Fahrenheit 451: How accurately does this novel reflect events in history? What responsibilities does the author believe exist between various groups in society, such as workers and bosses, men and women, blacks and whites, etc.? What people, ideas, and events probably influenced this author?

Fahrenheit 451 is science fiction story that takes place in the twenty-fourth century.  The placement of the story’s plot it supposedly a futuristic United States, so it is really unknown how much has happened in between the year we live in now, and the year Fahrenheit 451 takes place. How accurately does this novel reflect events in history? Well, today we know there are many advancements in technology. In Fahrenheit 451, you know that there is an increased amount of technology there too. Things that haven’t been invented in our day and age yet. It talks about “Wall-to wall” circuits, or TV’s that cover the walls that are in a home (Bradbury pg. 17-18), which are similar to todays IMAX theaters, which cover the walls too.  It also mentions very fast moving cars (Bradbury pg. 6), which are an enhancement in engines that could be achieved in able time from engineers in our age. The technology in this world, even today, is always advancing, and in Fahrenheit 451, it is consistent with that certain trend. So, historically, even though we don’t know how much time and events have passed in between are day and age and the age that Guy Montag lives in, Fahrenheit is consistent with events in our history. Fahrenheit is also similar to events in our history because it talks about censorship, and book burning, where the government restricts what people can read and if they can AT ALL. In Germany during the holocaust there were book burnings and the government burned things that were written by certain authors.

Bradbury describes relationships between husbands and wives (Montag and Mildred), Bosses and Employees (Montag and Beatty), and Elderly and Youth (Montag and Faber). In the relationship between Montag and Mildred, you can see that Bradbury believes couples should care for each other and the husband should be the one to support his wife. Montag is the worker of the house, and Mildred stays home and cares for it. You can also tell that Montag cares for Mildred, but he’d a little unsure how she feels for him. In the Boss and Employee relationship, Bradbury clearly believes that the employee should respect his boss. At first, Montag does respect Beatty. He does his job and he taks Beatty’s advice and orders.  (I mean, of course there is that incident later on….but still) In the Elderly and Youth relationship with Montag and Faber, you can tell that Montag respects and listens to Faber. Faber knows what he is talking about, and he gives good advice. Montag doesn’t question Faber’s ideas, he trusts him.

I think that maybe Bradbury’s own experiences influenced him. I also thought that some major event in history, like book burnings that he heard about could have caused him to write this book.  But I wanted to hear from him what inspired him to write this book. I watched a youtube video of him talking about his inspiration at the Comic-con convention, and it was realy cool. Bradbury said that it was the German’s book burning in Berlin that inspired him to write Fahrenheit 451. He said in the video that he loved books so much and he couldn’t think about how bad it would be if that happened to us. This event, and his own personal feeling on the topic  is what inspired him.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Print.

Ray Bradbury on Fahrenheit 451 Inspiration. Perf. Ray Bradbury. Youtube. Faroukabad, 30 July 2007. Web. 6 June 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aKItfLeso4>.