Fahrenheit 451 : A Utopian not dystopian novel.

7/28/2019 Fahrenheit 451 : A Utopian not dystopian novel.

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Utopia means An ideal place. It is a place, state, or condition

where perfect politics, laws, customs, and conditions prevail.

Dystopia is the opposite of Utopia. It is a futuristic and imagined

universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a

perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic,

technological, moral, or totalitarian control.

Dystopian literatures, portray an exaggerated worst-case scenario

of a dystopian society or make a criticism about an ongoing

current trend or societal norm, or political system. In a Dystopian

Society the desired objective is achieved through the following

measures----


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i. Propaganda: - Wide scale Propaganda is used to control therationality of the citizens of society.

ii. Communication Gap: A state of communication Gap isachieved by restricting the free-flow of Information or

movement. A twisted or false views are highlighted instead.

Independent thought is condemned as madness, and all sorts

of human rights are thus restricted.

iii. To Worship a Figurehead: The citizens of such a society ismade to worship A figurehead or concept mandatorily.

iv. A constant surveillance: A constant surveillance is imposedon the citizens.

v. A false fear psychosis is created: A false fear psychosis iscreated among the citizens by infusing make-believe views

and manipulating the truth

vi. An illusionary fear of the outside world is generated: Anillusionary fear of the outside world is generated in the

minds of the citizens by using shrewd techniques.


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vii. Compulsory dehumanized living: Citizens are compelled tolive in a dehumanized state which generates long-term effect.

viii.No natural world: The natural world is presented/projectedto the citizens as banished and distrusted.

ix. A Uniformity is made: Citizens are compelled to conformuniform expectations. Uniformity is not attained by fixing

the IQ levels of all the people raising to the highest point but

curbing it to the lowest point instead. Individual excellence

is destroyed as a safeguard against the possible threat to the

totalitarian society.

Fahrenheit-451i begins as a traditional dystopian novel but ends

with a note of the emergence of a utopian society out of its ashes.

Fahrenheit-451 is Ray Bradbury's modern classic which projects

the frightening vision of the future bookless society. It was

published as a book in 1960, though the horrible idea of a book-

less society was reflected in his earlier works like The Fireman,

Pillar of Fire, etc. The temperature scale refers to here is


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Bradburys personally speculated auto-ignition point where the

book-papers are blazed. The plot is set in the imaginary society of

the 24th century America. Here, a Fire-station with highly

powerful technological devices are run by the Govt. But, firemen

are engaged not to put out fires, they are in charge of setting fires

to the houses containing books along with their owners. They set

the books on fire because books are defined by the author as the

mind-as-printed-upon-matter. Books are outlawed and any house

containing books are subjected to burn immediately just as an

indispensable precautionary measure to stop the contagious

disease of Book-Reading and save the Happy People. Fire

Captain Beatty explains their objective in this way, "Give the

people contests they win by remembering the words to more

popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or

sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."

Bradbury's vividly painted futuristic American society holds iiup

the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where

trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad.


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Books are held disastrous because they teach man to question and

also to seek answers of the unanswered problems/questions of

mankind.

Guy Montag is a fireman who performs his duties of book-

burning for living. The fireman enjoys his job and burns books to

his hearts content. But a gradual erosion of faith in this regard

ultimately generates a crisis in his mind. And he finds compelled

to seek the help of books to know what to do. He searches the

books that he collected while burning and obtains 24 hours time

from the Fire Captain Beatty to go through them and correct his

disposition. Guy Montag reads hurriedly and instead of a revival

of his earlier craze, feels guilty of his acts so far. He vows to

protect books instead of destroying them anymore. However, his

love for books was detected by the Fire captain and he was about

to be punished squarely for such crime. Then, oneday he faces a

very odd situation.He is ordered to burn the house of an old lady

with books.He goes to the spot and requests the old lady to leave


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the house if she values her life.To his utter surprize,the old lady

refuses to leave her books and expresses her desire to be burnt

with her books.The fireman sets fire to the house but feels a never-

felt desire to know what is in books that the old lady values more

than her life.Out of this curiosity,he hides a few books in the

pocket of his over-coat desiring to read them at night.He reads a

few pages and feels the secret door of knowledge beckoning him

to read more. But, his anti-state activity is detected by the

mechanical greyhound guard of the fire station.The captain Bettey

also comes to know about this secret act of Montag and warns him

to give up this dangerour act.

Montag takes shelter in the house of another black fireman and

finds to his surprize that the blackman was also in the habit of

reading books secretly.Montags house is burnt and he kills the

greyhounds(mechanical guards) and Bettey to save his own life.

Then he takes shelter in an unknown island at the advice of an old


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Professor named Faber .The island is known to be an abode of

infamous people.These infamous people were deported to that

island as a punishment for their love of books.But , Montag is

surprized when he sees that the dwellers of that island are ever

engaged in memorizing books to preserve them against any

possible destruction.They are in the pursuit of keeping a copy of

their books in their brain.In the last part,these infamous book

lovers decide to fight against the totalitarian rulers and start

marching towards the Burning city that they once left for

life.Ultimately,the novel ends with an indication of the victory of

book-lovers and with an optimistic note of a Utopian society

where values are valued,cheap pleasures are not patronized.

Granger compares human beings to the phoenix after the city is

bombed. The Phoenix is a symbol of renewal. It is appropriate

because the books that have been destroyed hold lessons for the

next generation...... and the generations after. Both the Phoenix,


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the city, and the books are cleansed by fire, and all have the

opportunity to rise from the ashes.

ByIndranilSarkarReferences;Links and Credits:-ihp://more2read.com/?review=fahrenheit-451-by-ray-bradbury

iihp://more2read.com/?review=fahrenheit-451-by-ray-

iii.bradburyhp://s1184.photobucket.com/albums/z322/LouPendergrast/?acon=view&current=0c3741ec.jpg(all

photos)

iv.www.creavecommons.org [ Creave Commons agreements are followed strictly]

v.www.clinotes.com

vi.www.gradesaver.com

vii.www.wikipedea.org (photo)
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Fahrenheit 451 : A Utopian not dystopian novel.

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