These two books have multiple qualities that are related to each other and this article links the differences and similarities between the two books.
Both of them address the question of when an individual should take action against a society, i.e. rebelling because the society or government is unjust.
Both books are worth reading and have deep meanings to offer to any reader. Although they may be a little confusing at first, both books have insight into the world around us.
Everyone has their own individual thoughts, and they differ from everybody else's, but because society is what defines most of our values, we all think similarly. If we think beyond what a corrupt society tells us, we realize that we must escape and go against it. In Anthem written by Ayn Rand and Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury, the writers tell the audience of a story about individuals that begin to think beyond the limits of what the current messed up society defines as what should be thought. This influences the individuals to begin to break away from society and start to rebel against it. They actually begin to think and question what society manipulates the individuals to think. They realize what steps are needed to change the society around because they are prompted by their own thoughts and by their own actions.
That is the time when any one person realizes that it is necessary to escape and go against society. Individuals begin to break free and go against a corrupt society when they start to think further than what the society wants them to. This is shown through the use of indirect and dynamic characterization in Ayn Rand's timeless novella Anthem, as well as Ray Bradbury's everlasting novel Fahrenheit 451.Throughout the whole story, Equality 7-2521 develops through the use of indirect characterization. He starts off his life being different from others, even looking different: “For your body has grown beyond the bodies of your brothers” (Rand 18).
Even from the start of his life, he is different from others. And although little is known about him except his physical feature, the author constantly reveals what he is like through his thoughts and his actions by the use of indirect characterization. It should be obvious to the reader that he is already beginning to think differently and further than the society thinks. This is revealed through his early thoughts and actions: “'This is a foul place. They are damned who touch the things of the Unmentionable Times.' But our hand which followed the track, as we crawled, clung to the iron as if it would not leave it” (Rand 33). Here, Equality, knows that being around and examining this thing is wrong, and he knows that he shouldn't be doing it, but he does it anyways. We can see through indirect characterization that he is beginning to think differently and beyond what the society would like him to think. He was taught when he was younger that the things of the ancient days were not to be experimented, yet there's this impulse inside of them that tells us, as the reader, that he is really beginning to break away from society.
His train of thought is running into a different station than all of the other ones. He doesn't quite realize here that he needs to start breaking away, but this passage alludes to it. Later on in the story, he realizes what is wrong with the world that he is living in and starts to break free from it: “We swung our first through the windowpane, and we leapt out in a ringing rain of glass” (Rand 75). Equality finally recognizes that it's necessary to getaway from the corrupt world that he is living in. There is always a time in an individual who understands when his moment comes and he needs rebel against the messed up society that he's living in. This was Equality's moment. He leaves in an outburst of anger and by this action the reader should comprehend through indirect characterization that Equality is an individual who is striving to get rid of the government system that exists.
In comparison, indirect characterization is also used throughout the story of Guy Montag to show when individuals recognize the need to break free from a tainted society. Guy is a burner of knowledge. His job is to destroy books as if they were monsters. He is stirred to think about things from a different viewpoint by Clarisse McClellan, his neighbor. His conversations everyday always end up with him rethinking about what life is: “He felt his body divide itself into a hotness and coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a non-trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other” (Bradbury 24). Through indirect characterization, the audience can tell that he's beginning to question everything that he has been doing. His conversations with this one girl, Clarisse McClellan, have such a big effect on him. Montag lives in a brainwashed society, but he is starting to think beyond what the government wants him too.
