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I need to compair 451 to another novel, any suggestions?
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any suggestions of novels to compair would be great!
 
Posts: 2 | Registered: 19 March 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Yes, but what novel compares to F451? "1984," by George Orwell, if you can get through it. It's a difficult read, but worthwhile, and does have some parallels to F451. And if you can understand Huxley's "Brave New World," please explain it to me!
 
Posts: 7299 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Along with Dandelion's suggestions, consider this sequence of literary works: Julius Caesar, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and then conclude with Brave New World. Comparisons can be made on several levels and within a number of similar themes.

The rhetoric of Napoleon, Beatty, O'Brien, Mustafa Mond, and Antony vs. the struggles of Snowball & Boxer, Montag, Winston Smith, John and Watson, and Brutus.

The "less than senseless" common "vulgar" Romans, the proles, Mildred and her drug soothed friends, the Soma and Victory Gin induced societies of totally dystopian populations. Rampant technology - ego driven politics - common place militarism - apathy as a philosphy - illiteracy as a way to bliss - propaganda (on every screen, radio, barn wall, air wave and public address) - it's all there to be waded through. Whew!

Each work gives readers (students) definite reference points, hopefully, to remain critical and thus enabling them to strive to be better informed - in view of the events that form or influence their (our) own lives!

If not, future generations are destined to fit right into the stories and play the roles of the controlled masses.

Fahrenheit 451 is the only one of these titles which offers some glimmer of hope at the end. Yet, even Monatg is threadbare as he starts his walk to face the many challenges of his uncertain furure. And this occurs only after everything else in his life has been destroyed.

Versus Brutus in J.C. who loses all, too (his wife, home, friends, homeland, loyal followers). In the end, he chooses to die by his own sword rather than to become a bondsman to the likes of Mark Antony and his regime.

Other obvious parallels, Napoleon and his guard dogs, the firemen and the mechanical hound, Antony's immediate "hit list" once in power, Beatty and Mond's use of quotes and elimination of individual ideas, Faber and Benjamin and Bernard Marx (!?), dictatorships, slogans, control of the masses, and the struggle of a main character who, in the end, the reader realizes has faced some of the most classic and terrfying conflicts in fictional literature.

Agreed, Orwell's text can be a chore. However, the conclusion of 1984, as detestable as it proves to be, is as powerful a statement as any author has made in this genre.
 
Posts: 732 | Registered: 29 November 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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How about "The Time Machine" by H. G. Wells?
 
Posts: 7299 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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You might compare it with the screenplay to <i>The People vs. Larry Flint</i>...two rather different takes on the theme of censorship!
 
Posts: 22 | Location: San Pedro, CA | Registered: 05 April 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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See also Thomas Moore's UTOPIA, Margaret Atwood's HANDMAID'S TALE, Kafka's THE TRIAL ... etc. for different takes on the dystopia theme.
We're all presuming that your task is to find a novel that is similar thematically. A different approach could be to compare F.451 to another of Bradbury's novels (eg. DANDELION WINE or SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES).
 
Posts: 79 | Location: Tomerong, NSW, Australia | Registered: 16 February 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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After posting above, Time Machine and the Eloi and Morlock came to mind as a great parallel. Good one, Dandelion!
 
Posts: 732 | Registered: 29 November 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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The Time Machine as a book was sooooo good. Why did they suck the soul out of the movie?
 
Posts: 22 | Location: oregon | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Another great comparison would be the young adult novel THE GIVER by Lois Lowry. I'd recommend this to all Bradbury fans. It's a chilling futuristic story set in a supposedly-perfect "Community" that is anything but perfect. The joy of reading this novel is in the way jaw-dropping info about life in The Community is revealed at different points in the story. Thematic links to 451 include things such as censorship, mind control, lifestyle control, and the power of memory. Check it out.
 
Posts: 79 | Location: Tomerong, NSW, Australia | Registered: 16 February 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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"The Giver" lacks any real Beatty that I can name, but Jonas makes a great Montag, his friend Fiona a credible Clarisse, The Giver a fantastic Faber, and those parents...GAWD! Yes, this one made a lot of banned-book lists!
 
Posts: 7299 | Location: Dayton, Washington, USA | Registered: 03 December 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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