Fahrenheit 451

This novel is clearly a dystopia. The novel's setting is one of its most important elements. While the primary components of setting, time and place are never defined explicitly, they defined are in general terms - that is to say, the novel is set at some time in the future and in some large, probably American, urban center. This sense of what might be called "generic" elements functions, on one level, to create and define a sense of universality not so much around the specific events of the story but around its themes and warnings. In other words, the book is less about the particulars of what happens but more about the generalities of why, and how.