Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Fahrenheit 451


Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is an overall good book. Set in the distorted and science fiction future, Fahrenheit focuses on the "awaking" of a fireman named Guy Montag. The firemen do not put out fires, but start them, and books are not tools for learning, but tools of evil that must be burned to keep society equal and to prevent one person from gaining more knowledge than the others. The novel follows Montag as he gains knowledge and finally understands how wrong the world he lives in is.

PART A:
One of the chief characters in the novel is Officer Beatty. Beatty is the leader of the firemen, the group of men tasked with the burning of books and the homes, and sometimes even the people, that hold the books. Officer Beatty is a very strange character: he at the start, Beatty seems totally single-minded in the ways of the government and in the idea that books need to be removed. However as one moves through the novel, it becomes Beatty is not all he at first appears. At first he could symbolize the terrible society and the ideals under which it is run, seeming to be the perfect villian to take the blame. However as the novel moves on, it becomes quite clear that Beatty is a conformist. Almost every single conversation that Beatty has with Montag involves literature. He is tasked with burning the books, however it becomes apparent that he possesses a strong love of literature, constantly quoting it in every conversation and using it to manipulate and influence Montag's decisions. Beatty knows what Montag is doing with the books and warns him not to try, since he hints he knows from personal experience that down that pass lies only sadness and defeat. Beatty's final act truly speaks very loudly about the wrongs of this society. He willingly allows himself to be burned alive, with no fighting back, by Montag's flamethrower. If this does not say it all, what does? Beatty is so sick of conforming, burning the thing he loves so much, that he has come to hate himself so much that he no longer wants to live.
PART B:
"To remind people that we're allotted a little space on Earth and that we survive in that wilderness that can take back what it has given, as easily as blowing its breath on us or sending the sea to tell us we are not so big. When we forget how close the wilderness is in the night, my grandpa said, someday it will come in and get us, for we will have forgotten how terrible and real it can be" (Bradbury 157).
This is my favorite passage because of the clear allusion it paints that we are not immortal and that there is something else that is all powerful. I personally am a believer in God and Jesus Christ and this allusion says to me that if we push our luck too much, we can be punished. This allusion points right to a passage from Genesis.
Genesis 6:6-8 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at the heart. And the Lord said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls in the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them". But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
This passage, as most goes continues on to where the Lord destroys all life upon Earth with a flood, except for Noah and the members of his Arc. I really like this passage and the Bible passage it alludes to since it really reminds me to be kind, generous, a good citizen, brother, and son, and live my life to the best of my ability because there is no telling when it could end.
PART C:
Now for my opinion. Fahrenheit 451 was a very good novel, full of action, suspense, and at times fear for Montag himself. This was a novel where a readers attention could be held throughout the entire novel and it was the same for me. The novel held my attention first because I enjoyed the story, especially later on, and secondly because I was able to see and understand many of the author's allusions to Biblical themes that made the book much more interesting. I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good story, and especially to someone who like science fiction or distopian novels.