Fahrenheit 451 Research Paper

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“Sophocles heard it on the Aegean…” (Arnold 15-16). Just as Arnold acknowledges Sophocles noticing a common theme in life, Bradbury also mentions the poet Matthew Arnold in his novel Fahrenheit 451. These two works share similar themes, of “One should not put faith in science or material things”. Arnold’s poem demonstrates the theme of “One should not put faith in science or material things”. Throughout the poem Arnold has many different symbols representing what has happened to the world since the uprise of technology and the decline in faith. In his first stanza Arnold mourns that “Upon the straits;on the French Coast the light/Gleams and is gone” (Arnold 3-4). Arnold uses the light to symbolize god, faith, and truth. In these …show more content…
In Fahrenheit 451 the characters in the books have put their faith in television, cars, and violence for years. Many traditional values like marriage and children have been cast aside, just as religious faith had in “Dover Beach”. While talking with Montag, Faber states that “ Lord, how they’ve changed it in our ‘parlors’ these days...I often wonder if God recognized His own son the way we’ve dressed him up, or is it dressed him down?” (Bradbury 77). In Fahrenheit 451 religion has been put into television. All major religious figures are put in the soap opera and reality t.v. shows. After talking about how cynical the world has become, Arnold states “And we are here as on a darkling plain/swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight/where ignorant armies clash by night” (Arnold 35-37). This can be used to sum up Montag’s society. The whole society is at war either physically or emotionally. Many people in Fahrenheit 451 are depressed without knowing it because the government has made them believe they are happy by giving them material things. Among these people is the protagonist, Guy Montag . Throughout the plot Montag changes his beliefs from despising books to wanting to protect them and have the laws on books lifted. In “Dover Beach” Arnold recites “Listen! you hear the grating roar/Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,/at their return up the high strand,”( Arnold 9-11). The conflict between the

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