Make a list of intertextual references you can identify in Fahrenheit 451 and select one to interpret in relation to its location in the text and relevance to the book.
The whole book is sprinkled with a considerable amount of literary allusions, as the author himself acknowledges in the foreword, he enjoyed to stay in libraries a lot and the novel was written in one and the creative process included picking some random books and inserting quotes from them in the work.
Therefore, I dare not to make a list.
I like especially the allusions made to the US Constitution, in particular to the pursuit of happiness.
The US Constitution states that the pursuit of happiness is one of the unalienable rights of American citizens. However, the concept of happiness is somehow twisted in the world of Farenheit 451.
There, happiness equals fun equals the sole purpose of the living. Yet what is described as fun narrows down to mere physiological reaction, people no longer enjoy deep emotions, their lives are as superficial as possible.
Or as captain Beatty describes it in his motivational speech: "You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can't have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, 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."
However, this does not work very well. After meeting Clarisse, Montag realizes how unhappy he really feels:
"He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back. "
Then he finds his wife who has probably attempted a suicide. So she could not have been happy neither. From Beatty's speech it is also clear that he does not entirely believe in what he is doing and later on he acts in such a way that he lets Montag kill him.
Strange as it might seem, the only ones who don’t seem desperate about their lives are the ones who are not following the official propaganda. The woman who was willing to die with her books, Clarisse or the book-people at the end.
Uma das diversas referências presentes neste livro que mais me captou a atenção, por motivos inteiramente subjetivos, foi a referência a Henry David Thoreau e ao seu livro "Walden". A primeira referência a Thoreau aparece na segunda parte do livro: "Do I turn in Mr.Jefferson? Mr Thoreau? Which is least valuable?" O contexto em que Thoreau é sugerido é deveras calculado com precisão por parte do autor, uma vez que a frustração pela tentativa falhada de ler a Bíblia origina uma busca por alternativas para este livro, sendo Walden mencionado, o que acaba por realçar traços da personalidade de Guy, assim como uma valorização de Walden a um patamar divino, reforçando as ideologias naturalistas, filosóficas e introspetivas de Thoreau que já não vivem em nenhuma pessoa desta sociedade futurista. A ligação que se estabelece entre o Walden e o restante contexto do livro acaba por ser os pensamentos sobre a Natureza e a contemplação simplista e não materialista com o que Clarisse observa um mundo afogado em industrialização e dogmatismo. A simplicidade que Thoreau encontra na tranquilidade dos bosques e nas margens do lago Walden é a mesma que Clarisse deseja quando fala com Guy pela primeira vez: "I like to smell things and look at things, and sometimes stay up all night, walking, and watch the sun rise."
I just compiled a small list, there are many more intertextual references, so many in fact that I decided not to put them all here. In one of the websites I used there is a much better list than mine.
List:
"Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." Hugh Latimer.
You know the law," said Beatty. "Where's your common sense? None of those books agree with each other. You've been locked up here for years with a regular damned Tower of Babel. Snap out of it! The people in those books never lived. Come on now! " Bible (Genesis, 11:6-8).
"'It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.'" Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Gullivers Travels.
"Well," he said to the men playing cards, "here comes a very strange beast which in all tongues is called a fool." Fahrenheit 451
"Here comes a pair of very strange beasts, which in all tongues are called fools." William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act V, Scene 4.
"Knowledge is more than equivalent to force" Samuel Johnson, Rasselas, Chapter XIII
"He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty" Samuel Johnson, The Idler
"Truth will come to light, murder will not be hid long!" William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene 2.
"Oh God, he speaks only of his horse!" Fahrenheit 451
"He doth nothing but talk of his horse" William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene 2.
For me, one of the most interesting intertextual references appears early in the book and it gives the reader some insight into the character of Beatty.
Montag hesitated, "Was-was it always like this? The firehouse, our work? I mean, well, once upon a time..." "Once upon a time!" Beatty said. "What kind of talk is THAT?"
The reference to the way most fairy tales start may seem a bit insignificant. However, it could be stated that this a clever way of showing early in the book that Beatty, a captain, a figure of authority, knows that 'Once upon a time' is from fairy tales and that perhaps he knows more about books than the ordinary person. Later in the novel it is made clear that Beatty has an arsenal of quotes that he commit to memory, quotes that he twisted to serve him as weapons, devoid of the context in which they were originally written he uses them to disarm and "beat" Montag.
A utilização de citações no romance «Fahnrenheit 451», de Ray Bradbury, pode dividir-se em dois grupos principais. Dentro do primeiro temos as citações utilizadas pelo antagonista do personagem principal, Capitão Beatty, que utiliza as armas do inimigo contra ele próprio, ou seja, cita obras de modo a provar a sua falta de importância ou até os danos que elas podem causar:
‘Sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge,’ Sir Philip Sidney said. But on the other hand: ‘Words are like leaves and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.’ Alexander Pope. What do you think of that?”
“I don't know.” Faber, living in another world, far away.
“Or this? ‘A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.’ Pope. Same Essay. Where does that put you?”
Montag bit his lip.
“I'll tell you,” said Beatty, smiling at his cards. “That made you for a little while a drunkard. Read a few lines and off you go over the cliff. Bang, you're ready to blow up the world, chop off heads, knock down women and children, destroy authority. I know, I've been through it all.”[pág.85]
O segundo grupo de citações demonstra um opinião totalmente oposta em relação aos livros, e encontra-se nos discursos do personagem principal, Guy Montag, e do velho Faber, antigo professor universitário, com o qual ele pensava criar uma organização secreta de defensores dos livros. Montag cita, por exemplo, a obra de Matthew Arnold «Dover Beach». Faber, por sua vez, sendo uma pessoa mais formada e educada, do que o personagem princícpal, preenche o seu discurso com citações de obras de diferentes autores. Exemplo disso pode ser a frase de James Boswell:
«We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over, so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over» [pág.52].
The whole book is sprinkled with a considerable amount of literary allusions, as the author himself acknowledges in the foreword, he enjoyed to stay in libraries a lot and the novel was written in one and the creative process included picking some random books and inserting quotes from them in the work.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, I dare not to make a list.
I like especially the allusions made to the US Constitution, in particular to the pursuit of happiness.
The US Constitution states that the pursuit of happiness is one of the unalienable rights of American citizens. However, the concept of happiness is somehow twisted in the world of Farenheit 451.
There, happiness equals fun equals the sole purpose of the living. Yet what is described as fun narrows down to mere physiological reaction, people no longer enjoy deep emotions, their lives are as superficial as possible.
Or as captain Beatty describes it in his motivational speech:
"You must understand that our civilization is so vast that we can't have our minorities upset and stirred. Ask yourself, 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."
However, this does not work very well. After meeting Clarisse, Montag realizes how unhappy he really feels:
"He was not happy. He said the words to himself. He recognized this as the true state of affairs. He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back. "
Then he finds his wife who has probably attempted a suicide. So she could not have been happy neither. From Beatty's speech it is also clear that he does not entirely believe in what he is doing and later on he acts in such a way that he lets Montag kill him.
Strange as it might seem, the only ones who don’t seem desperate about their lives are the ones who are not following the official propaganda. The woman who was willing to die with her books, Clarisse or the book-people at the end.
Uma das diversas referências presentes neste livro que mais me captou a atenção, por motivos inteiramente subjetivos, foi a referência a Henry David Thoreau e ao seu livro "Walden".
ReplyDeleteA primeira referência a Thoreau aparece na segunda parte do livro: "Do I turn in Mr.Jefferson? Mr Thoreau? Which is least valuable?"
O contexto em que Thoreau é sugerido é deveras calculado com precisão por parte do autor, uma vez que a frustração pela tentativa falhada de ler a Bíblia origina uma busca por alternativas para este livro, sendo Walden mencionado, o que acaba por realçar traços da personalidade de Guy, assim como uma valorização de Walden a um patamar divino, reforçando as ideologias naturalistas, filosóficas e introspetivas de Thoreau que já não vivem em nenhuma pessoa desta sociedade futurista.
A ligação que se estabelece entre o Walden e o restante contexto do livro acaba por ser os pensamentos sobre a Natureza e a contemplação simplista e não materialista com o que Clarisse observa um mundo afogado em industrialização e dogmatismo.
A simplicidade que Thoreau encontra na tranquilidade dos bosques e nas margens do lago Walden é a mesma que Clarisse deseja quando fala com Guy pela primeira vez: "I like to smell things and look at things, and sometimes stay up all night, walking, and watch the sun rise."
Bruna Bernardo Ribeiro
145661
I just compiled a small list, there are many more intertextual references, so many in fact that I decided not to put them all here. In one of the websites I used there is a much better list than mine.
ReplyDeleteList:
"Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out."
Hugh Latimer.
You know the law," said Beatty. "Where's your common sense? None of those
books agree with each other. You've been locked up here for years with a regular
damned Tower of Babel. Snap out of it! The people in those books never lived. Come
on now! "
Bible (Genesis, 11:6-8).
"'It is computed that eleven thousand persons have at several times suffered death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller end.'"
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Gullivers Travels.
"Well," he said to the men playing cards, "here comes a very strange beast which in
all tongues is called a fool."
Fahrenheit 451
"Here comes a pair of very strange beasts, which in all tongues are called fools."
William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act V, Scene 4.
"Knowledge is more than equivalent to force"
Samuel Johnson, Rasselas, Chapter XIII
"He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty"
Samuel Johnson, The Idler
"Truth will come to light, murder will not be hid long!"
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II, Scene 2.
"Oh God, he speaks only of his horse!"
Fahrenheit 451
"He doth nothing but talk of his horse"
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene 2.
References:
http://www.heliweb.de/telic/bradcom.htm
http://www.shmoop.com/fahrenheit-451/allusions.html
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/asyoulikeit/asyoulikeit.5.4.html
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+11:6-8&version=NIV
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/829/829-h/829-h.htm
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/latimerbio.htm
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/652/652-h/652-h.htm
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12050/12050-8.txt
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/merchant/full.html
For me, one of the most interesting intertextual references appears early in the book and it gives the reader some insight into the character of Beatty.
Montag hesitated, "Was-was it always like this? The firehouse, our work? I mean, well, once upon a time..."
"Once upon a time!" Beatty said. "What kind of talk is THAT?"
The reference to the way most fairy tales start may seem a bit insignificant. However, it could be stated that this a clever way of showing early in the book that Beatty, a captain, a figure of authority, knows that 'Once upon a time' is from fairy tales and that perhaps he knows more about books than the ordinary person. Later in the novel it is made clear that Beatty has an arsenal of quotes that he commit to memory, quotes that he twisted to serve him as weapons, devoid of the context in which they were originally written he uses them to disarm and "beat" Montag.
A utilização de citações no romance «Fahnrenheit 451», de Ray Bradbury, pode dividir-se em dois grupos principais. Dentro do primeiro temos as citações utilizadas pelo antagonista do personagem principal, Capitão Beatty, que utiliza as armas do inimigo contra ele próprio, ou seja, cita obras de modo a provar a sua falta de importância ou até os danos que elas podem causar:
Delete‘Sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge,’ Sir Philip Sidney said. But on the other hand: ‘Words are like leaves and where they most abound, Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.’ Alexander Pope. What do you think of that?”
“I don't know.” Faber, living in another world, far away.
“Or this? ‘A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.’ Pope. Same Essay. Where does that put you?”
Montag bit his lip.
“I'll tell you,” said Beatty, smiling at his cards. “That made you for a little while a drunkard. Read a few lines and off you go over the cliff. Bang, you're ready to blow up the world, chop off heads, knock down women and children, destroy authority. I know, I've been through it all.”[pág.85]
O segundo grupo de citações demonstra um opinião totalmente oposta em relação aos livros, e encontra-se nos discursos do personagem principal, Guy Montag, e do velho Faber, antigo professor universitário, com o qual ele pensava criar uma organização secreta de defensores dos livros. Montag cita, por exemplo, a obra de Matthew Arnold «Dover Beach». Faber, por sua vez, sendo uma pessoa mais formada e educada, do que o personagem princícpal, preenche o seu discurso com citações de obras de diferentes autores. Exemplo disso pode ser a frase de James Boswell:
«We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over, so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over» [pág.52].