Ray Bradbury's Literary Analysis

Ray Bradbury could be considered one of the 21st centuries most celebrated authors. Since he grew up during the depression with no money for college, he taught himself by spending three days a week in a library for 10 years (Bradbury, 2015). Some of his most notable work includes The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man and Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury is more than just a novelist, besides the 30 books that were published; there are around 600 short stories he wrote and countless poems, plays and essays (Bradbury, 2012). Bradbury used his childhood experiences and the things he loved to create his legacy in the world of literature. Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois on 22 Aug 1920 to Leonard Spaulding, a utility lineman and Ester Moberg Bradbury, a Swedish immigrant (Bradbury, 2015). Bradbury had two brothers, Leonard and Samuel, and one sister Elizabeth. Unfortunately Samuel died from the Asian flu in 1918 and Elizabeth died when Bradbury was 7 years old. With these unfortunate consequences,

After writing small stories in the 1940’s, like Dark Carnival, The Martian Chronicles was his first major work that was published in 1950 (Bradbury, 2015). “Bradbury gained popularity as a courageous and visionary writer after publishing The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which is a piece of fiction about how people from earth make an attempt to conquer Mars and face unplanned consequences” (Bradbury 2102). Although many called the novel a science fiction, it was considered by Bradbury to be fantasy. He was quoted as saying “I don’t write science fiction. Science fiction is a depiction of the real. Fantasy is a depiction of the unreal. So Martian Chronicles is not science fiction, it’s fantasy. It couldn’t happen, you see” (Bradbury, 2015)? Bradbury’s best-known work was published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451. The novel became an instant classic since it explored censorship and conformity (Bradbury,