Analyzing Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'

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Fahrenheit 451: Final Draft
In 1953, Ray Bradbury wrote his novel Fahrenheit 451. Since its debut, Fahrenheit 451 has been regarded as a masterful work of literary fiction with powerful political commentary, akin to George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm. According to Willis McNelly, “For Bradbury, a metaphor is not merely a figure of speech, it is a vital concept, a method he uses for comprehending one reality and expressing it in terms of another; it permits the reader to perceive what the author is saying” (Connor 408). Bradbury’s entire novel is one huge metaphor for how humanity is losing touch with what is important and he uses the characters to convey his messages about censorship. Bradbury uses the dialogue
Beatty begins by explaining how things were in the nineteenth century, when everything was in “slow motion” (Bradbury 52). But the world wanted things to be faster, so the result was, “Books cut shorter. Condensations. Digests, Tabloids. Everything boils down to the gag, the snap ending… Classics cut to fit fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column, winding up at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume” (Bradbury 52). The purpose of condensing everything transformed from a societal thirst for knowledge to a thirst for things to talk about with friends (Bradbury 52). As priorities shifted from intelligence to socialization, intellectualism was seen to be nothing more than “time-wasting thought” (Bradbury 52). Censorship caused literature and written communication to be dumbed down to something that the lay-person could understand and discuss at social gatherings. The priority was taken away from intellectualism and placed on being able to be social and relate to
For example, the mechanical hound and Mildred’s “family” are commonplace creatures, even though they have no essence of humanity. However, due to widespread censorship, the lack of humanity has spread like a disease to infect humans as well. When Mildred and Montag are discussing a tragic case of suicide, Mildred shows her inhumanity when she says, “She’s nothing to me; she shouldn’t have had books. It was her responsibility, she should’ve thought of that. I hate her. She’s got you going and next thing you know we’ll be out, no house, no job, nothing” (Bradbury 48). Censorship has muted the feelings – compassion, sympathy, empathy – that humans are supposed to feel for one another. This sentiment is echoed by Mrs. Phelps who describes her marriage as nothing more than an acquaintanceship: “Anyway, Pete and I always said, no tears, nothing like that. It’s our third marriage each and we’re independent. Be independent, we always said. He said, if I get killed off, you just go right ahead and don’t cry, but get married again, and don’t think of me” (Bradbury 91). Because censorship has stripped people of their emotions and humanity, they cannot even know what it means to be devoted to someone and to care when they have