Fahrenheit 451by T. Lidy Vargas

Written by: Ray Bradbury•Title: Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which books

burn.•Genre: Dystopian Literature, Science Fiction•Setting: Futuristic world in the 21st - 24th centuries where

books are banned and burned, everyone enjoys watching TV and independent thinking is basically illegal. Somewhere in the U.S. •Mayor themes are: Censorship and Knowledge vs.

Ignorance.

Guy MontagProtagonistDynamic Character

Traits• Unhappy 30 year old man.• Third generation fireman he has

been a fireman for the last 10 years.• Married to Mildred.• Meets Clarisse and she clicks a

change in him.• Daily, he returns to a loveless,

meaningless marriage symbolized by his cold bedroom

Mildred Montag (Millie)Flat character – Stereotype (dumb blonde) • Self-destructive wife, also 30 years

old.• Cold, and mindless. • She never wanted children.• Overdoses on sleeping pills.• She considers TV characters as her

family.• She thinks she must live by the

rules and is very afraid of books.

Captain Beatty•A malicious, destructive

fire chief.• Beatty is an educated

well read man, who uses his knowledge of books as a weapon to fight curiosity.

Guy´s Nemesis / Antagonist

Clarisse McClellan• A lover of life and nature,

Clarisse, an affable neighbor who is seventeen.• Talks and thinks too much and is

considered an antisocial. • Reader can conclude she reads

and is knowledgeable. • Uncle is of great influence on

her.

Static Character.

Unidentified Woman Martyrdom (martyr revels civil disobedience, books and ideas) Flat character•Woman from ancient part of

the city.•Has many forbidden books in

her house.•Neighbor reported her.•Refused to leave her house

and books and lit up the match to burn along with her books.

The Mechanical HoundRepresents Technology and terror

•Machine similar to a killer dog that firefighters use to track down and capture criminals.• Tracks criminals when

programed individuals chemical complex.• Disables and kills offenders with

a morphine or procaine needle.•Montag fears that the dog can

sense his growing unhappiness.

Symbols451 degrees Fahrenheit

• Temperature in which books burn

Pigeon-winged books•Books come alive and flap their “wings” as they are thrown into the fire. • It also symbolizes enlightenment through reading.

Salamander

•A mythological amphibian, resembling a lizard , that was said to live in fire.

Phoenix

Egyptian mythology , a lone bird that raises and is renewed from ashes to start another long life; symbol of immortality.

NamesClarisse•Latin Word for brightness

Guy Montag•Montag is a trademark of MEAD, a U.S paper company, which makes stationery and furnaces.

Stoneman and Black• Firemen whose names

suggest that the harness of their hearts and the color of their skin and hair come from contact with smoke.

•A large, imposing tomb; often a symbol of death used in literature. Used to describe the coldness in Guy and Mildred´s bedroom.

Mausoleum

TV Parlor

• A multidimensional media family that draws the viewer into action, thereby supplanting the viewer´s real family.• Serves as a distraction and a

mindless way to occupy man's mind.

Seashells

• The seashells, or ear-radios, are used to promote the propaganda of the government. Using these shells, the people drift off to sea, so to speak, and lose sight of reality.

Blood

• Blood represents life, passion, lineage (relatives), horror, slaughter, and anger.• Mildred was changed with

someone else's life in her. It gave her a new chance. "sometimes with second chances, we take them for granted, like Mildred. Other times, we learn something, like Montag."

Fire

• Fire is an artificial substitute for the reality of truth, which can only be found in books. Beatty dedicates his life to burning when he can't find satisfaction in the books he reads.• Fire also represents the destroying

of knowledge because of the burning of books that give people knowledge and wisdom. On the other hand it represents the bringing of new life.

Hearth

• The hearth is a simple symbol of a fireplace that give warmth from a fire. • Hearth is the symbol of

home and fire.

Black beetle- colored helmet

• In literature, the beetle, with its prominent black horns, is a symbol for Satan.

The Sieve and the Sand• The sieve and the sand is in

representation of a childhood memory Montag has of when he was at the beach and he was trying to fill a sieve with sand to get money from one or his deceiving relatives. He relates it to the time when he tries to read the bible as fast as he could so that he could remember it for Faber. The sieve is a symbol the knowledge Montag seeks. And the sand is the fulfillment of his apprehension.

Professor Faber. A retired English professor whom Montag encountered a year before the book opens. Faber still possesses a few precious books and aches to have more. He readily admits that the current state of society is due to the cowardice of people like himself, who would not speak out against book burning when they still could have stopped it. He berates himself for being a coward, but he shows himself capable of acts that require great courage and place him in considerable danger.

Mildred´s Friends Both of Mildred’s friends are represented as typical specimens of their society.

• Mrs. Phelps - One of Mildred’s lifeless friends. She is emotionally disconnected from her life, appearing unconcerned when her third husband is sent off to war. Yet she breaks down crying when Montag reads her a poem, revealing suppressed feelings and sensibilities.

• Mrs. Bowles - One of Mildred’s friends. Like Mrs. Phelps, she does not seem to care deeply about her own miserable life, which includes one divorce, one husband killed in an accident, one husband who commits suicide, and two children who hate her.

Granger• The leader of the “Book

People,” the group of hobo intellectuals Montag finds in the country. Granger is intelligent, patient, and confident in the strength of the human spirit. He is committed to preserving literature through the current Dark Age.