Utopia means An ideal place. It is a place, state, or condition where perfect politics, laws, customs, and conditions prevail.

Dystopia is the opposite of Utopia. It is a futuristic and imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopian literatures, portray an exaggerated worst-case scenario

of a dystopian society or make a criticism about an ongoing current trend or societal norm, or political system. In a Dystopian Society the desired objective is achieved through the following measures----

i.

Propaganda: - Wide scale Propaganda is used to control the rationality of the citizens of society.

ii.

Communication Gap: A state of communication Gap is achieved by restricting the free-flow of Information or movement. A twisted or false views are highlighted instead. Independent thought is condemned as madness, and all sorts of human rights are thus restricted.

iii.

To Worship a Figurehead: The citizens of such a society is made to worship A figurehead or concept mandatorily.

iv.

A constant surveillance: A constant surveillance is imposed on the citizens.

v.

A false fear psychosis is created: A false fear psychosis is created among the citizens by infusing make-believe views and manipulating the truth

vi.

An illusionary fear of the outside world is generated: An illusionary fear of the outside world is generated in the minds of the citizens by using shrewd techniques.

vii.

Compulsory dehumanized living: Citizens are compelled to live in a dehumanized state which generates long-term effect.

viii.

No natural world: The natural world is presented/projected to the citizens as banished and distrusted.

ix.

A Uniformity is made: Citizens are compelled to conform uniform expectations. Uniformity is not attained by fixing the IQ levels of all the people raising to the highest point but curbing it to the lowest point instead. Individual excellence is destroyed as a safeguard against the possible threat to the totalitarian society.

Fahrenheit-451i begins as a traditional dystopian novel but ends with a note of the emergence of a utopian society out of its ashes. Fahrenheit-451 is Ray Bradbury's modern classic which projects the frightening vision of the future bookless society. It was published as a book in 1960, though the horrible idea of a bookless society was reflected in his earlier works like The Fireman, Pillar of Fire, etc. The temperature scale refers to here is

Bradburys personally speculated auto-ignition point where the book-papers are blazed. The plot is set in the imaginary society of the 24th century America. Here, a Fire-station with highly powerful technological devices are run by the Govt. But, firemen are engaged not to put out fires, they are in charge of setting fires to the houses containing books along with their owners. They set the books on fire because books are defined by the author as the mind-as-printed-upon-matter. Books are outlawed and any house containing books are subjected to burn immediately just as an indispensable precautionary measure to stop the contagious disease of Book-Reading and save the Happy People. Fire Captain Beatty explains their objective in this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."

Bradbury's vividly painted futuristic American society holds iiup the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad.

Books are held disastrous because they teach man to question and also to seek answers of the unanswered problems/questions of mankind. Guy Montag is a fireman who performs his duties of book-

burning for living. The fireman enjoys his job and burns books to his hearts content. But a gradual erosion of faith in this regard ultimately generates a crisis in his mind. And he finds compelled to seek the help of books to know what to do. He searches the books that he collected while burning and obtains 24 hours time from the Fire Captain Beatty to go through them and correct his disposition. Guy Montag reads hurriedly and instead of a revival of his earlier craze, feels guilty of his acts so far. He vows to protect books instead of destroying them anymore. However, his love for books was detected by the Fire captain and he was about to be punished squarely for such crime. Then, oneday he faces a very odd situation.He is ordered to burn the house of an old lady with books.He goes to the spot and requests the old lady to leave

the house if she values her life.To his utter surprize,the old lady refuses to leave her books and expresses her desire to be burnt with her books.The fireman sets fire to the house but feels a never-

felt desire to know what is in books that the old lady values more than her life.Out of this curiosity,he hides a few books in the pocket of his over-coat desiring to read them at night.He reads a few pages and feels the secret door of knowledge beckoning him to read more. But, his anti-state activity is detected by the mechanical greyhound guard of the fire station.The captain Bettey also comes to know about this secret act of Montag and warns him to give up this dangerour act. Montag takes shelter in the house of another black fireman and finds to his surprize that the blackman was also in the habit of reading books secretly.Montags house is burnt and he kills the greyhounds(mechanical guards) and Bettey to save his own life. Then he takes shelter in an unknown island at the advice of an old

Professor named Faber .The island is known to be an abode of infamous people.These infamous people were deported to that island as a punishment for their love of books.But , Montag is surprized when he sees that the dwellers of that island are ever engaged in memorizing books to preserve them against any possible destruction.They are in the pursuit of keeping a copy of their books in their brain.In the last part,these infamous book lovers decide to fight against the totalitarian rulers and start marching towards the Burning city that they once left for life.Ultimately,the novel ends with an indication of the victory of

book-lovers and with an optimistic note of a Utopian society where values are valued,cheap pleasures are not patronized. Granger compares human beings to the phoenix after the city is bombed. The Phoenix is a symbol of renewal. It is appropriate because the books that have been destroyed hold lessons for the next generation...... and the generations after. Both the Phoenix,

the city, and the books are cleansed by fire, and all have the opportunity to rise from the ashes.

By

Indranil Sarkar
References;Links and Credits:i

http://more2read.com/?review=fahrenheit-451-by-ray-bradbury

ii

http://more2read.com/?review=fahrenheit-451-by-rayiii.bradburyhttp://s1184.photobucket.com/albums/z322/LouPendergrast/?action=view&current=0c3741ec.jpg(all photos) iv. www.creativecommons.org [ Creative Commons agreements are followed strictly] v.www.cliffnotes.com vi.www.gradesaver.com vii.www.wikipedea.org (photo)