Fahrenheit 451

Time period and context

Author Ray Douglas Bradbury

Born in 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois

Loving extended family served as foundation for his stories

Waukegan = Green Town

Moved to Los Angeles in1934 where he first began to write Joined the Los Angeles Science
Fiction League

Fahrenheit 451 Context

Published in 1953 in the middle of the Second Red Scare and McCarthyism

- Denouncements, aggressive interrogations, job destructions

WWII ended less than 10 years before

- World still in a state of shock from Nazism/ against conformity and actions such as book burning

United States at a Science Fiction peak

- Some would call the 50s the Golden Age of Science Fiction

Technologic advancements across society

- These new inventions that arguably contributed to the downfall of society

Reaction

While criticizing conformity, some thought that Fahrenheit

451 was also an anti-McCarthyism novel

He was investigated by the US Government

Fahrenheit 451 challenged American Values

predict[ed] a future grim enough to please the

sourest of contemporary pessimists.

Works Cited

Fox, David. "The Burning of American Culture." Digital Commons. N.p., n.d. Web. <http%3A
%2F%2Fdigitalcommons.calpoly.edu%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle
%3D1018%26context%3Dhistsp>.

"Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 Misinterpreted." LA Weekly. N.p., 30 May 2007. Web. 25 Mar.
2015.

Ray Bradbury Online. N.p., n.d. Web. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spaceagecity.com%2Fbradbury

%2Fbio.htm>.