Essay On Satire In Fahrenheit 451

Satire on American Society in Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel which focuses on the idea that books are outlawed and firemen start fires rather than extinguish them. Conformity is an important facet of society in Fahrenheit 451. The individual is looked down upon and feared, allowing for little to no individuality within the community. Censorship and the increase in the use of technology are also important aspects of Bradbury’s main idea. These two concepts create an anti-intellectual environment and society crafted by the government. Finally, allusions to history and other literature in Fahrenheit 451 create irony and an overall feeling of satire. Ideas of conformity, censorship, and allusions in Fahrenheit

Clarisse is an important symbol who portrays the danger of individuality within the society, “they all say the same things and nobody says anything different from anyone else” (Bradbury 28). She encourages Montag to think freely and reevaluate his own lifestyle. She later disappears and it is suggested that she was killed off because she refused to conform to the standard of the community. As a result, Montag takes her position as the free-thinker and later, “as a lone reader engrossed in a book, symbolizes the ideal of individualism in a society intent on standardizing every aspect of people’s lives” (Dietz). Bradbury suggests that these fears stem from the people as well as the government. The fear of individuality increased due to the increase of technology and censorship that were used to create an anti-intellectual society by the government. Censorship is not developed by the government, rather it is encouraged by the people, “the extreme regime of censorship depicted in Fahrenheit 451 does not come from the top but from the bottom. The people instigate it. The government just goes with the flow” (Smolla 902). This idea is confirmed by Montag’s boss Beatty,