Ray Bradbury

Life and works

Ray Bradbury was born in Illinois in 1920. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing the collection Dark Carnival in 1947. His reputation was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonise Mars, and the unintended consequences of a nuclear war. Next he published The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which is regarded as his masterpiece. The novel is a severe indictment of censorship. Set in a future world where the written word is forbidden, it tells about a group of rebels who memorise entire works of literature and philosophy after their books have been burnt by the totalitarian state. The book was adapted for the screen by French director François Truffaut in 1967.

Ray Bradbury has received many awards. In addition to his novels, screenplays, and scripts for television, Bradbury has written two musicals and started his own television series, The Ray Bradbury Theatre. Bradbury is now acknowledged as one of the masters of the science-fiction genre among important literary science-fiction talents and visionaries like Jules Verne, George Orwell, Arthur C. Clarke, and Philip K. Dick.
Ray Bradbury died in Los Angeles in 2012.

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper burns. The story is set in the 24th century in a society at war. The protagonist is Guy Montag, a fireman who is in charge of burning illegally owned books and the homes of their owners. His wife, Millie, spends her life with interactive television, seashell radio, and an addiction to tranquilisers. Montag makes friends with his 17-year-old neighbour, Clarisse McClellan, whose humanistic outlook and inquisitive nature soon lead him to question the value of his profession. Montag wonders why books are perceived to be so dangerous and why some people are so loyal to them. During a burning, Montag is impressed when the owner of the books, an old woman, refuses to leave her home. Instead, she sets fire to her house and remains there as it, and she, are destroyed by flames. This makes Montag realise that perhaps the happiness he is looking for can be found in books. Montag remembers meeting Faber, a retired professor, a year earlier and discussing with him the value of ideas. He decides to visit Faber and, when the two men decide to trust each other, conspires with him to make copies of the books he has spared from the fires.

One day the firemen are called to an alarm, and Montag discovers that it is his own house that is to be burned. After burning his home and possessions by himself, room by room, as ordered by Captain Beatty, Montag is rebuked by his boss. The two men engage in a fight and Montag kills Beatty. At once, the Mechanical Hound, a computerised attack dog that can track down any human being by scent, pursues him. Montag annihilates it with the flamethrower before it can harm anyone. He escapes and floats down the river, until he comes upon a group of former writers, clergymen, and academics by the riverbank. The leader of the group, an author named Granger, welcomes him and explains how the men in his camp have each memorised literary works so that someday, when it is safe to do so, they can again print books, recreating them from memory.

Themes

Fahrenheit 451 doesn’t explain why books are banned in the future but deals with the reasons that may lead to this situation. First of all it describes a general lack of interest in reading and people openly hostile to books. Bradbury criticises the popularity of mass forms of entertainment such as television and radio. Fast cars, loud music, and advertisements create a frantic lifestyle in which no one has the time to concentrate. Bradbury also comments on the negative influence of technological development in this world and the destructive potential of technology in our society. The novel explores the factors leading to censorship, especially the objections of special-interest groups and “minorities” to things in books that offend them. By burning books, the firemen destroy knowledge and promote ignorance and violence in order to get rid of free thought.

Many characters die in the novel. The old woman burns herself to death, Clarisse is killed by a speeding car, Montag kills Beatty with the flamethrower, and the Mechanical Hound kills an innocent man. Among all this destruction, Montag survives and is given the chance of a new life after meeting Granger. Bradbury’s message is that the interest in knowledge and dedication to a new and better society can save man. He seems to suggest that life is based on knowledge and awareness. If man becomes idle and complacent, he might as well be dead.