Essay About Ray Bradbury And Next-Door Neighbor

Fahrenheit 451
Essay Preview: Fahrenheit 451
Report this essay
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a novel about a government-based society
who are all brainwashed into believing in a utopian civilization. Guy Montag is the main
character in this novel. He and hundreds of other people believed in a utopian society
because he himself was a firefighter. A fireman’s job was to start fires instead of
stopping them . In the future, books were known as bad and shameful and if anyone had
possession of a book whether it was in their house or in another persons house, then the
house was to be burned. A fireman’s job was to burn any resources containing knowledge
into ashes because the government didn’t want there society to challenge them in any
way. The government of the society lied to its people about books and manipulated them
into believing that the books are the only source of unhappiness and destruction within
the society. In this novel Bradbury shows how the government misleads its people by
replacing humanitarianism with technology and by creating a censored and bookless
society which led Montag to rebel against the government. All of the chapters will show
and explain how Montag went from looking at his society through utopian eyes and
realizing his whole world has been a dystopian one all along.
In this chapter of The Hearth & The Salamander, Bradbury
introduces most of the characters . He begins when Montag meets a girl named Clarisse.
She was his next-door neighbor. Clarisse is classified as an odd person. She always asked
him questions that forced him to think about the things he had taken for granted. Clarisse
is an example of a Motif. She is a recurring image and description that always pops into
Montag’s head. He always remembers Clarisse as the girl who opened his eyes from a
utopian society into a dystopian society. Another example of a Motif is Light , Fire, And
darkness are all recurring themes. The next example of light, in reference to knowledge,
happens just after Montag meets Clarisse for the first time. “When they reached her
house all its lights were blazing”(pg.13 ). That quote was interpreted as those lines saying
that house is full of knowledge and enlightenment; not like the rest of the houses around
there neighborhood.
Bradbury is also an author who incorporates symbolism into his book. Bradburys
use of symbolism