Parallels in Dystopian Literature

Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 and George Orwell's 1984 are two novels with many striking parallels. They were written at nearly the same time, and because of their historical context, or perhaps the influence of Orwell upon Bradbury, had a very similar theme: the threat imposed on the individual by the state. Bradbury's work attacked censorship as a threat to our culture, but this one facet of the world he created, he delivered an equally potent warning against totalitarianism. Similarly, 1984 had an anti-totalitarian theme, although with a more detailed and overt delivery. In his…