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Varant Dickranian
English 312
November 18, 2009
Professor Wexler
Fahrenheit 451 Response
Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 was one of the best in depth novels I have ever read because it showed me how history can repeat itself, and how controlled society can get without even noticing it. Not only was the book amazing, but the film by Francois Truffaut was just as good and showed me how blind people can get. It was shocking to me at first to read about society where reading or owning a book is a felony, where one will get arrested for a possession of a book, and also the fact that the “fireman’s” job is to burn homes that contain books. Getting rid of books and banning it across the country will make everyone illiterate and ignorant, as many people were. In the novel, Montag, the main character, is a fireman, whose job is to burn books and one day begins reading them and realizes that it was a masterpiece that was once done by a person, which causes his entire life, career, and marriage to fall apart. Also, the movie, directed by Francois Truffat, somewhat describes the society of the modern day. We do live in a time where the media is taking over our minds and lives of many. We do live in a time where the media is taking over our minds and lives of many. In the novel, the Government has made it clear that reading novels or even owning one is a major illegal mistake, where if one is caught, the "firefighters" will come and burn your house
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down...along with the books. The reason for this is because the Government wants the society to be pulled and pushed into one way of thinking and believing. They want the people to all be the same and think towards the same direction.
In the novel, one can clearly see that the average person, and even the firemen themselves have no control over their act of freedom or even creativity. “I’ve got to go see me psychiatrist now. They make me go. I make up things to say. I don’t know what he thinks of me. He says I’m a regular onion! I keep him busy peeling away the layers” ( Page 52). The author provides us with a quote that proves the point where people in this society have no control over themselves at all, where they are forced to go to places such as a psychiatrist when they do not even know why. In this case, the quote shows how “they” are the people who are making decisions and not “me”. “They” are the superior people, the people who are in control who do not even identify themselves. “Books make people unhappy, they make them anti-social” (Farhenheit 451). In the film, Guy Montag was brainwashed at first and did not even know what the purpose of books were, and why the government wanted to burn them all. He was blinded by the Government and did not even know how books are precious objects in this society, until he actually took one home and opened one.
“Go on, Montag, all this philosophy, let's get rid of it. It's even worse than the novels. Thinkers and philosophers, all of them saying exactly the same thing,"Only I am right! The others are all idiots!"” (Fahrenheit 451). The Government has made it clear that reading novels or even owning one is a major illegal
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mistake, where if one is caught, the "firefighters" will come and burn your house down...along with the books. The reason for this is because the Government wants the society to be pulled/pushed into one way of thinking and believing. They want the people to all be the same and think towards the same direction. Eventually he turns out to sacrifice everything he has in his life in order to protect books and even wants to produce books. Montag eventually becomes addicted and cannot stand the fact of destroying man’s creation, where he becomes in deep trouble and is forced to burn his own house and is charged with many “illegal doings”. Montag eventually kills his chief and runs away where he eventually meets people like his own kind, who were once scholars and were now seen as “the social outcasts” or prisoners. Granger who was one of them told Montag “Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made” (Page 182). This shows that people in the future, or in this case their society, will not be remembered after they pass out. This is due to the fact that people were not able to read, so therefore were not able to write and write down history, or even if they were, what good is it to write if you cannot read or even own a book? In other words, man kind will be finished if nobody writes the history down. As time progresses in the novel, the great war starts again and a few bombs turns the city to ashes, where Montag finally remembers how he met his wife and in some ways feels bad for her now that she is dead. After reading the novel, it seems to me that society has to reach its’ worst for us humans to eventually realize what has happened and what our mistakes were, which is when society can finally start all over.
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After reading the novel, I realized how the media today is doing the same actions to people of our modern world today as we speak. The media are all showing us viewers, especially the young teens and young adults, how it is to be considered "hot" or "famous", "rich", and how it is to be considered as normal, and what one must do to be accepted in society. It makes it seem as if, if we do not own specific cars, and wear specific clothes we will not be considered as part of the norm. Or take the news as another example, the news broadcasters always put the viewers into fear by always containing news about murders, attacks, terrorist attacks, rapes, health concerns, diseases, etc. All this “news” excites us and makes us fear the real world, and whatever is around us, making us purchase whatever is necessary to be considered safe. It
makes us do what they tell us to do, and not touch whatever they do not want us to touch. All this is very similar to Fahrenheit 451, and most of us are blinded by it, how the media is really telling us what to do and what not to do. In other words, we are being blindly controlled just like Montag's wife and the her friends.
Cited Sources
Truffaut, Francois. Fahrenheit 451. Anglo Enterprises. 1966
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine Books, 1953. Print.
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