How Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 uses technique to challenge the ideologies at the time that the novel was written

In the novel ‘Fahrenheit 451’, Bradbury issues a warning to future generation by challenging the ideologies of his time. The ideologies of censorship and knowledge vs. ignorance in the novel are reflected at the height of strong anticommunism in 1950s – when McCarthy almost single-handedly created a sense of paranoia in U. S. government, which spread to affect all of the U. S. culture. The culture of suppression of ideas and literature is explored through narrative structure, use of figurative language, and character representation.

The ideology of censorship is a core element in Fahrenheit 451, and this can be explored by the technologies presented in the novel. Wall-sized television, sea-shelled radio, and mechanical hound represent government control and manipulation technologies. In Fahrenheit 451 books are banned and also being the source of all discord and unhappiness. “Coloured people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin … Burn the book. Serenity Montag. Peace Montag.

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Since books are considered as information that will only cause controversy, people rather watch extremely amount of television on wall-size sets and listen to “Sea-shell radio”, so they are never forced to face anything unpleasant. The mechanical hound has been made into a watching dog to avenge and punish citizens who break society’s rules. Reader can have a better understanding of the ideology of censorship, as Bradbury used technologies that reader may feel familiar with, such as television, and radio. The The transformation of a fireman, Guy Montag, is directly represented by the three sections in the novel.

Bradbury describes the changes of Montag’s perspective of his society, and his belief on books; from being a fireman, who is not in control of his thinking to a person who knows how to think for himself. Bradbury uses conjunction of images as the title of the first part of Fahrenheit 451. Using the hearth and the salamander to create the dominant image of Montag’s life – the hearth contains the fire that heats a home, and the salamander because of ancient beliefs that it lives in fire and is unaffected by flames. Bradbury also describes the people in this society are being control by the government, as they reject to think independently.

This reveals McCarthy desire for a controllable censored society. The prominent figurative technique in the novel, symbolism, In the opening page of ‘The Hearth and the Salamander’ Bradbury describes a scene in which Montag is burning books, with great pleasure and enjoyment. The books are described as ‘flapping pigeon-winged that died on the porch and lawn of the house’ (page 11). 



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