A Qualitative Analysis of Fahrenheit 451°: Mapping the ..., Study notes of Linguistics

Download A Qualitative Analysis of Fahrenheit 451°: Mapping the ... and more Study notes Linguistics in PDF only on Docsity! Gorlach, Marina. 2020. “A Qualitative Analysis of Fahrenheit 451°: Mapping the Linguistic Make-Up of Literary Texts.” Nordic Journal of English Studies 19(2):94-116. A Qualitative Analysis of Fahrenheit 451°: Mapping the Linguistic Make-Up of Literary Texts Marina Gorlach, Metropolitan State University of Denver Abstract This paper presents a qualitative analysis of a literary text, Ray Bradbury’s (1953, 1964) Fahrenheit 451°, by considering the role of word systems in conveying its message. The word system is a matrix of words within a spoken or written text with a common denominator that may be semantic, phonological, etymological, conceptual, or associative. The analysis is based on a semiotic theoretical and methodological approach and focuses on the non-arbitrary choice of lexical/phonological/syntactic/semantic forms by the author as a means of achieving textual cohesion. Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451° is a lyrical anti-utopia portraying the massive attack of ‘consumer civilization’ standards on the traditional cultural values of society. The message is conveyed via an array of word systems: the phonological system based on the alliteration of [s] creating the impression of burning paper, the conceptual-associative field ‘dark-cold-empty’, the metaphoric- metonymic systems ‘hands and body parts’ and ‘show-carnival’, the use of internal dialogue and monologue, and such syntactic strategies as elliptical sentences, tag- questions, and more. The findings of this study obtained through a qualitative analysis show how the effect of Bradbury’s work is created by the author’s sophisticated use of multiple word systems at all levels of language structure. Keywords: word systems; textual analysis; phonological systems; conceptual-associative systems 1. Introduction This paper discusses the role of word systems in a literary text and analyses their contribution to construing the meaning of the text. The concept of word systems first inspired by William Diver in 1969 was later developed by Aphek and Tobin (1983, 1988, 1989) and Tobin (1989, 1990). The word system is a matrix of words within a spoken or written text with a common denominator that may be semantic, phonological, etymological, conceptual, or associative. Such organised systems comprise the quintessence of the text, where the meaning is synergetically multiplied and enhanced by the systematic use of interconnected words, constructions, and other forms. The textual analysis of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451° (1953, 1964) approaches word systems as showing the relationship between the form of the message Mapping the Linguistic Make-Up of Literary Texts 95 and its meaning. The goal is to demonstrate how the synergetic effect of a simultaneous application of word systems of several types contributes to conveying the message of the novel. The analysis relies on the theoretical premises stemming from the Saussurean school of linguistics that focused on the scientific study of the structure of a language. A literary text is viewed as a system of linguistic signs used for specific communicative functions that can be analysed semantically by establishing a network of their mutual relations. According to this approach, the literary text creates meaning by employing a system of interdependent language devices, and both language and text are regarded as “a set of systems – revolving around the notion of the linguistic sign – which are organized internally and interrelated with each other and used by human beings to communicate” (Tobin 1990: 47). In this essay I present a qualitative study of the linguistic features of the text at different levels of language structure: phonological, morphological, semantic, and syntactic, all of which are interrelated as they operate simultaneously in the literary text. I explore how the meaning of Bradbury’s text is conveyed, i.e., what allows readers to arrive at similar interpretations of the text by drawing on both the context in which it is embedded and general world knowledge. My aim is to relate linguistic facts to meaning and interpretation in an explicit way (cf. Short 1996: 5). The paper contains the description of the method, summary of the text and its message, contexts and subcontexts, and a detailed presentation of the various word systems supporting the message. 2. Method This paper implements a semiotic theoretical approach to linguistic analysis put forward by de Saussure in his Course in General Linguistics (1983). Other linguists, among them Yishai Tobin, often in collaboration with Edna Aphek, consistently developed and elaborated on the application of the semiotic theory to linguistic analysis. According to the semiotic theoretical approach, each speaker exploits language—the universal system of signs—in their own non-random way and does it more or less unconsciously. In literary texts, the ratio between the conscious and the unconscious in the distribution of signs may be Marina Gorlach 98 rebels against. The spiritual advocate of the ‘Philistines’ is captain Beatty, a well-educated and well-read man who has chosen to promote the ruling ideology. The society craving only fun and fire is consumed by the atomic war and faces annihilation. Montag and ‘people-books’ survive to save and rebuild the world. The novel has plenty of layers of meaning to explore, and its major message is interpreted differently not only by the critics, but even by the author himself. Many perceived the main idea as criticism of state- sponsored censorship, and in the paperback edition published in 1979, Bradbury wrote a new coda for the book containing multiple comments on censorship and its relation to the novel. But in an interview in 2007, he said that the book explored the effects of television and mass media on the reading of literature. Sometimes, the word systems permeating the text tell the reader more about the underlying message than critics and authors, and their role is analysed below. 3.1. Themes The message is reflected in the central themes and gets realised in contexts and sub-contexts, which are characterised by the non-random use of language tools and display numerous word systems. Contexts No protest: mindless existence. Covert protest: search for reasons. Overt protest: reading books. Active protest: fight for the future. Sub-contexts (page numbers) No protest Covert protest Overt protest Active protest Montag (29-30, 34-36) Montag (60-61, 78-83) Reading books (84-87) Burning own house (117-20) Mildred (35-37, 40-43, 61-70) Clarisse (30-34, 43-45, 48-51) Professor Faber (87-88, 91-101) Murder (122- 123) Mildred’s friends (102-106) Fire-house (45- 48, 51-54) Reciting poems (106-109) Escape (123- 130, 137-139) Burning a woman (54-59) Beatty (47-48, 70-78) People-books (144-152) Faber’s help (130-136) Mapping the Linguistic Make-Up of Literary Texts 99 Word systems in Fahrenheit 451° Conceptual-associative systems Phonological-associative system dark-cold-empty fun-happiness sound symbolism - [s] Syntactic systems Metaphoric system telegraphic language tag-questions internal dialogue show-carnival hands and body parts The conceptual-associative systems based on the notions of dark- cold-empty, fun-happiness act throughout the entire text and are intrinsically connected to the semantic contrast between the seemingly happy and actually tragic existence of the community designed “to have fun”. The phonological system based on the alliteration of the sound [s] contributes to the auditory perception of the burning paper. The syntactic word systems found in the novel include incomplete sentences, clichés, the marked use of tag-questions, and internal dialogues. Metaphorical- metonymic word systems related to the notions of ‘hands and body parts’, show-carnival reveal the protagonist’s mental state of hesitation and his search for solution. 3.2. The conceptual associative system dark-cold-empty I shall show that each encounter with Mildred, Montag’s wife, and her girlfriends, leading empty and meaningless lives, having no feelings, no thoughts, no goals, is associated with the dark-cold-empty conceptual field, involving both literal and figurative sense of the words. The coldness of their hearts, the emptiness of their thoughts, the darkness of their future are presented as having nothing genuine, nothing worth crying about. Their inner devastation resembles physical death—the world becomes dark and cold as a tomb, empty as a desert. Below are some text examples of this word system. (Note: here and elsewhere the emphasis in the quotations is mine.) 1. He opened the bedroom door. It was like coming into a cold marbled room of a mausoleum after the moon had set. Complete darkness, not a hint of a silver world Marina Gorlach 100 outside, the windows tightly shut, the chamber a tomb-world where no sound from the great city could penetrate. The room was not empty. (35) 2. Darkness. Without turning on the light he imagined how this room would look. His wife stretched on the bed, uncovered and cold, like a body displayed on the lid of a tomb, immovable... The room was indeed empty. …The room was cold but nonetheless he felt he could not breathe. …So, with the feeling of a man who would die in the next hour for lack of air, he felt his way toward his open, separate and therefore cold bed. He stood very straight and listened to the person on the dark bed in the completely featureless night. (36) 3. The woman on the bed was no more than a hard stratum of marble they had reached. Go on, anyway, shove the bore down, slush up the emptiness, if such a thing could be brought out in the throb of a suction snake. Did it drink darkness? (38) 4. The lawn was empty, the trees empty, the street empty. (51) 5. The voice-clock mourned out the cold hour of a cold morning of a still colder year. (52) 6. “Who is it?” “Who would it be?” said Montag, leaning back against the closed door in the dark. He held his pants out into an abyss and let them fall into darkness. He balanced in space with the book in his sweating cold fingers. He stumbled towards the bed and shoved the book clumsily under the cold pillow. (60) 7. He lay far across the room from her, on a winter island separated by an empty sea. (60) 8. And he remembered thinking then that if she died, he was certain he wouldn’t cry… a silly empty man near a silly empty woman, while the hungry snake made her still more empty. …How do you get so empty? he wondered. Who takes it out of you? (62) 9. They read the long afternoon through, while the cold November rain fell from the sky upon the quiet house. They sat in the hall because the parlour was so empty and grey-looking without its walls lit with orange and yellow confetti… The parlour was dead and Mildred kept peering in at it with a blank expression… (84) Mapping the Linguistic Make-Up of Literary Texts 103 3.3. The semantic-conceptual system fun-happiness The semantic-conceptual word system revolving around the notions ‘fun- happiness’ permeats the entire text and is exemplified by the nouns: fun, happiness, laughter, grin, smile, pleasure; verbs: laugh, grin, smile, enjoy; and adjectives: funny, happy. The ‘loyal’ members of the society constantly emphasize that only fun matters and that their lives are pure happiness and joy. The pragmatic effect of multiple repetition of the words ‘fun’ and ‘happiness’ is contrary to their dictionary meaning and ironically close to that of ‘dark-cold-empty’, as if they felt compelled to convince themselves of feeling happy in order not to “jump off the cap of a pillbox”, as Mildred tried to do. 17. “Are you happy?” she said. […] “Happy! Of all the nonsense.” He stopped laughing. […] Of course I’m happy. What does she think? I’m not?” he asked the quiet rooms. (34) 18. Darkness. He was not happy. He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized that as a true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask… (36) 19. When it comes time for the missing lines, they all look at me out of the three walls and I say the lines. Here, for instance, the man says, “What do you think of this whole idea, Helen?” …And I say, I say – “She paused and ran her finger under a line in the script. “’I think that’s fine!’ And then they go on with the play until he says, ‘Do you agree to that, Helen?’ and I say, ‘I sure do!’ Isn’t that fun, Guy?” He stood in the hall looking at her. “It’s sure fun,” she said. “It’s really fun. It’ll be even more fun when we can afford to get the fourth wall installed...” (42) 20. [Beatty]: “…What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn’t that right? Haven’t you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren’t they? Don’t we keep them moving, don’t we give them fun? That’s all we live for, isn’t it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these.” (75) 21. [Beatty]: “…The important thing for you to remember, Montag, is we’re the Happiness boys, the Dixie Duo, you and I and the others. Marina Gorlach 104 We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought. We have our fingers in the dyke. Hold steady. Don’t let the torrent of melancholy and drear philosophy drown our world. We depend on you. I don’t think you realize how important you are, to our happy world as it stands now.” (77) 22. [Montag]: “…Did you hear Beatty? Did you listen to him? He knows all the answers. He’s right. Happiness is important. Fun is everything. And yet I kept sitting there saying to myself, I’m not happy, I’m not happy.” “I am.” Mildred’s mouth beamed. “And proud of it.” (80) 23. Faber examined Montag’s thin, blue-jowled face. “How did you get shaken up? What knocked the torch out of your hands?” “I don’t know. We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing. I looked around. The only thing I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burned in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help.” (93) 24. “Clara, now Clara,” begged Mildred, pulling her arm. “Come on, let’s be cheery, you turn the ‘family’ on, now. Go ahead. Let’s laugh and be happy, now, stop crying, we’ll have a party!” (108-9) The next group of quotations shows things that the characters find funny: 25. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. … He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon- winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. Montag grinned the fierce grin of all men singed and driven back by the flame. …Later, going to sleep, he would feel the fiery smile still gripped by his face muscles, in the dark. It never went away, that smile, it never ever went away, as long as he remembered. (29) 26. [Clarisse]: “Strange. I heard once that a long time ago houses used to burn by accident and they needed firemen to stop the flames.” He laughed. She glanced quickly over. “Why are you laughing?” “I don’t know.” He started to laugh again and stopped. “Why?” Mapping the Linguistic Make-Up of Literary Texts 105 “You laugh when I haven’t been funny and you answer right off. You never stop to think what I’ve asked you.” (33) 27. [Beatty]: “Montag, a funny thing. Heard tell this morning. Fireman in Seattle, purposely set a Mechanical Hound to his own chemical complex and let it loose. What kind of suicide would you call that?” (51) 28. She laughed an odd little laugh that went up and up. “Funny, how funny, not to remember where or when you met your husband or wife.” (61-2) 29. [Mildred]: “The keys to the beetle are on the night table. I always like to drive fast when I feel that way. You get it up around ninety- five and you feel wonderful. Sometimes I drive all night and come back and you don’t know it. It’s fun out in the country. You hit rabbits, sometimes you hit dogs. Go take the beetle.” “No, I don’t want to, this time. I want to hold on to this funny thing. God, it’s gotten big on me. I don’t know what it is. I’m so damn unhappy...” (80) 30. Mildred snatched the book with a laugh. “…Here’s that really funny one you read out loud today. Ladies, you won’t understand a word.” (107) The intrusive reiteration of lexical items referring to fun and joy illuminate the actual search for happiness that sometimes ends tragically: Mildred, this allegedly happy woman, escapes death by a hairbreadth, overwhelmed by the vacuum she exists in: not working, not studying, not loving, not thinking, not feeling, not caring for anyone. 3.4. Phonological associative word system: the sound [s] Generally, any word system if viewed as a linguistic sign represents a junction of sound and meaning as a reflection of the universal correspondence of form and content. Specifically, word systems based on a common phonological denominator are, as a rule, the most original non-translatable and non-transferable combinations or alliterations of sounds, roots, words, or phrases which function at the macro-textual level. The most vivid phonological-associative word system in our text relies on the effect of a sibilant produced by the deliberately massive number of lexical items containing the sound [s], which creates the Marina Gorlach 108 3.6. Syntactic strategies: telegraphic language The speech of the ‘consumer society’ members in the novel is markedly basic and colorless, giving away their spiritual emptiness and intellectual primitiveness. Language as a form of human behavior inevitably reflects societal values and priorities, and Bradbury portrays Mildred and her friends through their speech as using the ‘telegraphic language’: incomplete sentences, clichés, and excessive tag-questions. His goal seems to be demonstrating the correspondence between empty thoughts and impoverished syntax. 40. His wife said, “I don’t know why I should be so hungry.” “You –” “I’m hungry.” “Last night,” he began. “Didn’t sleep well. Feel terrible,” she said. “God, I’m hungry. I can’t figure it.” “Last night –” he said again. She watched his lips casually. “What about last night?” (41) 41. “Well, everything will be all right now,” said an “aunt.” “Oh, don’t be too sure,” said a “cousin.” “Now, don’t get angry!” “Who’s angry?” “You are!” “I am?” “You are mad!” “Why should I be mad!” “Because!” (64) 42. “You know, the high-school girl. Clarisse, her name is.” “Oh, yes,” said his wife. “I haven’t seen her for a few days – four days to be exact. Have you seen her?” “No.” “I’ve meant to talk to you about her. Strange.” “Oh, I know the one you mean.” “I thought you would.” “Her,” said Mildred in the dark room. “What about her?” asked Montag. “I meant to tell you. Forgot. Forgot.” Mapping the Linguistic Make-Up of Literary Texts 109 “Tell me now. What is it?” “I think she’s gone.” “Gone?” “Whole family moved out somewhere. But she’s gone for good. I think she’s dead.” “We couldn’t be talking about the same girl.” “No. The same girl. McClellan. McClellan. Run over by a car. Four days ago. I’m not sure. But I think she’s dead. The family moved out anyway. I don’t know. But I think she’s dead.” “You’re not sure of it!” “No, not sure. Pretty sure.” “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” “Forgot.” “Four days ago!” “I forgot all about it.” (66) 43. “I had a nice evening,” she said, in the bathroom. “What doing?” “The parlour.” “What was on?” “Programmes.” “What programmes?” “Some of the best ever.” “Who?” “Oh, you know, the bunch.” (68) 44. “Doesn’t everyone look nice!” “Nice.” “You look fine, Millie!” “Fine.” “Everyone looks swell.” “Swell!” “Isn’t this show wonderful?” cried Mildred. “Wonderful!” (102) 45. “Oh, they come and go, come and go,” said Mrs. Phelps. “In again out again Finnegan, the Army called Pete yesterday. He’ll be back next week. The Army said so. Quick war. Forty-eight hours they said, and everyone home. That’s what the Army said. Quick war. Pete was called yesterday and they said he’d be back next week. Quick...” Marina Gorlach 110 “I’m not worried,” said Mrs. Phelps. “I’ll let Pete do all the worrying.” She giggled. “I’ll let old Pete do all the worrying. Not me. I’m not worried.” (103) 3.7. Tag-questions Another syntactic strategy based on tag-questions creates the impression that the idea of ‘happy’ society needs a lot of reassurance and convincing. Captain Beatty, the main promoter of the ‘having fun’ philosophy, tries almost too hard to persuade Montag and other firemen that their society is the happiest and most harmonious one to secure their support. 46. [Beatty]: “You like baseball, don’t you, Montag?” “Baseball’s a fine game.” Beatty went on as if nothing had happened. “You like bowling, don’t you, Montag?” (73) 47. [Beatty]: “Ask yourself, What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn’t that right? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren’t they? Don’t we keep them moving, don’t we give them fun? That’s all we live for, isn’t it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these.” (75-76) 48. [Millie]: “You are going to work tonight, though, aren’t you?” (79) 49. [Millie]: “They’ll put you in jail, wouldn’t they?” (80) 50. [Millie]: “You’ve got to hand it back tonight, don’t you know? Captain Beatty knows you’ve got it, doesn’t he?” (88) The excessive use of tag-questions emphasises how artificial and fake things are in this society. On the contrary, professor Faber for whom genuine human values hold great importance never uses them in his speech. Immortality of knowledge and art needs no confirmation, it exists objectively and fills life with meaning and purpose. 3.8. Word system based on internal dialogue Word systems as linguistic entities share characteristics with internal dialogues which tend to develop semantic elements into a single linguistic sign. According to Vygotsky (1962: 148), words in internal Mapping the Linguistic Make-Up of Literary Texts 113 He gazed, shaken, at that white hand. He held it way out, as if he were far-sighted. He held it close, as if he were blind. (57) 66. So it was the hand that started it all. His hands had been infected, and soon it would be his arms. He could feel the poison working up his wrists and into his elbows and his shoulders. His hands were ravenous. And his eyes were beginning to feel hunger, as if they must look at something, anything, everything. (60) 67. Montag’s hands picked up the Bible. He saw what his hands had done and he looked surprised. … His hands, by themselves, like two men working together, began to rip the pages from the book. The hands tore the flyleaf and then the first and then the second page. (98) 68. In Beatty’s sight, Montag felt the guilt of his hands. His fingers were like ferrets that had done some evil and now never rested, always stirred and picked and hid in pockets …If Beatty so much as breathed on them, Montag felt that his hands might wither, turn over on their sides, and never be shocked to life again; they would be buried the rest of his life in his coat-sleeves, forgotten. For these were the hands that had acted on their own, no part of him, here was where the conscience first manifested itself to snatch books, … and now, in the firehouse, these hands seemed gloved with blood. (112) 69. Montag saw the surprise there and himself glanced to his hands to see what new thing they had done. Thinking back later he could never decide whether the hands or Beatty’s reaction to the hands gave him the final push toward murder. (121) The stylistic device of personification is used here to create the semantic notion of the inner conflict and quest for solution. Conscience and curiosity, purely human features, are ascribed to the hands as well as the sense of guilt and innocence. The non-random use of language found here pursues the goal of emphasizing the message: thirst for knowledge and education is an inherent urge for humans, it cannot be destroyed and serves as a prerequisite for survival. 3.10. Metaphoric system show–carnival This word system serves to convey the sense of artificial reality typical of a society that abandoned knowledge and education as pillars of Marina Gorlach 114 spirituality and happiness. The lexical items belonging in the semantic domain show-carnival – circus, arena, scene, stage, game – are used in the text in their figurative meaning, which allows for categorising this system as metaphorical. 70. Always at night the alarm comes. Never by day! Is it because fire is prettier by night? More spectacle, a better show? (58) 71. Lights flicked on and house doors opened all down the street, to watch the carnival set up. (117) 72. ...the great tents of the circus had slumped into charcoal and rubble and the show was well over. (120) 73. ... the house burnt like an ancient bit of stage-scenery. (123) 74. It was a vast stage without scenery, inviting him to run across, easily seen in the blazing illumination... (125) 75. The boulevard was as clean as the surface of an arena two minutes before the appearance of certain unnamed victims and certain unknown killers. (127) 76. The circus must go on, even with war beginning in an hour. (134) 77. ... the big game, the hunt, the one-man carnival. (135) 78. The show’s got to have a snap ending, quick! (146) The performance is cruel and ugly, it cannot last forever, and the message of the text is clearly stated: this illusory world is short-lived, the lights will be turned off and the stage will turn empty. 4. Conclusion On the basis of the above illustrative examples, I would like to argue that the primary message of the novel can be postulated as ignorance and emptiness lead to disaster. In our opinion, the initial intent of the book is best expressed in Bradbury’s claim that the novel touches on the alienation of people by media (Weller 2010). As a passionate book devotee, Bradbury sees the immediate connection between book burning, spiritual emptiness, and world destruction. The message of the text—the significance of intellectual and spiritual values for the survival of humankind—is conveyed by common denominators of various word systems: phonological-associative system reiterating the sound [s], semantic, conceptual, and metaphorical systems Mapping the Linguistic Make-Up of Literary Texts 115 involving ‘fun-happiness’, ‘dark-cold-empty’, ‘show-carnival’, ‘hands and body parts’; syntactic systems of telegraphic language, tag-questions, and internal dialogue. My analysis shows that the word systems serve as language devices (form) for creating a textual message (content) in Fahrenheit 451° by Ray Bradbury. The text is viewed as an inseparable junction of the language with the message it nurtures and creates, and the data presented lends support to the argument that text is a system of systems where means is the message. 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