Rodney Crockett Research Paper Sample

Pauline Rodock

English Comp II (CTC)
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Fahrenheit 451

Introduction
Bradbury was under the impression that fiction is "the reality around us, driven to the point of absurdity,". This is perhaps the main idea of ​​the novel "451 ° Fahrenheit" (1953), which literary scholars put on a par with the famous dystopia of the twentieth century, such as "We" Zamyatin E. (1921), "Brave New World" Aldous Huxley (1932) and "1984" George. George Orwell (1949). In the postwar years of feeling, a sense of movement (sometimes a quite undesirable future, in the way that you want to put a barrier - the emergence of novels warnings caused by the desire of writers to stop reckless movement) in science fiction is greatly enhanced by STR. In this regard, the most important aspect of any tale is the content of a romantic, and with it, pushed forward and the hero, to master the changing world.
This statement can be fully attributed to the book Bradbury. It is a thematically expanded version of the story "Fireman", published in the journal "Science fiction Galaxy" in February 1951, and presents us with a whole range of mind-boggling issues that, in my opinion, over time, may have to be dealt with by all humanity.

Body

Depicting an America of XXI century, Bradbury cunningly applies the so-called extrapolation used as in science and technology, and sometimes social forecasting: a picture of the future is modeled on existing trends today. The writer in his novel creates an anti-model using the symbolism of his dreams. He reflects on the fate of terrestrial civilization, about the future of America, with its unconventional and mature mentality, with its national flavor. The United States, derived in the book - it is, in fact, all the same the United States of the twentieth century, with their culture of consumption, with the hype in the subway, on the "soap operas" and artificially cozy little world of cottages. But everything is taken to the extreme, to the very limit of "absurdity." Firefighters did not extinguish the fire, and burn banned books. People who prefer to walk rather than ride the machines are considered as crazy. Even to admire nature is strictly forbidden. The slightest deviation from the same conventional lifestyle causes immediate repression.
A cozy home obscures reality deceives human consciousness and impoverishes it. Bradbury convinced of this, so rebelling against attempts to protect the mind from thinking about even the "bad", "terrible", "impractical and unrealistic", the final self-restraint against solipsism. He writes "451 ° Fahrenheit" when compiled McCarthy "black lists", and means of science fiction allow it to pass in a concentrated form ominous consequences depletion outlook, the emasculation of human emotions by eating only canned, prepared for the perception of information, the habit of the world-l'oeil on the room walls. In this novel, burn books, but first motive destruction "unnecessary", "bad", "embarrassing and frightening" books sounded in "The Exiles" (1950). "
But how society has reached such a state? The development of science has caused the rapid growth of technology, which influenced the social processes, and fundamentally changed the way people think. Technological advances greatly facilitated human life, however, almost atrophied his instinct for self-preservation. But developed herd instinct, they also help people to survive in the new society, becoming not only a technocratic, but totalitarian. And above all this affects the spiritual side of life. Going alienation from culture and the natural environment, as contact with them might awaken people's anxiety, negative emotions. Therefore, the consumer becomes a norm of behavior exist, in which the only food for the mind give entertainment, reality replaced with the primitive television illusions.
At some point society has reached a very high level of development of information systems. In the twentieth century to such media and communication, such as newspapers, mail, telegraph, telephone, added the radio, television, video - and audio system, computer network, etc. Often carries the destructive, aggressive start, and sometimes having contradictory nature of conflict, information began to have a negative impact on the psyche and human health. There was a need to establish methods of protection against such exposure. Ray Bradbury in his novel is one of the solutions to this problem: the repression of the literature did not start by them - they are a necessary measure. When at some point it became clear that the information sphere should be reduced, the question arises: what part of it? Tools of communication? It is impossible to live without it. TV, advertising? It has become an integral part of people's lives, and too many are interested in them in practical terms. Here is the solution - to get rid of the books! Why of the books? Try to argue this makes colleague and opponent of the protagonist of Guy Montag, fire-warden Beatty. The reason the book recede into the background, he believes, is massivization culture: "Since everything has become widespread, and simplify it Once read the book only a few - here, there, in different places. Therefore, the book could be different. The world was spacious. But when the world came to be from the eyes, elbows, mouths, when the population has doubled, tripled, quadrupled, the content of films, radio programs, magazines, books fell to a known standard. A sort of universal gum Books reduced in volume. Abbreviated edition. Retelling. Extract from the children's right to college and then back to the nursery The period of instruction in schools is reduced, discipline falls, philosophy, history, languages ​​abolished. English and spelling is given less and less time, and finally abandoned altogether these things”
So, why the book is needed, if there is a TV, thinks Beatty. And from reading more harm than by watching TV - books worried, make you think. They are dangerous! People who read books are "intellectuals" stand out from the rest of the audience, something claimed. " The book - it's a loaded gun in the house of a neighbor - said Beatty. - How much to know who tomorrow will be the next target for a well-read man? Maybe I am? "
Bradbury said that the death of the spiritual culture programmed by the installation of modern civilization. Spiritual crisis of society is not the reason of totalitarization, and consequently attempts at social adaptation "modernize" the world. Roman apparently reflects sociological theories of popular culture put forward at the time the western philosophical thought, in particular, the theory of "mass man" Jose Ortega y Gasset.
The theory of social development in P. Bradbury’s novel is very closely linked with the role of technology in human society. In the book, the two characters depict the "mechanization" of humanity. The first - "mechanical dog" - cyber designed for catching "criminals", distracting from the system. The second is a modernized TV. The mechanical dog represents the totality, repression; he recalls a penalty for disagreeing with the society for trying to break out of the rut. TV wall is a symbol of human indifference, atrophy of the soul and the future of human intelligence. But a man with atrophied spirituality cannot be happy in this world. Guy Montag's wife, Mildred, seemingly turned into a zombie by inserting the ears radio microphones - "shells" and a whole day dealing only with the ghostly characters dramas, television in the living room, trying to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills. What's this? The last wave of the human resistance to mechanical? However rescued Mildred is left no recollection of the incident. She continues to live, like a machine, and for the same mechanical inertia produces "firemen" of her husband after learning that he hides in his banned book.

What if? This ever-cryptic phrase gives change, an uncertain departure from what is known and often taken for granted.

If only Such a phrase allows the exploration of the many glories and possible dangers of tomorrow, and of times not yet considered. It is without a doubt the one gleaming hope that all humans harbor with some measure of hope, but also with trepidation of what could possibly come to pass.
If this goes on This strikes as the most predictive of the three phrases, though it does not attempt to predict any actual, solid future. This instead takes an element of the present, something that is clear, obvious, and quite possibly troubling. It asks if that one thing could change the way we think, behave, and react to the world around us. In essence this last phrase is the most dangerous of the trio, as it is already a pervasive and very real eventuality, something that cannot be dodged or evaded as easily as the first two phrases.
A story is told to entertain, to amuse, and to foretell what might happen one day, to inform the reader of the truth of what is, what could be, and what might be using the core of those three phrases mentioned above. In “451 Fahrenheit”, it is seen all too well that might be is what could be.

Conclusion

Thus, the novel "451 ° Fahrenheit" illustrates the final stage of development of the technosphere - it refers to the totality of all the technology that exists on earth and has reached a certain level of development, when it emerged as an independent sphere of human activity. The Earth has become a place where those who are born come to life and are made to feel as if they are unloving, a non-human entity- Monster technical civilization, that in the sequel will be called a technosphere Earth.
Bradbury’s book is a stunning chronicle depicting the "the process of change." All is not lost as the author so desperately seeks to convince the reader. It is exceedingly difficult to eradicate human nature and humans as a sentient people, as the strength of the human will is a force that can scarcely be measured and to an even lesser extent controlled. Everyone will eventually continue to seek something to strive for, aspire to, and to defy anything that stands in the path towards that self-realization that is so desired.
The only true death that is ever sought is by those who are weak of will and will therefore concede to fate rather than rail against it. It is those who seek to fight against an imposed system and live free that will find their own path, no matter how painful or difficult it might be. This is the essence of humanity in other words, the drive of all sentient beings that seek something higher, better, or simply different than their own selves. Humanity was here before technology, and as its creator will likely be here after it is so much rusting metal.

Works Cited

Reid, Robin Anne (2000). Ray Bradbury: A Critical Companion. Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-313-30901-9. Fahrenheit 451 is considered one of Bradbury's best works.
McGiveron, R. O. (1996). "What 'Carried the Trick'? Mass Exploitation and the Decline of Thought in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451". Extrapolation (Liverpool University Press) 37 (3): 245–256. ISSN 0014-5483.
Smolla, Rodney A. (April 2009). "The Life of the Mind and a Life of Meaning: Reflections on Fahrenheit 451" (PDF). Michigan Law Review 107 (6): 895–912. ISSN 0026-2234.