Zubair Abedin Block 4 The theme of the story Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury is censorship. They live in the future where books are banned and the people are uneducated. If people have books in there possession then they’re in danger of getting in trouble by the authority. The main character of this book is Guy Montag who is a fireman, but in the future firemen start fires instead of putting them out, they start the fires in places that have books in them. Government should not be able to make personal decisions for society because it disrupts lifestyles and ultimately does not benefit people.
He is the chief at the firehouse and he knows a lot of information. When Beatty learns about Montag having a book, which is when the rising action really begins. Beatty is not trying to be an influence. He always pushes Montag to his limits and Montag always seems to get against whatever Beatty says. Beatty has a talk with Montag saying that books are not good and that nothing is good about them.
The result is a society where fanatical, destructive behavior, such as the firemen's book-burning, flourishes. People in Montag’s society have been conditioned to think the suggestion of reading is a laughable subject as expressed in the quote, “Do you ever read any of the books you burn?’ He laughed. ‘That's against the law!’ ‘Oh. Of course.’” (8). The people in Montag’s society are banned by their government to read anything that has any philosophies or intellectual thought.
In this time period, firemen burn books instead of putting out fires. Bradbury often illustrates Montag’s ignorance, curiousness, and rebelliousness to show the importance of freedom against censorship. Being ignorant is a horrible trait because everybody should be educated. If one is not
I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this!” (Poe, Heart 657). Here the narrator is saying the only reason he murdered the old man was because of the evil eye, which he couldn’t bare to see for another day; as they lived in the same house. This is quite frightening to think about because everyone has their own imperfections but it doesn’t mean that people who cannot stand these traits will kill people because of them. “Shaking in every limb, I groped my way back to the wall- resolving there to perish rather than risk the terrors of the wells, of which my imagination now pictured many in various positions about the dungeon” (Poe, Pit 3).
Montag, the main character, begins to realize the importance of books and how the society is not helping people; the society is making people lazy by encouraging fun activities in school. In the end, Montag decides to leave and live a new life. Bradbury uses figurative language, tone, and symbols to prove that technology and government censorship can deprive one of their learning and individuality. Technology can cause conflict within an individual. Montag is a fireman who burns books for a living.
Michael Barnard 12/10/12 English Paper New vs. Old In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the main character Montag is a fireman who burns books for a living. In the society that they live in books are illegal to own and to have in your possession, so the society needs people to help carry out the law of having no books. Montag starts to wonder what is so great about books that make people break the law, so he takes a couple from a house that they were supposed to burn down. When his wife finds out he has to beg Mildred to keep it a secret. He developed these temptations from a girl named Clarisse who is starting to catch on to what the past might have been like.
In the world of socially blind fireman Guy Montag, people’s state of mind was to employ firemen to burn books rather than to put out fires. The logic behind this act was never really told directly from the text, so the answer is left to the reader. Starting from when Montag is being told by Fire Chief Beatty the reason why firemen started burning books, Montag begins to open his mind and realize what he has missed. Guy is told that it started with the minorities, but Bradbury does not directly use the names of real minorities to prove his exact point of what follows (Bradbury 54). As time went on and books were still being read by the public, there seemed to be a dilemma; given the freedom of writing books, the writer could put his beliefs on paper and tell the world.
Montag then goes against the society and his boss, Beatty. Beatty realizes that Montag is starting to change, and wants to prevent Montag from going against him, and the law. However, Montag keeps his views against society, and decides to keep his stolen books. “A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it”.
Now Beatty tells Montag why the public lets comic books stay but not the books. The public doesn’t let the books stay because they bashed on people and that doesn’t make people happy so books don’t fit in with society. (57) Beatty told Montag that authors were full of evil thoughts and their thoughts would upset the public. The public was so vast that we can’t have our minorities upset and stirred. (57) Then Beatty asks Montag, “What do we want in this country, above all?” To be happy and Montag agrees with Beatty.