Silencing, Language and Power Relationship in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to study the act of silencing and the relationship between language and power in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. The aim is to provide an analysis of the way the writer reveals the way silencing is used as a tool of control and oppression, and to show the manner in which the protagonist's power relationships are changeable and the way he progresses thanks to his contacts with the main characters: Clarisse McClellan, Captain Beatty and Professor Faber, in Bradbury's novel. The goal of this study is achieved thanks to Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory of language and Power developed in his book which is entitled Language and Symbolic Power, (1991).This dissertation examines the literary work by focusing on the cultural and socio-historical contexts of the 1950s; it has reviewed the most important events of the 1950s in order to show their connection to the novel's context, as a first chapter. In the second chapter, it is deduced that silence functions as a means of control and oppression due to the ruler’s surveillance and intimidation which lead to people’s fear and passivity. Finally, the third chapter provides the reader with the idea that language and power are interconnected and their relationship is a flexible one.