By the end of the book, he has been transformed, and his continued survival offers hope for the future of humankind. Montag's personal transformation starts in earnest after he witnesses the self-immolation of a book lover. Another character attempts suicide with pills. Eventually, Montag deliberately burns one of his colleagues to death. He is then pursued by the relentless, robotic Mechanical Hound. The Fahrenheit society undergoes mass censorship, which is made possible by the idea that consumerism has already eliminated individuality and history in this dystopian world.
The main object that was once valued in this novel, of course, is books. Drugs are a telling tool in Fahrenheit that reveal the characters' dependencies upon artificial and temporary objects. For example, a character tries to commit suicide by overdosing on tranquilizers.
There are instances of cigarette smoking, misuse of painkillers, and the consumption of alcohol, often to numb their concerns. Parents need to know that Fahrenheit is a classic example of dystopian fiction, written by one of the most acclaimed authors of American science fiction and fantasy. It depicts a near-future America where books are prohibited and the populace is placated with cheap, shallow entertainment.
Ironically, the novel's inclusion in schools and libraries is frequently opposed by various special-interest groups. There is some violence -- the main character deliberately burns one of his colleagues to death, one woman sets herself on fire and burns to death, another attempts suicide with pills, a mechanical hound goes after one man and kills another. Add your rating See all 7 parent reviews. Add your rating See all 50 kid reviews.
Sometime in the near future, Guy Montag works as a fireman -- starting fires, rather than putting them out, burning the last few books in a society that views reading as dangerous. After his wife half-heartedly attempts suicide and an inquisitive young neighbor is killed, Montag begins to question his life's work. He keeps a stash of volumes away from the flames, and before he quite knows what is happening, he's taking huge risks to save what he once destroyed.
The shadow of the Cold War looms over the plot, which may confuse some younger readers, but the truths Ray Bradbury unearths are timeless. The novel won the National Book Award and has been adapted for film, radio, stage, and graphic novel, and it's likely to be read widely for a long time to come. Families can talk about why people feel the need to censor -- or even burn -- books.
Are there recent examples of this behavior in the United States or elsewhere? Ray Bradbury has said that the novel is less about censorship and more about the effects of television on our society. What aspects of Fahrenheit support this interpretation? Did the threat of war mean something different to Bradbury's audience when the novel was first published in ? Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate. Since I'm self-educated, that means my educators—the libraries—are in danger. And if it could happen in Alexandria, if it could happen in Berlin, maybe it could happen somewhere up ahead, and my heroes would be killed.
A popular tagline for the book is "the temperature at which book-paper catches fire, and burns. Books can, however, ignite at temperatures between the s and s, depending on the density and type of paper.
In , Bradbury released a collection of short stories called The Martian Chronicles. The following year, "The Fireman" was published in Galaxy magazine. From there, Bradbury would expand the tale to create Fahrenheit A popular apocryphal story is that Bradbury hammered out Fahrenheit in just over a week. That story is wrong: It was the 25,word "The Fireman" that he wrote in that time period. The author would later refer to the short story as "the first version" of the eventual novel.
But over the years, he would often speak about "The Fireman" and Fahrenheit interchangeably, which has caused some confusion. Bradbury and wife Marguerite McClure had two young children, and he was in need of a quiet place to write but had no money for renting an office.
In a interview , Bradbury said:. So I went and got a bag of dimes. The novel began that day, and nine days later it was finished. But my God, what a place to write that book! Unsubscribe at any time. Open Culture scours the web for the best educational media. Fahrenheit ? Comments 0 Be the first to comment. Leave a Reply Name required Email required Message. Wordpress Hashcash needs javascript to work, but your browser has javascript disabled. Your comment will be queued in Akismet!
We're hoping to rely on loyal readers, rather than erratic ads. Please click the Donate button and support Open Culture. You can use Paypal, Venmo, Patreon, even Crypto! Archive All posts by date. Voyager Classics - timeless masterworks of science fiction and fantasy. A beautiful clothbound edition of the internationally acclaimed Fahrenheit - a masterwork of twentieth-century literature. The terrifyingly prophetic novel of a post-literate future.
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness.
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