Scope, Range, and Purpose of Science Fiction: Analytical Essay on Fahrenheit 451

In this paper, I will discuss the issue that I chose which will help me demonstrate the scope, range, and purpose of science fiction at that time. Before beginning, we need to define science fiction in order to have an idea of what we will be addressing. Science fiction is a manifestation and extension of a collective understanding of the material world. It is built upon this understanding and when it does contain fantastical elements, like seemingly magical technologies, they are derived from scientific advancement and super intelligent alien species as opposed to gods and ghosts. Science Fiction can only begin to exist when individual people see significant change in their quality of life due to advances in the understanding of the natural world. The issue that I chose is The Fireman, now more known as Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury from the Galaxy science fiction. Ray Bradbury’s science fiction novel was published in 1953.

During the time that this issue was written, World War 2 was taking place. This is a story of a future society that practices censorship, where all books are restricted, the government attempts to control what people think and read, and individuals are anit-social and hedonistic. But, this reading is not only about the danger of censorship, it is also about the effects that television and mass media have on the reading of literature and intellectual freedom. Fahrenheit 451 centers on Guy Montag, a fireman tormented by his job. Instead of putting out fires, he is expected to burn books to keep them out of the hands of the public for they were outlawed. They did not want people to gain their own knowledge for they simply wanted them to believe and do what they were ordered to do by the governments. This is exactly what happened during World War 2 with Adolf Hitler. Hitler demanded the genocide against all human beings that he felt were inferior to him and his people because of their race. Unfortunately, Hitler too burned the books in the streets of Berlin. After hearing this, many Americans feared Communist infiltration of their values and communities. By Bradbury’s own admission, the thematic obsession that explicitly emerges in Fahrenheit 451 is the burning of the books, the destruction of mind as printed upon matter.

In the world of Fahrenheit 451, intellectualism and independent thinking had become abhorrent, making anti-intellectualism another theme of the book. From the book “With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatcher, fliers, and swimmer instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word ‘intelectual’ of course, because the word it deserved to be” (58). While other books in the same Galaxy Science Fiction magazine tend to deal with the oppressive nature of government and how it destroys their individuality, Bradbury chose to show how individuals can oppress themselves if indoctrinated properly. The people living in the books degenerate future have been given all they think they need for cultural survival, while at the same time, they believe that the written word is somehow evil and subversive. By giving people the tools and the mentality required to self-censor, the government has created a self perpetuating society of deliberate, self-satisfied ignorance and neglect. Fahrenheit 451 becomes a cautionary tale that we could learn a lesson from, or at the very least stop looking as it as just a book about censorship- which implies governmental control- and instead look at its warning about a society thats been doped up so high on technology and so distracted by different things that they’ve lost track of reality and independent thought, and turned away from reading books because they are outraged and offended by everything that they read.

One relevant message of the Fahrenheit 451 is that society can become so lazy and distracted that the most important elements of an abundant life can be lost. There are two major issues happening in the book. First, the law of the land prohibits the spread of ideas through any type of literate, so they publicly burn the homes and books of the people who own them. The second problem is that people get so wrapped up in their technology and entertainment that they don’t realize they are missing some valuable aspect of life, such as connecting with other people. “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… We have everything we need to be happy, but we are not happy. Something is missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burned in ten or twelve years” (82). This passage definitely shows how this book is still relevant in our time. Many people are so lazy that their minds entertainment relies on the electronic compared to the wall. When we are fully engulfed in these electronics giving us entertainment which is transferred to happiness, we don’t realize the importance that other things in our lives have.

Fahrenheit 451 used the genre of science fiction, which enjoyed immense popularity at the time of the books publication, as a vehicle for the message that unchecked oppressive government irreparably damaged society by limiting the creativity and freedom of its people.