Position Essay Fahrenheit 451, Summaries of Literary Analysis

Download Position Essay Fahrenheit 451 and more Summaries Literary Analysis in PDF only on Docsity! 1 Onome Million Prof. Weber ENG 101 10/23/2022 Position Essay          After Fahrenheit 451 was published in 1953, it raised different topics of interest, from Man vs. Machine to authoritarianism. Not only that, but it also drew the interest of academic writers. I have read three articles that respond to the novel by academic writers, and my job is to agree or disagree with their opinions. An analysis of scholarly research on Fahrenheit 451 provides readers with varying scholarly interpretations of important topics in the novel including the idea that people around us are mirrors, the mass exploitation of technology caused the decline of individuality and the conflict between Man vs. Machine.  In the article, “To Build a Mirror Factory: The Mirror and Self-Examination in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451," scholar Rafeeq O. McGiveron argues that Clarisse serves as a mirror to Montag. In the novel, Clarisse's influence on Montag is tremendous. Clarisse comes into Montag's life and instantly questions his relationship with his wife, job, and joy. Although Clarisse was the one who enlightened Montag, I disagree that she was a mirror to Montag. Here, McGiveron concludes that “Clarisse is a mirror not simply because she informs readers about the state of society. Each of the characters does that. If informing were the sole criterion for being a mirror, then even the most minor character would qualify--and so would most of the novel's narrative description. The metaphor would be so all-inclusive as to be meaningless. Clarisse is a mirror because she is so mirrorlike in her informing. She "talks about how strange the world is" (29), reminding Montag that "everyone ... is either shouting or dancing around like wild or 2 beating up one another" (30), but she has no ideological agenda. For the most part, Clarisse does not interpret or offer suggestions; she merely draws Montag's attention to facts he should already understand but does not. Like a mirror, Clarisse guilelessly reflects the truth into Montag's eyes.” (McGiveron). In contrast to McGiveron’s viewpoint that Clarisse represents a mirror to Montag, another viewpoint shows that Montag is more of a mirror to his coworkers. After Montag's discussion with Clarisse, Montag starts to contemplate her thoughts. Although Clarisse can get deep with Montag, she is not a reflection of him. They are very different; Clarisse has opinions and beliefs far more different from Montag's. Bradbury narrates, "Montag looked at these men whose faces were sunburnt by a thousand real and ten thousand imaginary fires, whose work flushed their cheeks and fevered their eyes. These men looked steadily into their platinum igniter flames as they lit their eternally burning black pipes. They and their charcoal hair and soot- colored brows and bluish-ash-smeared cheeks where they had shaven close. Had he ever seen a fireman that didn't have black hair, black brows, a fiery face, and blue steel shaved but unshaved look? These men were all mirror images of himself!"(Bradbury, 33). Montag notices who they are and who he is as a fireman. Not only that, but Montag also realizes that their faces resemble one another. Due to this awareness, Montag believes that there is something wrong with their job. Everyone is bound up in themselves that they do not realize their true self although they are looking in a mirror. Ray Bradbury indicates that we need to look at ourselves from another's viewpoint to prevent losing our uniqueness. The position I will take is Montag is a mirror to his coworker, not Clarisse. One of the ideas presented by Rafeeq O. McGiveron in the article “What ‘Carried the Trick?’ Mass Exploitation and the Decline of Thought in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451,” is that the mass exploitation of technology caused the decline of individuality, and the idea is