Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury: Chapter Analysis

(MIP)This meme focuses on one of the main points of the novel, which is about how the citizens feel that books have a negative impact on society, and their materialistic values. (SIP-A) The citizens of the society often think that books cause problems. (STEWE-1) One place where this is clearly seen is when one of Mildred’s friends, Clara Phelps, begins crying. “Mrs. Bowles stood up and glared at Montag. ‘You see? I knew it, that’s what I wanted to prove! I knew it would happen! I’ve always said, poetry and tears, poetry and suicide and crying and awful feelings, poetry and sickness; all that mush! Now I’ve had it proved to me. You’re nasty, Mr. Montag, you’re nasty!’”(Bradbury 97). Mrs. Bowles misattributed Mrs. Phelps’ crying to the poem that

“Well,’ said Beatty, ‘Now you did it. Old Montag wanted to fly near the sun and now that he’s burnt his damn wings, he wonders why,’” (Bradbury 107). Instead of saying what really caused his situation, Beatty likens reading the books to going close to the sun, putting the blame on Montag and not the government. He describes it as an inevitability, as if it was the natural effect of the reading of books. (SIP-B) Material objects are valued highly in this society, and the meme uses this obsession with materialism as a threat. (STEWE-1) This is clearly seen in Mildred’s last encounter with

(SIP-A) The logical fallacy it uses is false cause. (STEWE-1) False cause occurs when one thing is incorrectly seen as the cause of another thing. This usually happens as a presumption that a relation between two events is evidence for a cause-effect between those events. (STEWE-2) For this meme, the false cause is between reading books, and then losing objects and relationships dearest to the reader. Even though the government itself was the true cause of most of these losses, in an effort to hide its involvement, it uses false cause to take the blame off its shoulders and on to the books. (SIP-B) The meme has a lot of focus on loss, using pathos to make its readers feel emotion. (STEWE-1) The loss of the many objects important to the “victim” are detailed through multiple instances of “GONE”, causing the reader fear for their own objects and relationships. The final portion of “LIFE: GONE” makes the reader fear for their life as well. (STEWE-2) The background of the meme is a book burning, and it shows the reader what actions to take to confront this newfound fear, while then empowering them by saying “LET THEM BURN!”. This empowerment gives an illusion of control to the reader, even though all they would be doing is what the government wants them