Reality and fiction, though easy to decipher, often share a baseline of truth. This truth lies in a stories theme and in histories testimony of occurrences and reasons for these occurrences in the past. Look simply at the words and one can see that every history has a “story”; a story with a theme and message. In the life o f Guy Montag, Farenheit 451, the main goal is simply survival in a dystopian world where all that he knows and trusts is put to the test of doubt and change. Frederick Douglass was an American Slave, hoping only to one day be freed of his chains, both literal and figurative. It is in the two divergent lives of Guy Montag and Frederick Douglass where one can truly see how a story and history are not so different after all. …show more content…
On page 113, Ray Bradbury uses the mechanical hound to personify the future of the people and their ignorance. This unsightly creature seems to be something only those who are blind to their surroundings, like those in Fahrenheit 451 and in the era of slavery, are able to imagine. While this beast shows the inner conflict of Montag with what he knows is right versus what he has been taught, one can also cross apply the analogy to that of the lives of slaves and free men in America. Looking toward the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, the analogy is furthered in meaning by Douglass's courage and ability to overlook the flaws of Christianity and to keep his faith, as seen on page 158 of the novel. Simply looking at the history of slavery, it is clear to see that many people refused to see the theoretical hound and instead chose to be blind to the terrors they …show more content…
The complete lack of knowledge in the world of Fahrenheit 451 leads citizens to be afraid of what they do not understand. Firemen keep this fear in place and provide reasoning as to why the people of that world should fear knowledge, whereas those who rebel and read simply try to prove that what you do not know is not always bad or evil. In American history, many people were simply unaware of the happenings of slavery. While one would know slavery was real they wouldn’t know, or understand, that the slaves were put through torture and were barely able to survive their owners. The proof that lack of knowledge leads to actions of evil proves that knowledge is
Since the hound has the inability to think for itself, and because it can, “remember and identify ten thousand odor indexes on ten thousand men” (Bradbury, 127), it is the perfect solution to tracking and abolishing nonconformists. This is seen in the novel, with the search for Montag. The government’s persistence on the ridding of individualists is clearly observed when Montag destroys the first hound, and a second is immediately sent, with news reporters stating to the citizens, “--Mechanical Hound never fails. Never since its first use in tracking quarry has this incredible invention made a mistake” (Bradbury, 126). It is obvious just how desperate the government is to obliterate rebels. The Mechanical Hound is a clear portrayal of a uniform, undeviating society with a fear of anything “abnormal” or unique. It can ultimately be described as the watchdog of their society, constantly on the lookout for novelty and innovation. Montag expresses his sympathy for the hound by stating, “…all we put into it is hunting and finding and killing. What a shame if that’s all it can ever know” (Bradbury, 25). The government is so radically engrossed in maintaining the norm, that the creature is never permitted the opportunity to know anything other than destruction. The Mechanical Hound is “a fitting representative of unrelenting pursuit and execution for those
Bradbury also serves to warn us of the danger of ignorance in this futuristic dystopia. This again is reflective of the Nazi book burnings and the idea of people leaving behind knowledge and becoming ‘blissfully’ ignorant of the past. In Fahrenheit 451 the fireman's responsibility is to destroy knowledge and promote ignorance in order to ensure equality. Ignorance, however, promotes suicide, poor decisions, and empty lives. When Beatty discovers Montag's hidden collection of books, he explains that all firemen become curious of books, and may have time to explore them for a short time before disposing of them. He then tells Montag about the state of the world: people are made
It is only once in a while a book comes along so great in its message, so frightening in its inferred meaning’s of fire as in Fahrenheit 451. Fire which is used as a symbol of chaos, destruction, and death can also lead to knowledge. Fire has 3 different meanings. Fire represents change which is shown through Montag’s symbolic change from using fire to burn knowledge into using fire to help him find knowledge; fire can represent knowledge as demonstrated through Faber, and fire can represent rebirth of knowledge as shown through the phoenix.
The “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is an autobiography in which Frederick Douglass reflects on his life as a slave in America. He writes this book as a free slave, in the North, while slavery was still running its course before the Civil War. Through his effective use of rhetorical strategies, Frederick Douglass argues against the institution of slavery by appealing to pathos and ethos, introducing multiple anecdotes, using satirical irony, and explaining the persuasive effects of slavery and reasoning behind keeping slaves uneducated.
The people of the world of Fahrenheit 451 didn’t understand the deeper meanings of books, and feared the ideas they could put into people’s minds, so they burned them and put people owning them on trial. Mainly people of authority, like Captain Beatty of the firemen, thought people would be more manageable and better to each other if they didn’t have conflict. Books posed conflicts and made people think about how they could better their flaws, which gave people opinions, which can only lead to fighting, according to this world’s government. "Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don't step on the toes of the dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this
Finally, throughout the novel Bradbury presents a conflict between ignorance and understanding. The general society is being numbed into believing that knowledge makes people disagree with each other and unhappy. To prevent people from reading and gaining knowledge, the firemen burn all books. By committing these actions, they are promoting sameness and ignorance, to supposedly maintain happiness among society. Captain Beatty explains the history of firemen to Montag, speaking of their society’s view of equality. “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the constitution says, but everyone made equal . . . A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind.” (Bradbury, page 58) Captain Beatty is hinting that books encourage people to question authority and think about why things are done the way they are
Throughout our lives, we undergo many changes and we also see many changes in other people. Our world today has been influenced immensely by the world of the past. In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick undergoes many changes in his life and the lives of the people around him especially the slaveholders that he served. Throughout the narrative, we as the reader see that slavery was a terrible thing and that it affected the slaves in horrific ways but not just the slaves were affected, the slaveholders were also affected in horrible ways.
Both the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and The Adventures of Huck Finn explore the ideas of slavery and its impact on daily life as a whole. The Narrative of Frederick Douglass makes a more straightforward argument, whereas Mark Twain uses a less serious story to outline the dangers of slavery have not only on the slaves, but society. Through the use of Pathos, Frederick Douglass shows the reader the cruelty and hypocrisy of slavery. Mark Twain uses a simple story, one not meant to be interpreted or analyzed, to show just how the people in southern regions viewed slaves in America during the Antebellum period. Even though Frederick Douglass and Mark Twain use
In this case, it is books. All books are banned and this future world has created its own sense of knowledge. There are firemen, but instead of putting fires out, because houses have become fireproof, they burn books. Nothing gets in the way of these firemen, including people, as learned while reading Fahrenheit 451.
Ray Bradbury's novel, Fahrenheit 451, is based in a futuristic time where technology rules our everyday lives and books are viewed as a bad thing because it brews free thought. Although today’s technological advances haven’t caught up with Bradbury’s F451, there is a very real danger that society might end up relying on technology at the price of intellectual development. Fahrenheit 451 is based in a futuristic time period and takes place in a large American City on the Eastern Coast. The futuristic world in which Bradbury describes is chilling, a future where all known books are burned by so called "firemen." Our main character in Fahrenheit 451 is a fireman known as Guy Montag, he has the visual characteristics of the average
Authors often exaggerate or revise small details of their own books in order to produce an emotion in the reader instead of a factual representation. However, this does not make authors to be liers, only fabricators. In times or social unjust it is necessary for the oppressed to voice their opinions for the purpose of gaining equality. As it may seem immoral to twist truths, if done correctly it will strengthen the author's message, without compromising the authenticity of the plot. One can see this in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, along with his, My Bondage and My Freedom. Both novels are accounts of Douglass’ troublesome journey from a slave to a freeman. These heroic accounts served as prominent and respected
Fahrenheit 451, a first-person omniscient, futuristic, science-fiction novel, and The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass, a historical, non-fiction narrative from a first person perspective, differ greatly in their literary composition. However, despite these seemingly wide differences, both books share a number of characteristics in the depths of the words imprinted on their pages. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, both encompass many similarities that contribute to the theme that education and literacy are vital in order to create original thoughts and ideas, emphasizing the human condition.
(Watt 41). Bradbury reinforces this contrast by causing Mildred to relate only to the subject of herself, while Clarisse's favorite subject is other people. When Montag meets the Mechanical Hound, he discovers that it is a "dead beast, [a] living beast" (Bradbury 24). Donald Watt describes it as a "striking and sinister gadget" and it "is most terrifying for being both alive and not alive" (41; Huntington 113). The Hound becomes "Montag's particular mechanical enemy [and it] becomes more suspicious of him" as time passes and Montag develops a greater freedom from his society (Johnson 112). Thus, Montag is thrust into the realization that his culture is not flawless, but instead is rife with abuses of human freedoms.
To begin, rebelling against oppressive rule has allowed Montag to escape their rulers brainwashing and free their minds from the corruptive manipulation put in place by ruling powers. Author of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury goes on to explain, “If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one.
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