Fahrenheit 451

by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451: Setting 1 key example

Definition of Setting

Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:

Fahrenheit 451 is set in an unnamed American city, which makes the book more relatable and therefore more startling to many readers, especially Americans. Many of the events take place in a suburb, and the conformity and judgmental attitudes witnessed therein may be a critique of the suburban culture of the day. Suburbs were a relatively new phenomenon when Bradbury wrote this novel, and their rapid growth in the post-WWII period is in part attributed to "white flight" from cities with increasing populations of black migrants from rural areas. Race isn't explicitly discussed in Fahrenheit 451, but otherness and non-conformity are deeply disliked by most of the novel's "normal" characters.