Fahrenheit 451 Comparative Essay

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer are both classic, award-winning dystopian novels. Fahrenheit 451 depicts the life of Guy Montag, who lives in a society in which reading books is illegal. The House of the Scorpion, on the other hand, traces young Matteo Alacran, a human clone fighting for survival. Between these two novels there are several similarities and differences which become apparent to the reader. The authors both focus heavily on the same aspects of a dystopia. To begin with, both novels contained marred and downtrodden societies. An early quote in Fahrenheit 451 states, “My uncle was arrested another time–did I tell you?–for being a pedestrian” (Bradbury 39). The nature which the protagonist …show more content…
While both novels contain despotic and cruel worlds, they also each are examples of societies far worse than those the reader lives in. For example the quote, “I’m afraid of children my own age. They kill each other. Did it always use to be that way?” from Fahrenheit 451 is a terrific example of what a dystopia should be. In Montag’s society, people, including children, are regularly extremely violent and often kill each other, unlike today’s world. “His eyes blurred as he laid it in a crib and reached for the needle that would blunt its intelligence. ‘Don’t fix that one,’ said Lisa, hastily catching his arm. ‘It’s a Matteo Alcarán. They’re always left intact.” This quote from The House of the Scorpion shows a similar example of a different nation than that of the modern day. This one in which babies have their intelligence erased; this is the complete opposite of every culture’s goal today. Another resembelence between these two novels would be that of the enroachment of civil rights. In one instance in Fahrenheit 451, Montag is told, “burn them (the books) or they’ll burn you.” The society