Fahrenheit
451 Book Review:
Fahrenheit 451 is a science-fiction dystopia novel by Ray Bradbury published in 1953 in the United States by Ballantine Books.
The title refers to the point of paper self-ignition temperature, in degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature is equivalent to slightly less than 233 ° C. The metaphorical meaning of the title refers to the book burnings organized by firefighters and reading made ??impossible by the atrophy of interest in the literature.
The book won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1954.
Fahrenheit 451 takes place in the near future in the United States. Ray Bradbury presents a dystopian vision of the world governed by hyper-consumption, selfishness, and ignorance. Unlike other dystopias like 1984 of George Orwell, the population is generally happy, drunk with various entertainments (sports, television…) at the expense of culture. Thus was born the hatred of books.
Ray Bradbury says through the mouth of a character Beatty particularly uneducated person, who tend to feel jealousy and even hatred towards a cultured person. This is why reading has become an anti-social behavior. Books disturb the peace of mind of collective masses revel in their ignorance. The function of the “firefighters” in this world is not to extinguish fires (buildings now being fireproofed) but burn the books.
The years 1 920-1950 marked the first golden age of science fiction in the United States. The “movement” combines fiction, published in the form of episodes in magazines and films (Metropolis of Fritz Lang 1927), which have often been remembered for their special effects. At the time, however, the SF literature was believed to be a pulp fiction. This is in the 1950s, when major SF writers (Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, and Ray Bradbury.) emerged. It differed, however, by a more poetic style and often pessimistic view of today and quite unscientific society.
Bradbury also rejects the title of a science fiction writer: “Above all, I do not write science fiction. I wrote only one book of science fiction and it’s Fahrenheit 451, based on reality. Science fiction is a description of reality. The Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So the Martian chronicles are not science fiction, it’s fantasy one.”
In 1952, America was at the heart of McCarthyism. The campaign initiated by Senator Joseph McCarthy disrupts anti-American activities of many writers and filmmakers, who Bradbury knew personally. But there was no support for the proposition that the book would be a denunciation of this period, especially as most of the novel was written between 1947 and 1951. Finally, Bradbury has never mentioned it in numerous interviews.
Students, who are to write a book review on Fahrenheit 451, may want to use free sample book reviews on different topics to understand the procedure of proper book review writing.