Does anyone else here besides me see Bradbury point towards transcentendalism in Fahrenheit 451. I mean, throughout the story Montag faces conflict asfter conflict and he is never able to focus, But as soon as he removes himself from the city, his thoughts seem to clear up; when he is walking alone, he appears enlightened as shown through his quote on the last page. I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed or thought about this.

jacob-
I can see your point. I never thought of F451 in transcendentalist terms as much as parts of Dandelion Wine- like in the beginning, where Doug tries to look for the "leopards", only to find that they disappear when searched for, but pounce upon him when he just... gives in... and realizes the essential truth of his "aliveness". You are definitely on with something in 451. I think that many would agree that "transcendant" is a word that readily describes Mr. Bradbury's prose- but the actual connection to transcendentalism as a philosophy, I think, is visible as well.

From one transparent eyeball to another,
Dan

While Transcendentalists would certainly argue that you need to get out into nature to really find peace, the idea that a Transcendentalist can ONLY find peace outside the city would seem to undercut it's value as a philosophical system. Also the idea that a retreat to nature is required to find peace would also be supported (in addition to American Transcendentalism) in the Hebrew Bible where many of the prophetic manifestations occured in the wilderness; and in the New Testament, where Christ often retreated for entire nights to be alone in prayer and meditation to find guidance. German and British Romanticism also look to solitude in nature to find inner peace. I guess my point is that the retreat to nature to find inner peace -- while important to American Transcendentalism -- is certainly not unique to it. My understanding is that Bradbury is a Unitarian (don't know how 'active' or committed to its teachings), and it may not be irrelevant to note that some of the early Transcendentalist writers (Americans, anyway, I don't know the orientation of the German Transcendentalists) were also Unitarian.

Good observation, though; and worth a more serious investigation.

Gee, there were times like that when I came home from a bad day at work....

?

Mr. Dark
Per Jacobs547

Jacobs547 was remarked in a previous posts that when Montag went out of the city, he was able to finally 'focus', in contrast to his conflict inside the city. My feelings were this was sort of, shall we say....stretching the story a bit.....and so I made that particular comment that you have put a ? to.