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... es the oppressive atmosphere of Orwell's police state and the science-fiction anti-utopian model introduced in Huxley's Brave New World. Fahrenheit 451 dramatizes entrapment in a sterile heritage and imaginative life, preserving a barren present without a past or future. It fuses traditional themes of anti-utopia fiction, much like the other authors, to satirically focus on the oppressive effect of a reductionist philosophy translated into social policy. This was written in response to the Cold War atmosphere after WWII, and is not aimed at one type of government institution, but rather at anti-intellectualism and ignorant materialism (Mogen 105). The bottom line in Fahrenheit 451 is a warning that tyranny and thought control always come under the attempts to fulfill ideals, whether is the ideals of Fascism, Communism, or the American Dream.
Still, the book does take an approach that is directed not exactly at American ideals, but at the American assumption that totalitarianism cannot happen in America. For this novel, analyzing its stylistic properties helps very much to understand the literary work. One of these properties that is constantly used throughout Fahrenheit 451 is the use of images (Reid 61). Bradbury uses images coupled with fire and burning, as well as images of light and running water.
Fire is used in a symbolic manner, both in a negative and positive light. Bradbury himself claims that one of his inspirations for using fire in this book was because he had heard stories of Hitler burning books in 1934, as well as Stalin and his match people and tinderboxes (Bradbury 16). He had also heard of the triple burnings of the Alexander Library, two of which were accidental and the other that was done on purpose. In fact, some of this imagery of fire as a literary device comes from the inversion of standards of values in an institution that had once engulfed Bradbury's respect as a child (Mogen 106). Going back to the Cold War and the use of books in this novel, Bradbury lived through the McCarthy period. This is significant because McCarthy had demanded the Army to remove all of the tainted books from the overseas libraries.
So really, there was not just one influence on Bradbury's life that persuaded him to use his various imagery devices, rather a culmination of life experiences and outside influences. To magnify the importance of imagery within Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury actually changes the structure of his writing. This is very clear in the passage where Montag decides to preserve life and knowledge rather than destroy it (Reid 61): He saw the moon low in the sky now. The moon there, and the light of the moon caused by what?
By the sun, of course. And what lights the sun? Its own fire. And the sun goes on, day after day, burning and burning. The sun and time. The sun and time burning.
Burning. The river bobbled him along gently. Burning. The sun and every clock on the earth. It all came together and became a single thing in his mind. After a long time of floating on the land and a short time of floating in the river he knew why he must never burn again in his life (Bradbury 166).
This passage has 112 words, with thirteen sentences, and six of them are fragments. In this passage there is little or no action taking place. Since the passage lacks action verbs, the nouns call for greater attention. In fact, one-quarter of the words in this passage are in noun phrases (Reid 62). The nouns are related to the image clusters that Bradbury uses. Sun is used six times; fire and light are each used once; the verb burning five times; moon is used three times; river is used twice; land and earth are both used once.
The other important image cluster is related to time, with time, clock, and day all used in the passage (Reid 62). All of this just shows how important the use of images is in Fahrenheit 451, as and as how the style of writing is only compliments the use of imagery. These images also represent symbols as well, especially fire. The terror of fire is Bradbury's idea of the American Dream gone bad.
The community firehouse becomes the agent for the fire itself, and instead of preserving the community institutions, it destroys them (Mogen 106). Other than symbols of nature, other symbols reflect the theme of censorship that is apparent in many of these novels. At the end of Fahrenheit 451, one of the characters, Granger, says that they must build a mirror factory to take a long look at themselves. It seems that this is a symbol of self reflection, self understanding, and seeing oneself in a clear manner.
This all goes back to government and censorship, because of course self understanding and seeing things clearly is not something that a government who is trying to control the population would want for its citizens. One of the main characteristics not only of Fahrenheit 451, but also of Bradbury's best science fiction novels, is its most powerful scenes filled with lyrical intensity. These scenes involve vivid exhibition of dialogue and asides, which enable the reader to notice the spiritual desolation disguised by the busy, upbeat appearances of the modern world, which again goes back to Bradbury's main satire involving the modern mass culture (Mogen 108). For example, when the books and magazines burn, they appear as slaughtered birds: A book lit, almost obediently, like a white pigeon, in his hands, wings fluttering (Bradbury 32). As with Huxley, Bradbury's satire is largely influenced by American culture in the twenties, and is also based on pleasure rather than pain, with addition to mindless sensation rather from fear of government, which differs a bit from some of the other novels, particularly those of Orwell (Mogen 108). With that said, the main warning of totalitarianism and government control is repeated in all these books.
Whether the government control is gained by pleasure and pain, it is a moot point, because even when the people are controlled by pleasure, it is artificial and does not truly make the individual happy. Not unlike Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut's quarrels with society began with World-War Two. One of the many reason that his novel Slaughterhouse-Five has been so successful is because in Vonnegut's mind, he was just writing on what he had seen, and just expanding on that a bit (Hicks 180). What he had seen was the destruction of Dresden, and in his words, All this happened, more or less. Now, it should be mentioned that there are many science fiction aspects to this novel, such as flying saucers and such, which is probably why Vonnegut adds the words more or less. Even so, Vonnegut felt that writing in a science fiction form was appropriate because in for him it was the best way in which to express his thoughts (Klinkowitz 89).
Although there are aspects in the book that involve Vonnegut's thoughts on education, religion, advertising, and many more subjects, the main target is the institution of war (Hicks 180). He writes in two different forms in this novel, science fiction and comedy, both complementing each other and creating a dramatized feel. Also, when he was asked why he wrote Slaughterhouse-five in science fiction form, he responded by saying, These things are intuitive. Theres never a strategy meeting about what youre going to do; you just come to work every day.
And the science fiction passages in Slaughterhouse-five are just like the clown in Shakespeare. When Shakespeare figured the audience had had enough of the heavy stuff, hed let up a little, bring on a clown or a foolish innkeeper or something like that, before hed become serious again. And trips to other planets, science fiction of an obvious kidding sort, is equivalent to the clowns every so often to lighten things up (Klinkowitz 91). So it seems just like Orwell did with Animal Farm, Vonnegut attempts to use some sort of comic relief to release stress from the serious subject matter, particularly for the people of the time. Vonnegut uses some unique techniques that are not often seen in contemporary writing, some of which he established himself. One of these techniques is called the metafiction, in which the author self-consciously reminds the reader that he or she is reading about fiction.
Another aspect that of metafiction that is used is when the author writes a passage or chapter in the novel that is also a story of the authors life (wikipedia. com). For example, the first chapter of the book is a preface about how Vonnegut came about writing Slaughterhouse-Five. He recalls life in Dresden, postwar life, professional life, and so on (Klinkowitz 14).
Symbols are used as well, such as the babbling bird that makes no sense following the massacre; the bird likely represented Vonnegut's feeling that there is nothing clever to say about a war. He admits this once again in his own writing of the story. Vonnegut apologizes for his writing style, which often is short and jumbled, but says that there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. It is true that Vonnegut does not incorporate as many symbols and satire as some of the other authors, but what he does do very well is attempt to put dark humor on some of the situations that may come up during a war, which is ridiculous to begin with, at least in his mind. Another book, Catch- 22, by Joseph Heller carries a very strong anti-war sentiment as well, but the literary techniques and devices that are used are much more confusing and mixed up than the previous books mentioned.
With that said, the novel is very humorous, which complements on the war satire, not unlike Kurt Vonnegut's writing style. This technique of satire, coupled with humor, may be one of the reasons a war novel can work in the eyes of the public, because it seems that the public would be willing to listen to a story that would not normally be entertaining, especially when it involves something as horrible and sensitive as war. With that said, there are still elements that bring to life the unfortunate of war. For example, in the first chapter of the book there is a soldier, who is wrapped in white bandage and does not have a name. This soldier represents the replaceable stance that the army takes to its soldiers. Even after his death, he is replaced by another soldier who looks exactly the same, and who everyone assumes is the same person.
To try to grasp both the humor and the title at the same time, here is a passage that does both (Hicks 228). It should also be noted that this passage also contains one of the literary techniques that Heller uses, and that is complete nonsense and gibberish. Yossarian looked at him soberly and tried another approach. Is Orr crazy? He sure is, Doc Daneeka said. Can you ground him?
I sure can. But first he has to ask me to. Thats part of the rule. Then why doesnt he ask you to? Because he is crazy, Doc Daneeka said. He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions after all those close calls hes had.
Sure, I can ground him. But first he has to ask me to. Thats all he has to do to be grounded? Thats all. Let him ask me. And then you can ground him?
Yossarian asked. No. Then I cant ground him. You mean theres a catch? Sure theres a catch, Doc Daneeka replied. Catch- 22.
Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isnt really crazy. This type of writing may seem funny or even crazy, but it surely gets the point across and is repeated throughout the book. One may not think that all wars are pointless, and it seems that even to the biggest pessimist WWII at least had to have accomplished something. In a 1967 news conference Joseph Heller told a college audience what the book was really about, and that is Vietnam (Hicks 225). This college audience thought that they knew everything there was to know about the book, but because of the layers upon layers of gags and anecdotes throughout the novel, they had missed what it even was about. With all that said about the book having too many whirling antics and aimless digressions, one can argue that these are all elements that the book needs to help it to become what it is.
Actually, by close notice the reader will realize that Heller uses these elements to constantly give the reader a sense of time, place, and thematic relevance for each part of the novel (Bloom 22). One of these techniques is what some call Dj vu, or seeing or experiencing the same thing over and over again. Heller uses this device as the basis of the novels structure; out of the multitude of digressions, flashbacks, and anecdotes, Heller constructs his narrative and creates thematic patterns so that the reader has the experience of seeing the same thing twice (Bloom 22). This element becomes very important because of the story is not in chronological order.
If the reader is able to get the Dj vu sense, he or she will be able to relate it to another event or moment in the story. Also, with this technique Heller is able to manipulate characters and events into elaborate parallels which, through the comparison of the parallel themes, shed light on and exemplify the novels central themes (Bloom 24). This main theme, of course, which was revealed to Heller to be about Vietnam, should have been realized by the college students who asked him this question (Hicks 225), because there is no doubt that most of them were feeling the revolt against being sent off to Vietnam, anyways. With that said, this argument may be faulty, because how could Heller be writing about Vietnam if the book was written in 1961?
This leads one to believe that by saying that he was writing about Vietnam, he may have been writing about the whole revolt against war and the ridiculousness about war that he felt when he wrote the book, and was later felt on a national level during Vietnam. Either way, Heller proves to be somewhat confusing not only within his literature, but also outside of his literature. The dehumanizing effect that war has on people is evident, and is not really too confusing in Catch- 22. When the men go on bombing missions, many times they find out that the bombs that they use are used simply for the purpose of having better aerial photographs, even to make the photographs look more beautiful. This has meaning on several levels; first, the photos represent the ridiculous decisions that the upper levels of bureaucracy often chose to make. It also symbolizes the attempt by the government to try to cover up the horrible effects of war with beauty (Hicks 228).
There are also some symbolic similarities to other books of the time. Milo Minderbinder, who is the mess officer, and often leaves a note saying: What is good for M & M Enterprises is good for the country. In Animal Farm, some of the animals are noted to have said similar things, willing to do whatever necessary for the country, or farm in this case. It all goes back to the satiric attacks on communism, which traces its past to the Marxist economic principles that are introduced in the late nineteenth century, and are confronted in pre WWII /Cold War era books such as Huxley's Brave New World. Through the whole book, the same conclusion is reached. It was stated earlier that it involved rebellion against the system.
This is true, but it goes deeper than it may seem. The book makes the point that since the system cannot be changed; the only way to deal with it is to commit acts of treason, or to desert in the face of the enemy. The point of all this is that to create this theme, Heller chose to use Dj vu as his method of choice. This is important because it makes for a discernable, ordered pattern, which is at the very core of Hellers work of art (Bloom 27).
Even though all of the authors mentioned so far have different techniques in which they make their point, and they take different routes in order to make the point, the books are all satirical at their core meaning, and it is just a different in the authors preference of technique. Any way it is written, it is very clear that all of it has been influenced by the same events, experiences, and ideals. The ideas of utopia, government, totalitarianism, and all things of the like were very popular during the mid-Twentieth Century, and with obvious reasons. Much of the world was in turmoil and havoc; there was a lot of corruption and much of the opinions and thoughts that these authors had about people and the world in general are reflected in their literature.
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