Ray Bradbury

RAY BRADBURYAn American author, playwright and

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Jacqueline KochJune 17, 2010

LIT216

Basic bio Born in August 1920 in Waukegan, Ill. Graduated from high school in Los Angeles, ending his formal education. Sold newspapers on L.A. street corners for four years before becoming a full time writer in 1943. First gained fame with The Martian Chronicles, published in 1950, which “ describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars” (Ray Bradbury).

Beyond the bio Found inspiration in space exploration, his birthplace of Waukegan, and Los Angeles, where he did most of his writing.

“I received so much inspiration from (Los Angeles) that it is a wonderful feeling to be a permanent part of my hometown,” Bradbury said after being honored with a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood (Wong).

Blended science fiction with technology and critiques of society, affecting communities across the country.

“We want to make our city the best it can be. By reading great literary works like Ray Bradbury's we can foster dialogue among our city's diverse groups, and we can create a community that's unmatched by any in this great nation,” said L.A. Mayor James Hahn (Wong).

Beyond the bio Wrote to improve humanity and human conditions on earth, including education and literacy."I'm working to prevent

a future where there's no education," Bradbury said from his Los Angeles home. "The system we have has gone to hell, so I'm trying to encourage teachers and parents to rebuild it. We're not teaching kids to read and write and think” (Moore).

Used futuristic imagery and various environments to affect people’s thoughts.

"He's always been a writer who wanted to improve the human condition by showing the way people really behave," colleague Ben Bova said. "He's not interested in rocket ships and ray guns except as a means of putting people in a different milieu” (Moore).

The modern sci-fi movement

Began in the U.S. in the mid-1950s, prompted by end of World War II. Born from the post-Depression era, when Americans began using more technology, including TVs, and became interested in the space race with the former Soviet Union. Included social commentary on technological changes and the dangers technology presents (Rockwood).

Descriptions of science fiction

“Science fiction explores political, legal and ideological alternatives, commenting upon both our present and possible futures” (Rockwood 271).

“Science fiction views our present situation through the lenses of either a possible future, or an alternative view of the past, using such devices as ‘what if’ counter-histories and parallel universes” (Rockwood 272).

“People are afraid of fantasy,” Bradbury said. “A lot of intellectuals think science fiction is trivial. And it's pivotal! People are walking around the streets with phones to their heads talking to someone ten feet away. We've killed two million people with automobiles. We're surrounded by technology and the problems created by technology, and science fiction isn't important?" (Mesic).

Influences on Bradbury Emily Dickinson Edgar Allen Poe Charles Dickens L. Frank Baum H. G. Wells Jules Verne Alduous Huxley

“I've written more short stories and novels and plays and poems about other writers than any other writer in history. I've been madly in love with them. I've written poems about Edgar Allen Poe being my father. Emily Dickinson being my mother” (Ray Bradbury).

H.G. Wells and Jules Verne helped pioneer the early science fiction and fantasy movements. L. Frank Baum created absurd and memorable characters in his “Oz” series. Edgar Allen Poe wrote short stories, which helped shape Bradbury’s short story style (Ray Bradbury).

“The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along” (Ray Bradbury).Important works

Dark Carnival The Martian Chronicles Fahrenheit 451 The October Country Dandelion Wine Something Wicked This Way Comes Numerous screenplays, short stories, poems and essays (Ray Bradbury).

Analysis of Fahrenheit 451

PlotIn a totalitarian, futuristic American city, fireman Guy Montag’s job is to burn books. People in that society do little for pleasure; instead, they tune into a television and radio for all their information and entertainment (Bradbury).

Guy meets 17-year-old Clarisse McClellan, who seems free-spirited and happy. She asks him questions about the emptiness of life. Guy’s world is changed when his wife attempts suicide and Clarissa is killed by a speeding car. He begins to steal books instead of burn them (Bradbury 11-82).

Guy works with an English professor to read and reprint books, then hide them in firefighters’ houses to incriminate them. Guy turns his books over to his boss, then burns his own house. But Guy also torches his boss, kills other firefighters and destroys the Mechanical Hound, which attempted to kill Guy (Bradbury 71-92).

War is declared, but Guy runs away and meets up with a traveling group of readers who memorize classic works. Guy is asked to memorize the Book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible (Bradbury 126-147).


MisunderstandingMany critics and readers wrongly assumed Fahrenheit 451 was a critique against censorship, especially in a heightened McCarthyism era. But Bradbury said in 2007 that the novel has less to do with censorship than it does with society’s reliance on television instead of the written word. Bradbury is, first and foremost, speaking out against the dullness and ignorance of society when it does not read (Moore).

"I see 'Fahrenheit' all over the place, these days," Bradbury said. "Programs like 'Jeopardy' and 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' are ridiculous. They're the stupidest shows in history. They're making us dumber. They don't give us information, they give us facts, factoids. You don't learn who Napoleon was and how he was motivated. You learn what year he was born, and when he died. That's useless” (Moore).


ThemesOne cannot argue, however, that Fahrenheit 451 does not contain a theme of censorship. One of the firemen’s rule is to burn everything. That includes books, which give people knowledge and also cause friction among people when something inciting is published.

The fire chief, Beatty, tells Guy that because civilization is so different, books offended too many people. “’Colored people don’t like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don’t feel good about Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Burn it. Someone’s written a book on tobacco and cancer of the lungs? The cigarette people are weeping? Burn the book’” (Bradbury 54).

Bradbury’s point is simply. When someone attempts to cater to the masses, anything worth knowing and learning is tossed by the wayside. People too afraid to express opinions or share thoughts because they may hurt someone else only hurt entire societies.


Another enduring theme is the future of education in America and how people must be engaged in their subject matter to learn. Clarisse discusses how dull her school days are when she doesn’t learn anything. “’… we never ask questions, or at least most don’t. (Teachers) just run the answers at you, bing, bing, bing, and us sitting there for four more hours of film-teacher. That’s not social to me at all’” (Bradbury 27).

Again, Bradbury warns of the lack of education and how it affects society: “’School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, history language dropped, English and spelling gradually gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work’” (51).

Bradbury foresaw a future that was nothing more than rote memorization and recitation of facts. He grew critical of a society that prized factual knowledge over creative and practical knowledge. Fahrenheit 451 was meant to show what happens when an uninformed society is not education enough to speak up for itself or to have any original thoughts.

Themes


SymbolismBooks

Books, to Bradbury, symbolize knowledge and entertainment. Books are the means by which people learn and grow. To burn books is to burn people’s originality of thought and their chance to be more than mindless drones. “’(Books) have quality… it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You’d find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion’” (Bradbury 74).

The Mechanical Hound The mechanical hound symbolizes the government, which is

sometimes at a distance and which sometimes pounces when a person needs to be punished. The mechanical hound slept but did not sleep, lived but did not live in its gently humming, gently vibrating, softly illuminated kennel back in a dark corner of the firehouse” (Bradbury 24).


Symbolism Fire

Fire represents the destruction of knowledge and thought at the hands of dull people. Fire is representative of the government, authority figures and anyone else who tries to suppress learning by downplaying the notion of original thought and criticism.

Firemen Firemen serve as watchdogs in Bradbury’s society. They could

be likened to snitches during the McCarthy era, who ratted on neighbors for Communist-like behavior. They are also similar to policemen in that they enforce the laws of society and punish those who do not follow them. Firemen are “’custodians of our peace of mind, the focus of or understandable and rightful dread of being inferior; official censors, judges, and executors’” (Bradbury 53-54).

Argument for Bradbury’s inclusion

In 2007, received a Pulitzer citation “for his distinguished, prolific and deeply influential career as an unmatched author of science fiction and fantasy” (Pulitzer). In 2004, received the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor bestowed to artists by the U.S. government (Ray Bradbury). In 2002, received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame (Ray Bradbury). In 2000, received the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters by the Board of Directors of the National Book Foundation (Ray Bradbury).

Argument for Bradbury’s inclusion

The premier science fiction writer of all time. Helped popularize the science fiction and fantasy genres. Successfully blended prose with social critiques and futuristic predictions. Books and short stories are read in thousands of high schools across the country. Helped design parts of Epcot Center in Disney World (Ray Bradbury).

Influential Bradbury Called the greatest sci-fi writer of all time (Gaines). An icon who shaped science fiction by describing the wonders of life and fascinating readers with his blend of well-liked characters and sharp prose (Harper Collins). In short stories, created the Elliot family, who would later become the popular and well-known “Addams family” (Gaines). Filmmaker Michael Moore played off of Bradbury when the director entitled his movie “Fahrenheit 9/11” (Gaines).

Similarities with F. Scott Fitzgerald

Both wrote highly acclaimed modern fiction novels. Both make appropriate use of symbols. In “The Great Gatsby,” Fitzgerald employs the green light to represent a symbol of hope. Both use their works to make social commentaries on life. Fitzgerald used Gatsby to comment on the way society loves wealth and money, but how those can leave society unhappy or ultimately destroy it. Though Bradbury wrote science fiction and Fitzgerald wrote modern fiction, they use similar literary devices to make a point about society.

Differences with Crane Crane wrote during a much earlier time period (late 1800s) than Bradbury. Crane’s genre is naturalism, which uses a work’s natural setting and descriptions of that setting to move the story along. For Bradbury, setting is less important (though it is set in a future time) than social critiques and writing about a futuristic society where life has gone awry. In “The Open Boat,” Crane uses descriptive language to talk about the men’s plight and describe the ocean. In Bradbury’s works, he uses the setting for only its location and lets the action and dialogue between characters move the story (Crane 1000-1014).

Reception Bradbury uses his works to advocate education for children and adults, and asks readers to question their own lives. “Though Bradbury's topics are hardly true-to-life, they do carry with them themes that we can apply to our daily lives—courteousness, perseverance, flexibility, and self-awareness” (Clark). Bradbury creates a vivid world of sensory images and fantasy, causing readers to want to physically be a part of the plot. “Because Bradbury's world is a better one than the vale of tears that we inhabit, it sometimes hurts to close the book and be snapped back to contemporary reality” (Smigelski).

Criticism Bradbury began his science fiction writing with moral evangelizing or personal opinions that he infused into his writing, detracting from a work’s meaning. Only since the 1970s has “his own set of values” become one with his works (Sullivan 1314). Bradbury’s short stories, as in Dandelion Wine, sometimes appear to have no connection among them. “It has no more reason to end than it has to begin. Its cause and effect relationship is a spontaneous one…” (Bradford 161). Bradbury’s message is sometimes confused, as in the censorship versus societal dullness seen in Fahrenheit 451.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine Books, 1953. Print.Bradford, Tom. “Review.” Chicago Review 22.2/3 (1971). 160-166. Web. 12 June 2010.Clark, Tracy. "Ray Bradbury: Overview." Contemporary Popular Writers. Ed. Dave Mote. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 June 2010.Crane, Stephen. “The Open Boat.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2007. 1000-1016. Print.Gaines, John. “A History of Science Fiction: Ray Bradbury & Arthur C. Clarke.” Librarypoint. 3 Feb. 2010. Web.Harper Collins Publisher. “The Bradbury Chronicles.” Harper Collins, n.d. Web. 10 June 2010.Mesic, Penelope. “Cosmic Ray.” Book Magazine. Dec. 1998/Jan. 1999. Web.Moore, Roger. “Ray Bradbury Can Still Burn Through Paper.” The Orlando Sentinel. 20 Aug. 2000. Web.Ray Bradbury. Harper Collins and Authors on the Web, 1998. Web. 12 June 2010.Rockwood, Bruce. “Law, Literature and Science Fiction: New Possibilities.” Legal Studies Forum. 23.3 (1999). 267-279. Web.Smigelski, Joseph. Letter. The Huffington Post. 8 June 2010. Web. 12 June 2010.Sullivan, Anita. “Ray Bradbury and Fantasy.” The English Journal. 61.9 (1972). 1309-1314. Web. 12 June 2010.“The 2007 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Special Awards and Citations.” Pulitzer.org. Pulitzer, n.d. Web. 12 June 2010.Wong, Julie. “Ray Bradbury Receives Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.” Office of Mayor James Hahn. 1 April 2002. Web. 14 June 2010.

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Ray Bradbury

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