Similarities Between 1984 And Fahrenheit 451

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George Orwell's novel 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451 feature many similarities. The authors share similar backgrounds and wrote these two books within a few years of each other. Their writings depict many fears that were based upon events happening in the times they were living in. World War II had just ended and the world was dealing with many new ideas and technological advancements. Orwell and Bradbury were fearful of society and politics. Their writings have very similar themes which deal with these fears. The tones of both are also very similar for the same reasons. Ray Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451 and George Orwell’s novel 1984 are pieces of satire that portray similar themes and tones based upon the authors’ fears and …show more content…

Both of the books mentioned are pieces of satire. In Bradbury’s book, Montag, the main character, is broadcasted on television being “hunted down”. In reality, the officials could not locate him, but continued with a false chase and killed an innocent man on live television, pretending it was Montag. The authorities used television as an easy way to falsify the realities to keep a calm manner throughout society (Patai). This is ironic, considering they needed to lie and fake an act to keep everyone “safe” and calm. The end of Bradbury’s novel also features another example of satire. “The city is destroyed by an enemy bomb. The urban zone of calm and safety, it turns out, is anything but that, and the pacified citizenry is not even aware of the dangers it faces (Patai). "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength" (4). The irony of those phrases is used in a satirical way. War is generally depicted as violent, bloody, traumatizing, and horrifying. Peacefulness is the very opposite of what one would connect war to. Freedom and slavery are also very much the opposite. When enslaved, you have little to no rights, meaning, you are not free. Ignorance is when someone lacks knowledge; saying ignorance is strength is very ironic, considering they mean the very opposite of each other. This makes the slogan of Big Brother and its totalitarian ways