TITLE OF THE DISSERATION: INTELLECTUALCONTROL AND IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION IN RAY BRADBURY’S FAHRENHEIT 451
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Date
2026
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In the classic dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953), American author Ray Bradbury describes a society where reading and intellectual pursuits are suppressed by burning books and where individuals are manipulated to accept distraction and happiness rather than knowledge and critical thinking. This research is based on a qualitative approach that combines description, analysis and comparison, as it examines the theme of intellectual control as a major threat to individual freedom and the transformation of identity. The story follows Guy Montag, a fireman tasked with setting fires instead of stopping them, and he experiences different stages that developed his identity from blind obedience into finding his true inner self. First, the objective was to examine how intellectual control works in Fahrenheit 451 through Foucault's mechanisms of power, discipline, surveillance, and normalization as tools of social domination. Then, this work had an objective to trace Montag's psychological transformation using Freud's structural model of the psyche and defense mechanisms to understand how identity is destroyed and rebuilt. Finally, the researcher tried to compare Bradbury's vision of voluntary intellectual suppression with the forced control depicted in 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huley, to show what makes Fahrenheit 451 uniquely relevant to modern society. The present literary analysis shows that intellectual control limits intellectual freedom and changes Montag's controlled identity from ignorance and conformity to awareness and resistance
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