Fahrenheit 451: A Literary Analysis

Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, depicts a futuristic American society where conformity, censorship and technological obsession is commonplace. Published in 1953, the novel follows Guy Montag, a fireman who, instead of putting out fires, burns books. Montag, in an unhappy marriage and hiding forbidden books, eventually meets former English professor Faber. With Faber’s help, Montag begins his journey to reprint and reproduce books, however, he is caught and is forced to escape the city for the countryside. Exploring Montag’s descent from a fireman to rebel and outcast in society, Bradbury’s work depicts the impact of Western society’s enslavement by the media, technology and conformity. Utilising the environment as a
G. Myers (2001) notes that literature is historical, and a ‘social and cultural construct shaped by more than one consciousness [and it] […] may be inferred that literature is not an individual representation but a collective one, like a tale of many voices’ (p. 2). While often characterised as a decade of conformity, the 1950s were just as much an era deeply critical of conformity within society (Jancovich, 1996). Intellectuals called on people to resist conformity and challenge social norms. The novel reflects this trend with Montag and Faber, working against their society’s influence and instead, their defiance societal norms. In a culture saturated with media, consumerism and conformity, Montage and Faber belong to a group who rebel against this standard and instead value knowledge, freedom and individuality. Faber, in regards to Beatty, warns against conformity: ‘But remember the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority’ (p. 140). Fahrenheit 451 not only reflects Bradbury’s distrust of conformity, but also those around him who shared a similar sentiment. His novel represents society where conformity is both prevalent and detested, a similar occurrence in his own society during the 1950s. As Garyn G. Roberts (2013) contends ‘Bradbury uses his own personal experience and cultural inheritance as a counterpoint to the story’ (p. 29). Bradbury utilises Montag’s resistance to his society’s ideals to demonstrate his own, along with those around him, rejection of their society’s preoccupation with conformity and mediums that promote it such as the mass media, consumerism and