Fahrenheit 451 Novel - Term Paper Example

? Fahrenheit 451 Toni Rogers ENG320 Q5 Fahrenheit 451 Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel that was written in 1953 by Ray Bradbury. It presents a future in the United States of America where books have been made illegal and firefighters burn any house if they find books in them. The book was published in 1953 by Ballantine Books. Bradbury took the materials of pulp fiction and transformed them into the mainstream American literature through a visionary parable of a society that has gone bad. Meanwhile, the citizens of the U.S are brainwashed by a drug induced and media saturated indifference. The book is an excellent piece that combines enchantment with enlightenment and awakens the imagination of humanity. Fahrenheit 451 is set in the twenty-fourth century and brings up a new environment where the media controls the people, in addition to the problems of overpopulation and censorship. An individual citizen is not readily accepted and the intellectual is seen as an outlaw in that society. In this society, television has taken up the common belief of family ties. The fireman has become an igniter of fire and destroyer of books instead of an insurer against fire and its dangers. Books are seen as evil and illegal because they influence people to think and ask questions about the way things are done in that society. The story begins with an incitement where Montag meets Clarisse McClellan. Montag works as a fireman who burns books for a living. One day as he walks home from work, Clarisse who introduces herself to him approaches him. Clarisse is young, beautiful, and energetic. She presents herself as an antithesis of anyone that Montag has ever met as she engages in a conversation with him especially in things that Montag has never considered. She is very inquisitive and she ponders about things such as love, happiness and the contents of the books that Montag burns. This character fascinates Montag (Bradbury, 1967). Over the next several days, Montag encounters a series of disturbing events that begin with his wife, Mildred, wanting to commit suicide through swallowing a full bottle of sleeping pills. This is followed by a strange occurrence that he encounters as he responds to an alarm about an old woman who has a stash of hidden books. When he reaches there, the woman stuns him by choosing to be burned along with her books. A few days after this, he learns that young Clarisse has been hit dead by a speeding car. This heightens the dissatisfaction in his life and he begins to find a solution by reading books from the stash that he stole from the fires he started. When Montag fails to report to work, his manger visits him at his home and explains to him that it is normal for a fireman to wonder what books give and he elucidates how books came to be burned. As Beatty explains, special interest groups and other minority groups laid their objections to books that offended them. Soon, all books were written with intent not to offend any person. He explains that this was not enough and the society as a unit decided to burn books instead of permitting differing opinions from authors. Beatty tells Montag to take 24 hours, read the books, and find out whether they have anything important and then give them off for incineration. This turns Montag into a long and frenzy night of reading (Eller & Touponce, 2004). When he becomes overwhelmed of reading, he turns to his wife for support but his wife prefers television to his company and does not understand why her husband takes the humiliating task of reading the books. When he remembers Professor Faber, he decided to visit him so that he can help him. Faber tells him that the value of the book is in the awareness of the life in them. He tells Montag that he needs the leisure to read them and the freedom to act upon the ideas of the books and offers to help him read. Faber will contact a printer to reproduce books and Montag will plant them in the residence of firemen to harm the reputation of the profession and destroy censorship. This leads to a completely new happening when Montag offers a book to Beatty only to be exploited by contradictions. An alarm sounds and when the two rush, they find that it is Montag’s house. Montag realizes that his wife has betrayed him. Beatty forces Montag to burn his house. However, Montag turns the flamethrower to Beatty and burns him to ashes. He goes to Faber's house and learns that a new hound has been placed on his pursue with a television squad and helicopters. He takes Faber’s clothes and runs to the river to disguise himself. He runs away and finds renegade intellectuals who love books. They welcome him and tell him to memorize the book of Ecclesiastes. Enemy jets obliterate the city but Montag and his newfound group move to find survivors and rebuild civilization (Bradbury, 1967). The aspect that strikes as the worst in Fahrenheit 451 is the illegalization and eventual burning of the books. This aspect has brought many more things in that society. Illegalization and burning of the books means that people are denied the freedom of thought. This is because the government thought that people would start believing in different things that the government was afraid about. In the society, people have different ways of perceiving things and at no time will two people reason similarly in all cases. Writing books was an expression of individual thoughts about issues. However, as Beatty explained, the government started burning books because some authors started writing topics that offended other people. However, this issue was solved when people started writing books that could not offend anyone (Eller & Touponce, 2004). This did not stop the fireman from burning more books. The government created this very bad picture on its people. People were not allowed to express their thoughts through books. When one was found with books, the fireman not only burned books but also the house where the books were found. This in itself is criminal because the government engaged in arson and burning private property. Worse off is the problem that arose from burning books. This brought about killings in the society. For instance, the old woman was burned alongside her books and her house. This shows that the government valued the opinions that it wanted people to have more than the lives of the people. People were killed and the government seemed not to care. Another instance is where Montag pointed the fire machine at his chief, Beatty, and burned him to death (Reid, 2000). A wide reader is often seen as an intellectual. When all the information that a well-read person is accumulated, it could generate an ultimate power. With profound knowledge, one could find every reason to argue with anyone in the society. One’s intelligence allows him to see the truths that are kept hidden due to ignorance that remains as shield from finding out what lies beneath each lie. Only those with intelligence would be able to understand which ones are right and wrong in the society. Reading books, especially literature, develops a person’s understanding of the world he lives in. It is with books that a man is liberated from being trapped in his cage that is woven by lies. The future that Bradbury illustrated in Fahrenheit 451 is not far too different from the society that exists today. Gradually, books are now replaced by the different types of electronic gadgets that are developed to make life more convenient. In the modern society that everyone inhabits now, convenience is defined by the imaginary flipping of books on a smartphone, a tablet, or anything that can be brought anywhere with ease. True enough, classic and world-famous literary materials are available online, software applications are even invented just for them yet do people who read them truly understand each line? These days, people only read because they need to. Great books of great writers are no longer read in full for the summarized versions of these great works are available in one click. It is no longer necessary even for students how many chapters or acts or stanzas are there in in these wonderful works of the people who was able to see the world in all its angles for they had all the time in their life to observe and examine what is right and wrong for the society in its people. People died because they possess the key to their freedom. Were it not for the illegalization and burning of books, these killings would not have occurred. When Montag fled his hometown, he met other intellectuals who loved books. These people had already been liberated from the dumb that they could have had become did they not choose to go against the government that prevented them from keeping their passion of reading books. Having been able to expose to the real reason the government made the possession of books illegal, they created a scheme to make sure every individual in the society will have the chance to read what they had. However, as they plan to counter the government’s plan by memorizing books, the government sends attack jets that destroy property and kills masses just because of the issues of books. This is very wrong because the government that is supposed to protect the freedom of thought, freedom of expression and the right to life of its people is the same government that takes away these freedoms and rights through burning of books and committing murder (Koster, 2000). There have already been a number of people who have been deprived of their freedom to express their knowledge and thoughts. A huge number have already been buried six feet under the ground because of an article or even a book they wrote that were tagged as defamatory or a threat to the state or the society. In fact, most of them are not. The state or the government is only terrified that the people would understand their scheme in keeping them locked up in deceit and dishonestly filled with pretenses they are extremely adamant to hide. If burning of books and the places in which they are stored does not answer this considered predicament by the government, murder might be the answer. In order to keep the authority of the system that controls the organization, burning houses and people to ashes was deemed to be the solution the thought is best for their problem. It does not matter how many people like the lady who sought to be burned along her books end up with the same fate, the government will continue to burn books. They must have thought that if printing could not be stopped, then the people who patronage them should be the ones who must be punished. The government viewed these people who only strive to gain knowledge and rid themselves of their ignorance to the lessons the authors of the books could teach them as rivals to the throne they hold as theirs. Living in this kind of society that Bradbury created in Fahrenheit 451 seemed so real nowadays. Although, the society that people live in nowadays is way more advanced than what he had predicted more than half a century ago now, it is by far similar to what he thought it would be like in the near future. If I were living in that society, I would change this by stopping investing in the printing industry. This is because the government had concentrated on burning houses that had print books. This was the only way that the government wanted to end writing and reading books. Instead of printing books, I would advocate for other means of exercising the freedom of thought. I would do this by using electronic media, broadcasting movies for instance, or putting writing into electronic gadgets that would allow people to watch or read television sets. This is because the society had taken up television culture to the extent that they did not value their families. The presence of television, or even televisions, at home deprive the members of the family to have small talks that is deemed significant in creating and shaping a mentally and emotionally smart individual. If the person who watches television does not have any further knowledge of what is being shown on it, then he may not be able to resist or contradict anything the tube says. In addition, because television does not require interaction with the other members of the family who may also be watching it, they would not even seek for elucidation. Therefore, the people would readily access content that was put in television. In this case, I would make sure that people will get the significant elements that they would find useful in their lives, which would further enhance their intelligence and understanding of the world that would help them win more rights over the wrong. Secondly, I would encourage people to read books memorize, important ideas from the books, and throw the books away to avoid being caught by the government. This would be a good way to prevent houses from being burnt down. People may no longer be killed as well along with the precious possessions they consider is of equal to their lives. I would also sensitize people on their rights and freedom of thought and expression because the government was denying them these freedoms by encouraging the burning of books. Since meetings and assemblies are not discouraged by the government, they would be the appropriate technique in proliferating ideas that would uphold their rights as individuals who should nourish their liberty. This would see everyone in the society rise up to demand for his or her rights of thought and expression. Should everyone in the novel were aware of these rights, no one would have been taken away of their property – books and homes, even lives. However, this is clearly what the government did not want to happen. While Fahrenheit 451 has been considered as the most effective among prose works of Bradbury, the novel failed in a way because of its sentimental evocation of culture and the academic literary aspirations. The justification of the intellectual pursuits in the novel, as a virtuous and humane ideal, in addition to the fact that reading has been portrayed as heroic occurs as elitist and romantic. In the novel, Bradbury did not refute Beatty’s version of the history of burning books and the convoluted rational for censorship that the society started burning all books in general. As a result of this, the novel positions intellectuals against the masses instead of positioning the individual against the state that is at fault. The intellectuals have been portrayed as the ones who bring the problem to the society as opposed to the state. Thus, the novel implies that the totalitarian state is exonerated by blaming the populace for the decline of books. On the other hand, the intellectuals in the form of the book lovers are entrusted with repopulating the society. The novel’s defense of humanity expresses very little faith in the masses because they do nothing to help alleviate the problem. Instead, they sit comfortably watching television. In addition, the high culture allusions created in the novel appear to be too obscure for the general reader. The shift between dystopian and utopian structure in the novel creates subtlety and inconsistency in the novel. Clarisse McClellan a seventeen-year-old girl is a typical person of that age where people do not care for how the society needs them to think or behave. However, a speeding car knocks Clarisse down before the reader can fully understand her role in the novel and the society (Spencer, 1991). Furthermore, the hope that was established at the end of the novel is as controversial for it has been illustrated in the story how Montag killed Beatty because of their opposing ideas about the burning of books and houses for which they are found hidden. Murder, as this incident may be identified by the law, was committed by Montag. A fugitive that he was, and still is supposedly even at the end of the novel, should be punished by the law. While the woman who submitted herself to the fire along with the books she owned, Montag was able to flee and live his liberty unlike the innocent people who have done nothing but to possess books. He, as a protagonist, went away with murder, yet he was assumed to create and bring about a utopian society. The book is relevant in today’s societal issues as seen by various parties in the world controlling information. There are many present day crusaders who fit in the fireman’s mantra. For instance, many religious groups have called for the ban of Harry Porter’s books from school libraries for the notion that they promote witchcraft. In addition, the FCC has maintained that pastied women breasts are more offensive than several men trying to tear each other’s head apart. In addition, one could question the MPAA’s dictation of what can be shown in movie theatres. In conclusion, Bradbury wrote a novel that brings up the theme of media consumption as its underlying message. The book is a form of science fiction that brings pulp fiction to mainstream American literature. The book evokes a strong intensity of entrapment where the society does not care about its freedoms and rights or what happens to others. People that are dependent on drugs and television evince the redemptive ability of humankind. On the other hand, these restorative methods of society only exacerbate the waning social order instead of relieving it. Bradbury’s integration of Montag’s defiant character toward the achievement of an auspicious society reveals people’s weaknesses. References Bradbury, R. (1967). Fahrenheit 451. New York: Dramatic Publishing. Bradbury, R. (1967). Introduction to Fahrenheit 451. New York: Simon and Schuster. Eller, J. R., & Touponce, W. F. ( 2004). Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction. Kent: Kent State University Press. Koster, K. D. (2000). Fahrenheit 451. New York: Cengage Gale. Mancini, C. (2011). Censorship in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. New York: Cengage Gale. Reid, R. A. (2000). Ray Bradbury: A critical companion. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group. Spencer, S. (1991). The Post-Apocalyptic Library: Oral and Literate Culture in Fahrenheit 451 and A Canticle for Leibowitz. Extrapolation, vol. 32, No.4. 1991: 331-342. Read More