Fahrenheit 451a brief overview
Fahrenheit 451a brief overviewFahrenheit 451…The Temperature at Which Books Burn
Fahrenheit 451 portrays censorship in the future through the fictional story of one man, Guy Montag, who undergoes an “awakening” by realizing the significance of his actions and the need to express the ideas that were bring oppressed by the future government.
Guy Montag is a fireman who appears to be heartily supportive and contributive to the burning of books, which is normal because firemen in the conformist future burn books for a living. He meets Clarisse McClellan, a sixteen year old idealist with strong convictions against the social structure that oppresses individual thinking and demands conformity. Clarisse opens his mind to new concepts and from then on he begins to perceive the world differently.
One day, Guy and the other firemen have to burn down the book-infested house of an elderly lady who refuses to leave her house and her books, so she burns to the ground with her books making Guy realize that “There must be something in books, things we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there.” (p.51) Guy sneaks two books from the lady’s home and as the time goes by, he secretly reads many books until his wife discovers his secret and turns him in. After that, Guy burns his firehouse and the men in it to evade being caught and as a result becomes the most wanted fugitive in his country. Guy escapes successfully and works with a small group of revolutionaries to restore the respect and circulation of books.
The title of the book, Fahrenheit 451…The Temperature at Which Books Burn, is significant because it is a metaphor for real life and it is used as a prominent symbol in the book. Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which books are burn. The firemen know this because they work with burning books everyday. The “Book People” dread this temperature because it destroys the one thing they’re trying to save. Ray Bradbury uses Fahrenheit 451 to symbolize censorship. Like the burning of books, censorship oppresses the ideas of many people. The whole book is a metaphor for what is happening with censorship in the world. Many people all over the world are being punished for not conforming and all throughout history we have seen cases of persecution just for having different beliefs.
The loss that was suffered when the firemen burned the books at Fahrenheit 451 is the same loss we suffer when we censor an idea or voice to make it more conformed. If we feel our ideas are being censored, if our “books are being burned”, we need to take a stand. Each time we let ourselves be censored, unique ideas are being destroyed and forgotten....
To view the complete essay, you be registered.