Fahrenheit 451 - A Charred Exi

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and conformity, and most importantly, change.
Bradbury’s inspiration to convey the themes involved in the novel resulted mainly from the social situation of the time. First of all, the novel was written shortly after World War II and increasing numbers of authors began writing about serious topics. Also, the invention of the atom bomb had aroused the Cold War and the use of technology as a form of destruction (Touponce 124). Seeing technology as a potential threat to the well-being of mankind, Bradbury uses Fahrenheit 451 to state his distrust for it in the novel, which explains why the devices are depicted as “chilling, impersonal gadgets of mechanized anti-culture,” (Mogen 141). Also, as the television was becoming the main form of communication in the 50’s, Bradbury believed that it was “reducing society to very mediocre tastes” (Touponce 125). As a defense against the degradation of literature (as well as peoples’ minds), Bradbury ...

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calling him forth to alert the people of their own self-destructive behaviors.
The setting in which the story takes place has a significant effect on the theme expressed in the novel. The most notable aspect of the setting is the time at which it is set. The time that Bradbury is trying to illustrate is never simply stated, but rather implied and described through the lives of the characters and the technology available to them. The existence of a “four-walled television” (Bradbury 20) and high-speed jet-propelled “beetle” cars (Bradbury 9) inform us that this story takes place sometime in the distant future, keeping in mind this novel was written in the ...

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