Fire In Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'

Melvin Steele
AP English
Mr. Quartermus
10/2/13

Even in ancient Greek myths, fire have always been the decider on whether society would be good or bad. In Prometheus, Zeus did not want to give humans fire because he felt with it would come knowledge, whether good or bad. And problems which would cause humans to be self-dependent and no longer need their maker. In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, fire also plays a big part in society. Fire is meant to make and keep the world a better, happy and stress free place. Even though there were few people that read books, the ones that did were left with a better knowledge which they knew was not true. There was nothing anyone could do about it because firemen like Beatty a major antagonist in the…show more content…
Due to fire removing books people did not have conflicts with each other. The books that would have caused such problems were set to fire. The ones that would make people argue amongst themselves or start wars were also destroyed, all thanks to fire. Beatty explains that because¨ Colored people don't like Little Black Sambo. Burn it. White people don't feel good about Uncle Tom's Cabin. Burn it¨ (p.59). By burning these books people had to eventually, at some point forget about these writings. Their minds were clear of any conflicts or troubles they might have still had if they were well informed. Beatty again goes on to say that¨ If you do not want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war (p.61).”This is exactly what the fire was intended to do, stop wars and anything that would start them. If everybody was on the same side, had the same mind sets and thoughts, then what's the need for conflicts? All throughout the book Beatty makes it very clear to us that he was against books and what they stood for and did to society, and he made sure his fire department understood the same. He keeps it very short and simple when he said¨well the world can get by just fine without them¨(p.118), meaning books. This is why him and others like him did everything to take out every book even if it meant…show more content…
It was a way to make everything go away that was bad and sometimes good. It was so important to them that they would even burn down one of their workers home in order to get the point across. The fire stood in the ways of many things whether good or bad and the way the authority treated people to get their point through was not right at all. They tried so hard to carry this out that at a point, the ones who still had little sense left could see that everything was made so right that it was not healthy for living. The government had no right to tells its citizens what to read or what to do. They clearly did not have any rights, but rather had everything taken from them if they weren't allowed to even make their own choices that they felt would benefit them. The system put forward by the government and was completely wrong. Yes, its one thing to try to keep peace and i feel there are better ways to carry that out rather than telling people they were not allowed to do what they wanted because they felt it would lead to problems. If any trouble did come from letting people having freewill than the ones that did not respect the law must be put in jail or punish justly to what they did, like its always been, rather than suffer and deprive the entire society of their God given