In Fahrenheit 451, an application of a moral literary lense is available throughout the book. This moral lense examines the moral and philosophical issues present in a work or created during the study of a work. Bradbury establishes a slight distrust in the government's role in society by using the main theme of Fahrenheit 451, which is censorship. His direct effect on readers is that he reminds them of the importance of reading and thinking. Through the characterization of Montag and Beatty, empathetic diction choices, and dystopian symbolism, Ray Bradbury moves the mind and morals of the reader by translating his fears of societal advances and government censorship in Fahrenheit 451.
One thing Bradbury uses to move the mind and morals of …show more content…
Bradbury uses common wording that has been heard of, but yet throughout the story these everyday words have a different meaning to the book. A good example of this would be the mechanical hounds. A hound in our society would be seen as a normal dog, but when Bradbury adds “mechanical” to this a new meaning for this animal is established. Some textual examples of this “Mechanical Hound” are, “The Mechanical Hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner if the firehouse” (Bradbury 21-22); “It doesn’t think anything we don’t want it to think” (Bradbury 25). This Mechanical Hound is used throughout the story by Bradbury to portray what the people are like now, dead to the world. Just like this Mechanical Hound, the people are not thinking and gaining knowledge, they are just shaping their thoughts and knowledge around what the government is telling them and not thinking for themselves. Another example would be the green, pink, white and brown blurs that Clarisse describes. People like Mildred would just see them as a blur, however those who are actually thinking further their knowledge in what the might be. Clarisse says, “If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! he’d say, that’s grass! A pink blur? That’s a rose garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days. Isn’t that funny, and sad, too” (Bradbury 6). This shows just how harsh the government is with people who think and have any sense of knowledge. These empathetic diction choices play into the government censorship that Bradbury dictates, that correlates with Bradbury’s dystopian
One thing Bradbury uses to move the mind and morals of …show more content…
Bradbury uses common wording that has been heard of, but yet throughout the story these everyday words have a different meaning to the book. A good example of this would be the mechanical hounds. A hound in our society would be seen as a normal dog, but when Bradbury adds “mechanical” to this a new meaning for this animal is established. Some textual examples of this “Mechanical Hound” are, “The Mechanical Hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner if the firehouse” (Bradbury 21-22); “It doesn’t think anything we don’t want it to think” (Bradbury 25). This Mechanical Hound is used throughout the story by Bradbury to portray what the people are like now, dead to the world. Just like this Mechanical Hound, the people are not thinking and gaining knowledge, they are just shaping their thoughts and knowledge around what the government is telling them and not thinking for themselves. Another example would be the green, pink, white and brown blurs that Clarisse describes. People like Mildred would just see them as a blur, however those who are actually thinking further their knowledge in what the might be. Clarisse says, “If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! he’d say, that’s grass! A pink blur? That’s a rose garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days. Isn’t that funny, and sad, too” (Bradbury 6). This shows just how harsh the government is with people who think and have any sense of knowledge. These empathetic diction choices play into the government censorship that Bradbury dictates, that correlates with Bradbury’s dystopian