About the Author
Raymond Douglas Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois, to Leonard Spaulding and Esther Moberg Bradbury. He began his writing career while […]
Fahrenheit 451
Setting
In Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury offers a dark vision of twenty-first-century America. The novel portrays a society where rigid conformity is expected of all individuals, and […]
Themes and Characters
The novel’s protagonist is thirty-year-old Guy Montag, who has followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps to become a fireman and has performed his job […]
Literary Qualities
Bradbury was for years science fiction’s premier literary stylist, and although his heavy use of adjectives and metaphors can seem cloying today, he remains one […]
Social Sensitivity
Fahrenheit 451 is very clearly a defense of literacy and the free use of the imagination as central human virtues. Bradbury emphasizes this theme when […]
Topics for Discussion
1. Pretend that you are a member of the band of book memorizers that appears at the end of the novel. Which book would you […]
Ideas For Reports and Papers
1. Research Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade of the early 1950s, and write a paper discussing how it may have influenced Bradbury’s writing of Fahrenheit […]
Adaptations
Director Francois Truffaut’s version of Fahrenheit 451 (1966) is the finest film adaptation of a Bradbury story to date. Starring Julie Christie and Oskar Werner, […]