Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - Essay Example

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury The book “Fahrenheit 451” is written by Ray Bradbury and was first published in the year 1953. Since then it has been considered a classic, widely read by the masses all over the world for educational purposes or otherwise. The reason behind its popularity, other than the writing style, is the subject that this book explores. It is in this story that Bradbury creates a possible future world where technology would take over the world and reading – even owning books – would be the greatest crime to be ever committed only to be punished by fire. His prediction seems to be turning out to be true several decades later even if not in such great extreme. Bradbury’s book revolves around life in the 24th century when people lived in a dystopian society when times were horrible and repressive. It is meant to be the opposite of utopia which is a world that is good, perfect in fact. Dystopian, on the other hand, is “a moribund, death-bound society that is incapable of renewal, where the ruling elite cling to their existence as parasites on their own people, whom they devour in the process” (Gottlieb 41). In the book, too, there is nothing actually important happening the city, the people are living their lives but not doing anything constructive per se. They are looking for ways to distract themselves and to find things to take out their various levels of stress on. Over here, anything with the exception of books can be used to accomplish this. They can “ride on the jet cars when they race on the edge of town at midnight” and not be caught by the police if they are insured (Bradbury 14). Or they can even watch shows or movies on the “parlor walls” which were large television screens covering their walls (Bradbury 4). The title itself is basically the degree at which the temperature of fire needs to be when brought near paper thus resulting in spontaneous combustion. Hence, it sums up what the novel is about i.e. the burning of books, magazines, every script be it fictional or religious. The alternate universe that Bradbury has based his book in shows the time when being a fireman is one of the most important occupations that a person can decide to go for. These men are responsible for ensuring that all books are eradicated from their land. They even have a specially built robot dog whose talent seems to be to sniff out books and guide the men there so that they can take care of them. Resistance of any sort is futile; the owner of the books might just end up being burned to death as well. To own books is to go against the law because reading encourages thinking, it promotes intellectual talk which can lead to arguments regarding everything, including the way the world is run. Any kind of opposition against the government needs to be completely wiped out. However, the people still need a way to pass their time so technology is being put into use. Instead of broadening their minds by reading, the people are encouraged to watch mind numbing television shows which minimizes their thinking capacity and stops them from getting involved in things that may actually matter. It keeps them busy and this way, both the parties are happy. The hero of the book Guy Montag is a fireman, too, who initially seems to love his job. The story kicks off with him being on an assignment, enjoying watching the books burn. However, later on he has a few talks with his new neighbor Clarissa McClellan that have greatly influence his thoughts. She plays an important if a short role in the book as “the protagonist (has) not even started questioning (the society) before (he met this woman)” and it is this change of heart that results in the future events (Vukadinovic 106). He starts thinking and eventually ends up breaking the laws and stealing a Bible from a scene. It is later that the reader discovers that he had been pocketing books and hiding them in his house. He starts reading them but it has been so long since he last read anything, his mind has been so thoroughly brainwashed that he cannot understand anything. Nor can his wife Mildred who he pretty much forces to try to read. However, he does not give up and emotionally manipulates an ex English professor called Faber with whom he had previous interactions to try and explain to him whatever material he was reading. It is now that he realizes “that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper” (Bradbury 25). It occurs to him that it was man who created the books and it was man himself that was bent on destroying them as well. Montag may have moved on and started favoring the books but his wife does not understand his curiosity especially when their lives are at stake. When her friends come over to watch television, he tries to discuss poetry with them only to realize that they are only interested in gossip, anything that does not require thinking. In fact, they look down upon him for even assuming that they would be actually interested in books. However, they do not stop there. Montag goes back to work and is given another assignment which turns out to be his own house. His wife and her friends had filed a complaint against him and his newfound love of books. The man is betrayed by his own wife and has to burn down his books – his house – by his own hands and then his boss spurs him on into killing him. Nothing of any worth to him remains so he runs off, away from the land as the other firemen look for him, he has, after all, just killed a man. He gets injured on the way but manages to reach the place where the other book lovers, the leader of whom is a man called Granger, have been living in exile for quite some time. The search of him leads to the destruction of the town he lived in. The man hunt had not succeeded and they wanted to finish Montag forever so they start bombing the town, dropping nuclear weapons regardless of the fact that in their aim of killing one man, they were destroying the whole town and managing to kill everyone but him. It is whilst resting that Granger explains to Montag the meaning behind a phoenix dying and then rising from its ashes. Human beings are like phoenixes with the exception that they remember all the good and bad that they experienced so they can change themselves accordingly. They remember what mistakes they had made in the past so they can ensure not to repeat them in the future. Once the men freshen up, they go back to the place where they had been unable to live at previously as the “preservers of the possibility of a nontotalitarian future” (Brier 73). It is the exiled men who, ironically, help in putting the city back together. The people Montag knows are fascinated by technology and everything that it entails. Watching television seems to be a national past time. So many devices have been introduced such as “Seashell ear-thimbles” which are a kind of headphones that Mildred is shown to have often plugged in her ears (Bradbury 8). It is because of these that there is not much understanding between the husband and wife, the latter being too busy listening to songs to listen to her husband and create a rapport. The political situation of the society is also not safe. The book “is set at a time of (Cold) war: jet planes scream overhead there is a generalized cultural anxiety, and the text ends with the destruction of the city by an atomic or nuclear device” (Baker 492). These dangerous weapons remain a threat to the world to this day. This is Bradbury’s most famous work criticizing the society that remains relevant to this day. He deals with major issues such as the way media influences the people, banning books, and repressing people’s thoughts. Montag is just an example of a person who is not satisfied with the way his life is but he cannot exactly figure out why exactly that is. He tries to adapt himself according to the rules of the society as that would make his life much easier but his heart refuses to accept it until he eventually rebels. As a fireman, he was looked up to by the people but as a book reader, he is thought to be disgusting. This is something that happens in the current times as well. Anyone who is different is not appreciated by the society, they are bullied and ridiculed. And yet it is true that everyone is the same and different. It is our responsibility to be accepting of everyone despite their choices in life. Bibliography Baker, Brian. "Science Fiction and Ecology." A Companion to Science Fiction. Ed. David Seed. Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005. Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. 1953. Brier, Evan. A Novel Marketplace: Mass Culture, the Book Trade, and Postwar American Fiction. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. Gottlieb, Erika. Dystopian Fiction East and West: Universe of Terror and Trial. McGill-Queens University Press, 2001. Vukadinovic, Jelena. Role of Women in Utopian and Dystopian Novels. GRIN Verlag, 2013. Read More