Preview

Ray Bradbury Research Paper Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
856 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ray Bradbury Research Paper Essay Example
Language Arts 3rd Hour
February 4, 2012
If can control the past, then you can control the future.

Ray Douglas Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois, on August 22, 1920. He is the son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury and Esther Marie Moberg Bradbury. Ray attended Los Angeles High School. He was active in the drama club and planned to be an actor. Bradbury’s formal education ended with his high school graduation in 1938. However, he continued to educate himself by spending his nights in the library. One of Bradbury’s best-known works, Fahrenheit 451, was released in 1953. It is set in the future in which a totalitarian government has banned the written word. Today, Ray and Maggie Bradbury continue to live in Los Angeles. Ray Bradbury still writes daily and occasionally lectures. At an age when most men rest on their laurels, Bradbury remains a dynamic storyteller and contributor of “obvious answers to impossible futures.”(Jepsen and Johnson 4)

Ray Bradbury’s writing style has always been known to be poetic without being pretentious; it communicates abstract ideas with layman terms and engages our senses. (Ray Bradbury Board) I enjoy Bradbury’s use of irony in stories, but especially in A Sound of Thunder when the killing of a butterfly changes all of civilization. The short story is about this wealthy man named Eckles who pays this time traveling company to take him back to prehistoric times, so he can hunt for a dinosaur. These dinosaurs have been selected because a previous survey indicated that they would die very soon anyway. Although this supposedly gets around the ripple effect, it quite obviously does not—a flaw in logic that Bradbury himself undoubtedly recognized.

"A Sound of Thunder" is about a wealthy man who has purchased a spot in a hunting trip named Eckles. The time traveling company doesn’t want diseases brought to the past, so they will wear environmental suits and they will also

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 is a science fiction novel written by Ray Bradbury in the 1950’s. The book is set somewhere in the United States in the future past the year 1990, as the book states there have been two atomic wars since 1990. Despite it possibly being set in what is modern times today, the story seems to be stuck in the 50’s, with life revolving around television, women being treated as their husband’s property, and advances such as mechanical hounds that administer poison.…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “A Sound of Thunder” and “being prey” setting has a lot in common and a lot of differences. “A Sound of Thunder” setting is in 2055 or the future and in a prehistoric jungle. “A week, a month, a year, a decade! A.D. 2055, 2019, 1999, 1957. Gone!” They are traveling back in time. “Being Prey” setting took place in the present day unlike “A Sound of Thunder.” “Being Prey” is an autobiography so the author is also the main character in the story. In the story they don’t give a time but Plumwood writes, “Yesterday, the water lilies and wonderful…”she also wrote, “Today, I wanted to repeat that…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury, is a classic in today’s literature. Fahrenheit 451 is possibly our predicted future for society. During the Novel, Montag, the main character, undergoes many changes influenced by many factors, such as, personal experiences, major events, and influential characters. Montag’s character starts off as someone apart of society who later turns into someone who is totally opposed to it.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The futuristic world that Ray Bradbury, author of Ferinheight 451, so vividly describes is frightenly close to our own. Therefore it give a broad outlook on futuristic society, and remarkably parallels the world in which we live in today. The problems at the present night not be as extreme as Bradburys however, if left unchecked they could grow to be just as monstrous as he predicted.…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 was a futuristic novel written by Ray Bradbury in the 1950s. In this new society the government rules and citizens are expected to obey the rules. Guy Montag, the main character, is your average man: a firefighter who is living happily, or so he thought, with his wife, Mildred, and follows the rules set in place by the government. He was average until a girl, Clarisse, helped him understand the value of knowledge therefore, allowing him to see the truth of society. The characters of Mildred and Clarisse serve as foils to one another in Bradbury’s novel thus symbolizing the dark and isolated aspects of the dystopian society, via Mildred, versus the light and incorporated aspects of society via Clarisse both sparking a sense of curiosity in Montag.…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The 1950s were the years of discovery, where technology took despotically life and reality from society. In Fahrenheit 451, author, Ray Bradbury illustrates people the trepidation and ignorance of the 1950s. Bradbury’s purpose for creating a dystopian world is to demonstrate how life could be destroyed without the word “intellectual” and also showing how living with conformity can lead to a lazy and craven life. His examples of hero’s journey to archetypes can be connected to the theme of censorship and conformity.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many attempts to analyze Fahrenheit 451 have digressed towards a focus on the concept of government censorship. This was not the intent of the author. Bradbury has stated firmly that the literary work is about how television deteriorates the interest in literature and reading.…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 has been highly regarded and analyzed by a variety of critics through its monumental plot, haunting language, and frighteningly relevant themes. The dystopian backdrop and themes of the novel are deeply connected to the environment of which the novel was written and the events that transpired throughout Bradbury’s life fuelled his artistic response to the McCarthyism era. Through deep analyzation of Bradbury’s life, Garyn G. Roberts concludes that, “Fahrenheit 451 is the result of the keen observations and personal experiences of its author; it is also a cultural artifact, which reflects who we were, who we are, and who we might become” (36). Bradbury has indeed developed a strong connection to books at a very early stage in his life and this has been presented in his own storytelling of the types of book he writes. Bradbury’s life can also be said to be an antithesis to Montag’s world since the presence and feelings associated with literature contrasts very well in their respective realms. Furthermore, Bradbury encourages his audience to examine the culture of which society is evolving towards throughout time in order to understand the functions and needs of human relationships. To support this analyzation, Andrea Krafft…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nethergrave Analysis

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A Sound of Thunder's theme, that little things can have a massive impact on yourself and others, is introduced through the Chaos Theory when Eckles steps off the path, and accidentally kills a prehistoric butterfly, which massively impacted the present. When Eckles travels back to the present, the President had lost the election, and instead Deutscher won. Also Time Safari's name and motto changed, and even the feeling of air itself. Nethergrave's theme, that you should trust no one, especially on the internet, is important when considering that anyone on there could be masking themselves, and simply lie to you, making it risky at times. This message is brought up throughout the storyline, for example, Dr.Dead was in fact a stroke victim not the surfer that he claimed to be. The event that expressed the theme the most, was when Jeremy chose to enter the Nethergrave because of loneliness. After Magus told Jeremy about his internet friends secrets, and Nethergrave, he trusted Magus, and he entered without considering his family, or who Magus truly was. Overall, Nethergrave's theme may have been a stronger concept, but it had failed to express it enough throughout the story, compared to A Sound of Thunder's…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel written by Ray Bradbury, published in 1953. The story depicts a futuristic American world, where all books and literature are forbidden. It is the job of the “Firemen” to burn all prohibited books and literature. The novel was inspired by similar times in history when the reading and publishing of specific types of literature, were also controlled. In the novel, it is apparent that the management of political power affects the actions, the minds, and the feelings of groups and of individuals in society. First, the actions, the minds, and the feelings of the people in the community will be greatly influenced by the propaganda and information let out by the government and political leaders. Fear greatly…

    • 875 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Sound of Thunder” provoked a stronger reaction after the story concluded. When I read the line, “There was a sound of thunder,” I sat dazed for a minute. I wondered, “Did Travis just kill Eckels?” Out loud I told my sister, “I…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    [1] Ray Bradbury, the author of Fahrenheit 451, was born on August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He has had a love for books ever since he was a small boy, and would always stop to plunder local libraries in search for some of his favorite books. At first, he writing choice of style was science fiction. Later, he came to write regular fiction. [2] Fahrenheit 451 was written in the 1950’s. During this time period, there was a lot going on that definitely influenced the book. First, in the 50’s there was a lot of suspicion. This was so bad that one day, while Bradbury and one of his writer friends were on a walk, a police officer stopped them and asked them what they were doing. Bradbury has the wiseacre reply of: “putting one foot in front…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a novel about a materialistic society that has forgotten social interaction with each other. This materialistic society is where Bradbury believed society today is headed. The materialistic society in Fahrenheit 451 created through Bradbury’s cynic views of society. His views of society are over-exaggerated in contrast with today’s events, especially in the areas of censorship and media mediocrity.…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ray Bradbury wrote his novel, Fahrenheit 451, in a time of general happiness in the United States. With the recent end of World War 2, the 1950s brought joy to the nation. Rations had ended, houses were more affordable, soldiers had returned from war, and television became widespread. Beyond that, however, the Cold War began, leaving Americans fearful of a nuclear war, and The Civil Rights Movement took off. Bradbury sensed this tension and the themes of his novel reflect his opinions on the issues that arose in this time period.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Once More to the Lake

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages

    White says that he seemed to be living "a dual existence" as a father in the present and…

    • 329 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays