The Similarities Between Societies
Professor Frank Coffman
Research Paper
Dec. 13, 2011
English 103
The Similarities Between Societies Ray Bradbury is one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think, by a mere spark he has entranced the reader, just after a few short pages and you are hooked. He has more than five hundred published works that exemplify the American imagination at its most creative – from technological advances to futuristic societies. Also his timeless, constant appeal to audiences young and old has proven him to be one of the truly classic authors of today. Ray Bradbury incorporates themes such as knowledge versus ignorance in which occur throughout much of his most prevalent works hinting to the reader the similarities of our societies, that of the books and the society we live in.
As we see in a futuristic American city a fireman by the name of Guy Montag is not an ordinary fireman, instead of putting out fires, the firemen set fires to books and anything that may promote the thought of free speech. In the book Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury has created a society in which a higher power has gone as far as to increase entertainment through technology than through books. The people in this society do not read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations. Instead, they drive very fast, watch excessive amounts of television on wall-size sets, and listen to the radio on “Seashell Radio” sets attached to their ears.
Fahrenheit 451 doesn’t provide a single, clear explanation of why books are banned in the future. Instead there are factors that can be analyzed further in order to understand the reason behind the burnings. Such influences include a general lack of interest in reading in which may make people actively hostile toward books. Also it may have to do with how people don’t like to feel inferior to those who have read more than they have. But the novel implies that the most important factor
Research Paper
Dec. 13, 2011
English 103
The Similarities Between Societies Ray Bradbury is one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think, by a mere spark he has entranced the reader, just after a few short pages and you are hooked. He has more than five hundred published works that exemplify the American imagination at its most creative – from technological advances to futuristic societies. Also his timeless, constant appeal to audiences young and old has proven him to be one of the truly classic authors of today. Ray Bradbury incorporates themes such as knowledge versus ignorance in which occur throughout much of his most prevalent works hinting to the reader the similarities of our societies, that of the books and the society we live in.
As we see in a futuristic American city a fireman by the name of Guy Montag is not an ordinary fireman, instead of putting out fires, the firemen set fires to books and anything that may promote the thought of free speech. In the book Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury has created a society in which a higher power has gone as far as to increase entertainment through technology than through books. The people in this society do not read books, enjoy nature, spend time by themselves, think independently, or have meaningful conversations. Instead, they drive very fast, watch excessive amounts of television on wall-size sets, and listen to the radio on “Seashell Radio” sets attached to their ears.
Fahrenheit 451 doesn’t provide a single, clear explanation of why books are banned in the future. Instead there are factors that can be analyzed further in order to understand the reason behind the burnings. Such influences include a general lack of interest in reading in which may make people actively hostile toward books. Also it may have to do with how people don’t like to feel inferior to those who have read more than they have. But the novel implies that the most important factor
Cited: page * Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1933. Print. * Bradbury, Ray. The Illustrated Man. New York: HarperCollins, 2011. Print. * Authors on the Web. Ray Bradbury. HarperCollins Publishers, 2011. Web. December 7, 2011. www.raybradbury.com * Real, Willie. The Use of Literary Quotations and Allusion in Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451. np. 2003. Web. December 7, 2011. < www.heliweb.de/telic/bradcom.htm>