Fahrenheit 451 Free – College Essay

and contentment in his life.Thus through characterisation Bradbury’s attack on mindless conformity becomes clear to us as readers.

Clarisse’s “odd” habits, asking questions and playing with flowers, introduces Montag to the world’s potential for beauty and meaning. In characterising Clarisse’s gentle innocence and “unusual” curiosity Bradbury juxtaposes the artificial with the natural. In describing the light in Clarisse’s face as, “not the hysterical light of electricity.. but the rare and gentle flattering light of the candle..

” he shapes our views of the writer’s own hostility towards the artificiality of technology through the ejorative adjective, “hysterical” contrasted with the values he places on a simpler life.The essence of humanity is lost to technology and the shift away from nature is thus captured through Bradbury’s narrative voice and language features. Bradbury also creates conflict in the novel through his characterisation of Beatty for whom books are considered “loaded guns”. But this is just a tool of power as the deliberate dumbing down of the population; to keep them happy and ignorant. Captain Beatty reasons that a book “breaches a man’s mind” and conflicts with society’s purpose; “we must all be alike. This indicates the turning point of the conversation and why the motivation for keeping people ignorant becomes obvious.

It has a sinister overtone suggesting oppression. Through Captain Beatty’s voice, readers sense the irony and the issues that burning books raises; the loss of individuality and the ability to question.This allows the authority to bend the society to its will without resistance and promotes the reasoning: without books which “breach a man’s mind”, we are equal therefore, “happy”. Captain Beatty goes on to say: “Don’t we

give them fun? That’s all we live for, isn’t it? He believes the meaning of our lives is “pleasure” and “titillation” and defends the “culture” of the society because it “provides plenty of these”. Life is not just limited intellectual lives and hedonistic pleasures.

My view of the novel has been shaped by the characterisation of key characters. My primary response to the novel has been to fear the possibilities portrayed in this text. The loss of certain freedoms that I take for granted didn’t give me despair, but characters such as Montag and Clarisse reminds us of what we should value; the courage to speak out and act rather than just accept. Such actions inspire us.