Context Of Fahrenheit 451

Context Of Fahrenheit 451

Write a page on the context of Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. How do you think these events might have affected the ideas of the novel?

“Fahrenheit 451 was published in 1953, a time of recovery from the World War two, during the McCarthy and Cold war era; this, along with his own personal context, and the rise of the mass media will contribute to the themes and ideas explored by his dystopian fiction novel.
Bradbury grew up in the great depression of the 1930’s, which would have influenced his writing style, as it was hard to get a good education, and living conditions were not great. His cynical attitude can be seen though the Dystopian nature of the novel.
McCarthyism was the term used to describe the act of accusing someone of disloyalty, treason, or subversion, and was usually directed towards people they thought were communist sympathisers, or who were seen to be open minded to the concept of it. This lead to many people in the arts industry (authors, filmmakers etc.) who had a lot of power over people’s opinions and didn’t usually conform to the norms of society, being driven out of Hollywood.
The cold war was also an era that will have had effects on the issues written about in the novel. After the world war two, the threat of terror to the USA, by the USSR and the political tension, created a strong fear of communism, and this lead to media censorship and the rise of the mass media.
After World war two the mass media took off, and started its relationship with the wider community. The Mass Media played a very important role in shaping people’s opinions, and Bradbury, realising this, was worried the literature was going to lose its power and influence to the power of the Mass media.   This also could contribute to issues written about in the novel.

The Nazi book burnings in Germany in 1933 had been widely publicised after World War II. These book burnings became a major symbol of the repression that followed in Nazi Germany. The importance of literature...