken world?
• What role do books and literacy play in identity formation or the (re)formation of a culture?