Dystopian Novel Rationale Annotation to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

This passage from Fahrenheit 451 is the most informative section of the book, it talks about the state of the world in the book. Some of the main themes of this book and passage are technology and modernization, since most of society is controlled by technology, and wisdom and knowledge, because Guy Montag inherits knowledge from multiple people in the book, in this section it was Captain Beatty giving him the knowledge. Captain Beatty goes to Guy’s house, because he didn’t go to work that day. He didn’t go to work because he recently burned down a house with a lot of books along with an old woman. Guy questions why they must burn down houses with books and is shocked that he killed a woman. So, captain Beatty came to talk to him about it.

Technology plays a really big role in this story and in this passage. In this passage Beatty talks about how technology eventually got rid of all of the books because in book people rely on tv for happiness as he mentions in another part of the book. This is also shown when Beatty says “Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick (to end books)” (Bradbury 55). Beatty tells Guy that technology is one of the big reasons that books aren’t around anymore. Guy know this because his wife is always watching tv. That shows that technology is one of the main reason that the government is manipulating everyone and is very important to the overall plot of the novel.

The figurative language of the passage is very prominent and essential for Captain Beatty to tell Guy about the state of the world. He uses idioms, hyperboles and a lot of other forms of figurative language in the novel. An example of this is when Beatty tells Guy that “But the public, knowing what it wanted, spinning happily, let the comicbooks survive.” (55). The figurative language used in this sentence is “spinning happily” (55) and that is a hyperbole. The thing being exaggerated is the fact that people were glad. But using a hyperbole in this case is effective because it tells Guy that people were very happy and glad that books stopped selling, so it intensifies the fact that they were happy.

The syntax and structure of some sentences were very crucial to convince the reader and Guy why the things Beatty is telling them is true and applies to most of the population. When Guy asks Beatty about why firemen are necessary he replied with “With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word `intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it deserved to be.” (55). He listed a lot of people that makes the reader and, maybe, Guy think that a lot that those are a lot of people. It helps Beatty convince Guy and the reader that everyone is happy with the state of the world now.

So overall, the annotated page has a good representation of the book Fahrenheit 451 in general. Throughout the book there is a major theme of technology, use of figurative language to intensify the meaning of some things in the book, and the use of syntax and sentence structure to manipulate the reader into thinking that the population wanted to be in the situation they are in right now without any manipulation.