Literary Analysis 5 Fahrenheit 451

1. I think there are two inciting incidents in this novel and I will tell you why. First incident is with his neighbor, a 17 year old girl named Clarisse McClellan. Clarisse McClellan is a thinker and considered an outcast to society, because she likes to think about things. One day Montag, the protagonist, runs into Clarisse and they have interesting conversations for the next past days. Montag finds himself enjoying the talks with Clarisse. One day Clarisse asks Montag if he is “happy” which confuses Montag. He finally realizes he is not happy and causes him to search what is missing from his life. The second incident is when on a job as a Firemen, a person who burns books, Montag sees a women burn with her books. This incident makes him curious of what could be in those books that’s worth dying for. Montag calls in sick and during his time off he starts reading the books he stole with his wife Mildred. Mildred sees nothing special in them while Montag is very interested in what they have to say. Montag becomes so interested that he meets with a retired English teacher and asks him to teach how to understand books. There was foreshadowing in this story, but it made way to obvious what was going to happen next. For example Mildred keeps telling Montag to burn the books and yells at him to stop reading which indicates that she will snap one day and rat him out. The “Hound” chasing Montag in the beginning of the story foreshadows that the ”Hound” will be hunting for him later on the story. To me there was no plot twists, because everything I expected to happen did happen. There seemed to be no intentions of plot twists from what I read. We live in a society where people go along with the flow and act “normal”. Montag was a character that was not considered “normal” and therefore an outcast. Most of the people I know go along with the flow and are “normal”, so this wouldn’t happen to anyone I know.
2. This novel was ironic to me, because it was a book talking about burning books, and their significance. I got many messages from this novel and was unsure what the author’s true message seemed to be. In society you aren’t born equal, but are made equal. What the novel means by this is we are all molded by society to think a certain way, dress a certain way, and act a certain way. You don’t see everyone going around greeting each other by mooning each other, but rather by waving or shaking hands. This is because we are taught that that is the polite or right thing to do. Another message could book could be having fun and being happy can’t fill up the cup all the way, gap, or hole. To fill the up the cup you must experience sadness, joy, disappointment, and etc. You must experience life.
3. The author's tone is very dramatic because everything seems so intense.
   -“The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.”
   -“It was a pleasure to burn.”
   -“Digression is the soul of wit. Take the philosophic asides away from Dante, Milton or Hamlet's father's ghost and what stays is dry bones.”
4. The author uses foreshadowing throughout the novel to contribute to the tone.
   -“We're going to meet a lot of lonely people in the next week and the next month and the next year. And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering. That's where we'll win out in the long run. And someday we'll remember so much that we'll build the biggest goddamn steamshovel in history and dig the biggest grave of all time and shove war in it and cover it up.”

• Bradbury uses first person narrative to give the novel a more dramatic tone. Reading from the view of the protagonist makes everything seem more real.
  -“Nobody listens anymore. I can't talk to the walls because they're yelling at me, I can't talk to my wife; she listens to the walls. I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough it'll make sense. And I want you to teach me to understand what I read.”
• Verbal Irony is huge part of this novel because the firemen start the fires by burning books. It's a twist on the reader interpretation of a fireman.
  -“It was a pleasure to burn.”
• Metaphor is used to give more understanding to the theme of the novel.
  -“A book is a loaded gun in the house next door...Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?”
• Bradbury's poetic diction is what contributes to the author's tone.
  -“Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
• Complication is used to show when Montag becomes conflicted and starts to have a change in though. This happens when he sees a woman run into a burning building for books.
  -“There must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You don’t stay for nothing.”
• Symbolism is used to present the theme of the novel.
  -The mechanical hounds represents the absence of nature and natural things.
  -Fire takes on multiple meanings in the novel. It represents destruction to some and to others it's a something that keeps them warm.
  -The phoenix symbolizes rebirth in that no matter how many times something is destroyed it will keep coming back.
  -The burning of the books represents the death of knowledge and freedom of though.
• The setting is used to convey the theme in that it is set in the future.
  -Because the book is in the future it allows for the author to elaborate how technology has evolved to the extend where people have become stupid and lazy. Everything is mechanized even the hounds. Books being illegal makes sense in this type of setting.
• Simile
  -”I remember the newspaper dying like huge moths.”
• Imagery
  -"It growled again, a strange rasoing combination of elecrical sizzle, a frying sound, a scraping of metal, a turning of cogs that seemed rusty and ancient with suspicion."
  -"The house fell in red coals and black ash. It bedded itself down in sleepy pink-gray cinders and a smoke plume blew over it, rising and waving slowly back and forth in the sky."

Charcterization:

1. Direct characterization is used to describe general characters such as firemen. It allows for Bradbury to assign a role to a character. By describing a fireman and what their job is the reader is able to know what Guy Montag and Captain Beatty do. Indirect characterization is mainly used throughout the novel due to the first person narration. Through Guy's eyes the reader is able to observe characters and judge them for themselves. Mildred is glued to the T.V and doesn't like to talk to her husband Guy. This lets the reader know like everyone else she is brain washed and lazy.
2. The author's diction and syntax stays poetic throughout the whole novel and does not change. This gives the novel a more dramatic tone and makes the novel seem like there is a deeper meaning behind every word.
3. Guy Montag is dynamic because he is a firemen but becomes curious about books when Clarisse asks him if he's happy and when he sees a woman run into a burning building full of books. He changes from a robot like firemen who just burns book to someone who reads books and begins to think due to books influence. He is also a round character because he isn't like everyone else. He is the typical mindless citizen like everyone else. He has many traits that make him a round character. He thinks outside the box and is curious.
4. I felt like I came away knowing a person mainly because it was told in first person narrative. Going through a book through the characters eyes makes it seem like you are there yourself.