The Novel Fahrenheit 451 - Essay Example

Fahrenheit 451 is a novel set in the 20th century that depicts a new world where society is plagued by overpopulation, control of the demographic by the media, and censorship. Worst of all is the consideration of intellectuals as criminals and the outlawing of all sorts of literature. Books are illegal and thought of as evil because they invoke thinking. As such, the population lives in a society devoid of history reminders and appreciation of events of the past, with television replacing
The novel starts with a fireman, Guy Montag burning books in a futuristic American city. In his view, firemen are responsible for starting fires rather than extinguishing them. He is of the idea that people in society do not enjoy nature, read books, spend time by themselves, engage in meaningful conversations, or think independently. Instead, they watch excessive television, drive exceptionally fast, and listen to the radio (Bradbury, 24).

Montag comes across a gentle teenage girl, Clarisse McClellan, who in his assertion makes him realize the emptiness of life through her unusual love for nature and people and innocent questions. As a result, Montag experiences several disturbing events in the following days. First off, Montag’s wife Mildred attempts to suicide by ingesting a bottle full of sleeping pills (Bradbury, 29). Later on, when Montag responds to an old woman’s distress call, he is surprised when the old woman chooses to get burned alongside her treasured stash of literature. A little later, news reaches him that Clarisse, the teenage girl, had been run over by a speeding automobile. This series of events make Montag highly dissatisfied with his life, and he begins his search for a solution in books he had stolen from the fires (Bradbury, 44).
Beatty, Montag’s fire chief visits Montag’s house to establish why Montag had not shown up for work. He explains to Montag that it was normal for scores of firemen to go through the ‘what books have to offer’ phase, and he explains how books got banned in an interesting monologue. Beatty states that minorities and special interest affiliations had reservations about books that offended them. As a result, all books began to sound the same as writers kept off the offensive path. Society, on the other hand, had decided to burn books rather than tolerate conflicting schools of thought. Beatty asks Montag to take a day to find out if his stolen stash of books had any worthwhile thing before turning them in for incineration. Montag embarks on a night of frantic reading (Bradbury, 69).
After a few hours of reading, Montag gets overwhelmed by the task and asks his wife for support. Mildred would have none of it. She prefers watching television instead and does not understand why Montag was taking the risk of book reading. Montag recalls an encounter he had at the park with Faber, a retired English professor, and decides to seek his indulgence in understanding the books (Bradbury, 72). He then visits Faber who informs him that the value of literature lies within the awareness of the life they contain. The English professor says that Montag needs books in addition to the leisure to read and act on their ideas. Faber helps Montag with reading the literature, and soon afterward they hatch a scheme to overturn the current state of affairs. Faber will get a hold of a printer and reproduce books while Montag’s role was to plant books in firemen’s homes to discredit the profession and destroy the censorship machinery (Bradbury, 102).

Faber hands him a two-way radio earpiece to aid in communication. Montag’s newfound love for books and defiance of their ban is portrayed when he pulls out a poetry book right before his wife and her friends. The women are disturbed by Montag’s action and file a complaint to the authorities (Bradbury, 114).
Just like he had promised to Montag heads over to the fire station and gives one of the books to Beatty, who confuses him by referring to contradictory quotes from other examples. He highlights the contradictions to depict literature as dangerously complex and morbid, and that they are to be incinerated. The alarm suddenly goes off, and they rush to answer the call, which turns out to be Montag’s house. Montag quickly realizes that his wife had betrayed him. Beatty, Montag’s boss forces him to set his house ablaze (Bradbury, 122). Soon after he does, Beatty arrests him. A scuffle ensues and Montag turns the flamethrower on Beatty and burns him. He then knocks out the other firemen and escapes in possession of some literature he had hidden in his backyard. He hides the books in another fireman’s house before calling in an alarm from a phone booth (Bradbury, 130).

His chase is caught live on tape and aired on television, but Montag miraculously escapes into the river where he puts on Faber’s clothes to disguise his smell. Read More